I should have bought a Festool

[Don Bullock]

Thanks Greg. I thought that someone would jump in with the information before I got a chance to search for it. That's one of the many great things about this place.

[Henry Cavanaugh]

Thanks Greg for the tip

[Steveo O'Banion]

My last class of the day is a special ed class and we're currently doing end grain cutting boards 12" x 18". We rough sand with beltsanders and do our finish sanding (starting with 120 and ending at 320) is done with three different 5" ROS. We use a 12 YO DeWalt and brand new Hitachi and my new Festool 125.

The kids argue over who gets the Festool first. It's quieter, vibrates less and does appear to cut significantly faster. I'm not saying the other tools are trash, just that this Festool sander is much better. (It better be at the cost!)

I wish I had bought the larger sander now instead.

Check this, but I think Festool has a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. You could buy one, do a side x side comparison yourself on your next big project and decide if it's worth the money.

Steve

Steve

[Don Bullock]

Wow, Steve, you dug deep to find this post. For now my Bosch sander is working great with a Oneida Dust Deputy hooked inline with my ShopVac. I do, however, plan to go with a Festool sometime in the future. Right now SWMBO wouldn't like the idea. While she's supported all my tool purchases, which there have been many this year, paying the $$ needed for a Festool would be pushing it a little too far. Remember, she did want me to buy my SawStop.

[Jesse Cloud]

For what its worth, I have been using Festool sanders for about a year now, and boy am I spoiled. I'm taking a woodworking class and all the school has is Bosch sanders. I am covered with dust, my hands tingle from all the vibrations, and all day long I kept thinking - If I were using the Festool, I would be done by now.

The excellent dust extraction not only keeps things cleaner, but it makes the work go faster and leaves fewer swirls to sand off with the next grit. Sandpaper lasts longer too.

I would agree with the advice to try the Festool before you buy. Every Festool sander I have is a joy to use, but they do very different things - The Rotex 150 is fast and aggressive (sold my belt sander), the 150/3 is smooth and produces an exceptionally smooth surface, I also have an excellent detail sander and a linear profile sander. Wouldn't give up any of them, but they excel at different things. The 150/3 gets used in every project, the Rotex when I need to do serious material removal.

[Jim Kountz]

That said, I have many Festool sanders, and I have to say they are the best I've ever used. I've been building cabinets and all kinds of millwork for over thirty years, so there's a lot of experience behind my recommendations.

There is virtually no dust when using Festool sanders in conjunction with their dust collectors. believe me when I tell you, they are the best on the market today.

Ok Dixon, Im not here to argue but I hear this stuff all the time about the ridiculously priced mighty Festool products and Im trying to see where the extra cost is worth it but no one can really tell me why. My sander is var speed, connects to a vacuum system and is virtually dust free as one can get with a sander anyway. (yes I have used a 150 Festool and saw no difference in dust collection even when hooked to their own vac) Mine removes stock very quickly and leaves no marks when you progress through the grits properly as you should with any sander. I paid $49 for mine at a tool sale and its a refurbished Ridgid from HD. So tell me, what exactly does the Festool sander do that mine doesnt and how does it do it differently. By the way, my sander delivers the same OPM as the 6" Festool so I know its not any faster unless somehow it orbits in some special Festool way.
Dont get me wrong Im not trying to start something here Im really not, Im just trying to understand. I know there is a tendency to buy overpriced tools if for no other reason to say we own them but thats silly to me and I just cant justify the expense without something concrete and factual. Can you help me out with that since you do own them and are as you say well experienced??
Thanks!

[Jim Kountz]

Another quick note about longevity in sanders, I have two other PC sanders, a Bosch and an old Dewalt that Columbus threw off the ship when they landed. All still going strong however no dust collection to mention on any of them except maybe the Dewalt, it works ok when connected to a shop vac or a DC. This Ridgid I bought has excellent dust collection and unless you're sanding an edge of something like that it gets the dust out of your way.

[Justin Bukoski]

dang it Jesse, now I'm going to have to buy a 150/3 to go with my Rotex. Don't you know there are tool addicts on here?

[Gary Keedwell]

Winter is here...which reminds me that it is time for the yearly migration of the Festoolians from down under Gee, I missed them ...for all these months..........

[Doug Shepard]

Well I dont know how the Festools compare to other sanders hooked to other vacs but IMHO I've found the holy grail of dustless sanders so I'm not going to bother looking elsewhere. I've lately had to move a workbench top build into the living room on sawhorses. This was done due to temps too cold in the GaShop for gluing. During this I discovered a couple of areas that needed additional sanding before gluing other parts on. Not really wanting to move this back and forth again and having all my prior move helpers up north for hunting season, I decided to risk it and see what happended. I'm aprox. 2.5 ft from a large screen TV and to date there's not one speck of dust on the screen. This is after aprox a total of 1 hour of use spread out over a few weeks and most of it on a 4" edge where the disc was off the edges. Tried to keep the vac port on the disc centered, but was worried about throwing dust off the disc edges. It wasn't a problem. Anyway, the DC on these things REALLY works.

[Jesse Cloud]

Ok Dixon, Im not here to argue but I hear this stuff all the time about the ridiculously priced mighty Festool products and Im trying to see where the extra cost is worth it but no one can really tell me why. My sander is var speed, connects to a vacuum system and is virtually dust free as one can get with a sander anyway. (yes I have used a 150 Festool and saw no difference in dust collection even when hooked to their own vac) Mine removes stock very quickly and leaves no marks when you progress through the grits properly as you should with any sander. I paid $49 for mine at a tool sale and its a refurbished Ridgid from HD. So tell me, what exactly does the Festool sander do that mine doesnt and how does it do it differently. By the way, my sander delivers the same OPM as the 6" Festool so I know its not any faster unless somehow it orbits in some special Festool way.
Dont get me wrong Im not trying to start something here Im really not, Im just trying to understand. I know there is a tendency to buy overpriced tools if for no other reason to say we own them but thats silly to me and I just cant justify the expense without something concrete and factual. Can you help me out with that since you do own them and are as you say well experienced??
Thanks!

Hey Jim,
I'm a big fan of Festool, but if you have another sander that works well for you, then stick with it. Personally, I can't get the same performance out of other sanders, though I've never tried a Ridgid. When I bought the Festool, I thought I would keep the PC and DeWalt sanders around, but I didn't use them for a year, so they went on Craigslist.