My favorite pastime ...

[Swingman]

.... by a long shot, is NOT sanding! Only task I dislike worse in this business is staining/finishing.

Today ... six straight hours of sanding, through three grits, a kitchen full of dovetailed, 3/4" maple drawers and not a spec of sanding dust in the air, on tee-shirt, jeans, bare arms, glasses, hat, or better yet, lungs.

AAMOF, had to turn the vacuum down on the dust extractor to keep the sanders from sticking to the sides of the drawers.

Say what you will about it, but you absolutely gotta love Festool when it comes to stuff like that ... and you really can't appreciate it until you've experienced it in a like situation.

Eatcherheartout C-less ...

And Thanks, Leon!

[Robatoy]

Yea... what HE said, C-Less!!! . . . (don't even TRY to think what chore that would have been without Festool's dust control... you could use the boogers to fill nail- holes..)

[Sonny]

. you could use the boogers to fill nail-

But they stain okay, don't they?

Sonny

[Larry Jaques]

Sounds comfy.

I can imagine. But how much better does it work than another off-the-shelf RAS with a shop vac or DC connection?

Sounds cool, but ONE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED NINETY EIGHT DOLLARS cool? That's what one festering sandah and suckah combo cost at Amazon.

this one's only about NINE HUNDRED BUCKS. 're all here because we're not all there.

[Larry Jaques]

See reply.

Hell, I have respirators for that. My pristine cilia know not what dust is. I drank enough brake dust as a mechanic for one lifetime.

-- We're all here because we're not all there.

[Upscale]

Put it another way. For the present, I do most of my woodworking on a work bench in my living room. I'm about to add the Festool OF1400EQ router to the other Festool products I own which includes a Festool CT22 dust collector. I'll be able to rout wood while spreading minimal dust in the immediate location and nothing throughout the rest of the apartment. Would you feel confident doing that with another off the shelf RAS and dust collector?

Such is the dust capabilities of most Festool power tools.

[Lew Hodgett]

RE: Subject

In my world it's good sex, good scotch, and good food.

Lew

[Upscale]

Much as I hate to admit it, my world apparently revolves in the opposite direction. I eat too much good food, consume an average quality type of alcohol and get too little good sex.

[CW]

At your age, in the immortal words of Meatloaf, two out of three ain't bad. :)

[Lew Hodgett]

-------------------------------------

"CW" wrote:

--------------------------------------- You're right, had to give up the scotch.

Lew

[DGDevin]

One of the instructors at the College of the Redwoods woodworking campus told me a couple of years back that maybe the best woodworking purchase he ever made was a Festool dust extractor. I get by with other means out in the garage (and old shop vac with a Dust Deputy in front of it) but if I had to do a bunch of sanding in the house I think I could justify one of those babies. Hmmmm, maybe it's time to redo the window trim in the office.

[Leon]

Well consider a hard maple drawer that is about 6" tall with protruding end grain pins. Consider that it takes the Festool Rotex sander about 3~4 seconds to make that joint as smooth as a baby's butt. How much better Does it work?

[Leon]

;~) Sanding is not so bad now. HUH?

[Larry Jaques]

@ what grit, 32?

-- If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do. -- Samuel Butler

[Leon]

100 grit is what he was using, I used 120.

[Larry Jaques]

You must cut -damned- accurate dovies if you can smooth one in 3 seconds with 120.

-- If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do. -- Samuel Butler

[Max]

For a $500 sander it should do all that while I'm in bed asleep.

Max

[Robatoy]

:

I have an older (5 years) and a more recent Rotex 6" and I assure you, that when the dual mode is set to "aggressive" with some 120 grit, or even 180, the material removal rate is absolutely amazing.. and a little tricky to the novice as there is practically no dust flying around giving an indication of exactly HOW much material you're removing....

[Larry Jaques]

By dual mode, do they mean random vs orbital, where orbital would be the aggressive mode, or are both modes random-orbital? What makes them so aggressive, speed? What sets them apart? Do they use standard holed sandpaper discs?

Kinda like a belt sandah, eh?

This just in:

we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do. -- Samuel Butler

[Robatoy]

Both modes are random orbital, but one is a much larger pattern. Their hole pattern is 9 hole. 8 outside, one in the middle that supplies the air the other 8 suck up. Pretty darn clever, that.

Nope much less prone to gouging.