I have been researching the Fein and Festool dustless sanders and was wondering if anyone is using one. I like the idea of not creating a dust storm in my garage and I’m sure my wife would too. Currently I am using a HF sander with power Pads and it works fine, but the dust…! Do the Fein and Festool sand as well as say a Milwaukee or Hitachi?? Thanks to all.
i can’t say enough good things about the Festool system. i do all my glassing, shaping, and woodworking in my garage and i use to sand boards outside… now i do everything in my garage. almost no dust comes out of the sander… as far as performance goes the festool takes some geting use to over power pads… the girp is different but the tool is light enough that i find myself sanding with one hand. the pads are nice and you can get a supersoft foam one…i use it up to 800 grit with out clog problems. don’t need to wet sand anymore… i think it might sand a bit slower due to size etc but it hasn’t bothered me. any how, this summer i went back to visit the shop where i worked a few years back and i glassed a board and sanded it in the sanding room with the taped up suit and all… i’ll never do it again.
i also sand drywall with and just about everything else with the festool…
I’ve been using one for the past 6 months, and Oaktown recently bought one. It’s a bit slower than the HF, and the pad is 6". It takes a few boards to adapt to it, but you’ll never go back. I tried the Fein sander and also the Festool straight rotary version. Neither has the dust pickup as the Festool Rotex. The combination of rotary or rotary+random orbit and the speed range gives a lot more sanding options. The Festool rep will let you try it first. I recommend that you get their vacuum system with it; it’s a lot less trouble than using a shop vac.