Festool, Bosch or Makita Rotary Sanders

Does anyone have an opinion or used either the Festool Ro 150, the Bosch GEX 150 turbo or the Makita B06040 for the whole sanding process.

 

These are 6’’ random orbital sanders which have a geared rotary switch for courser sanding.  I have a random orbital palm sander for finishing but it doesn’t take off enough to do a whole board.

 

My Makita sander/polisher died last week and I want a new sander with dust extraction.

 

for what its worth i love the festool and if you can afford it its defo the one to go for

 

dog

You’ve used the Rotex one?

 

http://www.festool.com.au/mediandoweb/index.cfm?sLanguage=AUS-English&ID_O_TREE_GROUP=4536&PARENT=3666&AKTIVPROD=1

 

The Bosch looks ok, nearly half the price but the festool is pretty much the rolls royce of machines, must be a good reason for being twice the amount?

yep ive got the rotex one, the good reasons are amazing build quality and a 3yr warranty to back it up. ive had mine well over 3 yrs now and never a sign of any problems with any of my festool kit.

im just ordering £7000 worth of festool kit for work too, yes we could get more tools for our money but downtime with cheap tools is too annoying!

 

give one a try

buy it!!!

i have the ETS 150 EQ with 3 mm epansion. doenst sand a lot off, but it is the best tool ever for fine working and no tired arms, nice grip, ergonomical.

 

the rotex is the king, you will use the polishing function for sanding and prolly use the rotary for the rails or st like that…

go for it, i have use the rotary on all my 22 surfboards, and only recently got a variable sander, cause i can dust around freely.

remember, the festool DOES suck dust, but not 100%

you will love us for this spend your money advi$$$e !!

cheers

 

Not sure where you are but Home Depot carries a 6" RO sander with their Rigid house brand name on them but they are actually very nicely made rebranded Metabo's from Germany. Excellent dust extraction and it has the switch for the more agressive sanding mode as well.  Very happy with mine and it was MUCH cheaper then the Festool. 

Marsh,

I would agree with unclegrumpy 100% on the Rigid 6".

Festool recently had a rep at my local lumber yard so I took a freshly glossed board down to try their 6" set-up on it. Yes, I was impressed - except for the price. I know the drill, “Good tools make good work…” etc, etc. But, I’ve been doing woodwork for over 30 yrs - and have lived on Porter Cable sanders throughout but wanted a better 6".

Anyhow, after pricing the Festool plus all else involved it came to at or over $1,000 for sander, discs (expensive to load up on all grits 80 thru 600 AND you can only use their discs) and attachments.Plus, the expense of their pricy paper would cost a small fortune over an extended period.

So, I came home and punched up Festool on Sway’s Archives to see what people thought and found a thread from Benny 1 on the Rigid. For $129 it was worth a shot and I am totally pleased - not just for resin work but also woodwork. Made a hookup for my shop-vac to the Rigid exhaust port and it works like a charm.

Benny saved be beaucoup bucks! Thanks Benny…

Festool is a nice system but in this market, I can’t justify the expense when there’s other tools for a lot less that get the same job done if used properly. Didn’t miss them for the last 30+ years…

Also, found onlineindustrialsupply.com that has 6" discs up to 600 grit for about $15 per 50 plus sheet stock. Good paper at a good price.

Pete

just to clarify you DO NOT need to use festool abrasives only on the sanders, it will accept ANY paper designed for velcro attachement.

if you can find the 'USEIT' brand, they originally provided festool with paper before festool started making their own brand.

 

My local supplier has 3M sanding pads that fit my Festool sander.  I love the sander though the price was painful at the time but most of the good tools that I've purchased over the years were the same.  They're the ones I haven't had to replace and are a pleasure to use though.  I didn't shell out for the official Festool vac system.  My old cheapo shop vac hose fit the exhaust port on the sander and works just fine.  If you can manage the price you won't be unhappy with the Festool.    

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Here in Australia there are no generic brands for a cheaper option.  The Festool Rotex RO150 looks like the ultimate do everything sander…but it is $850.  There’s a slightly cheaper one called the WTS 150/7 which I’m told by the rep that some promenet sydney board builders are using. The WTS 150 is not a geared rotary but has a bigger Sanding stroke so it’s quite agressive.  The makita looks good but it’s almost as much as the Festool, the bosch looks and feels good but may not take off as much as the other sanders.

 

I rang up the sales reps of these three companies and they have days where you can try out their tools before buying so I’m going to hit that up before the purchase.

 

In the mean time my sander/polisher was repaired so it’s back to fast but dusty sanding for me.

hey Marsh, im not sure what the AUS/UK exchange rate is but that sounds a lot?

over hear i think they run at just over £300. might be xheaper to buy here and ship?

also my mate bought one at auction last week for £150 so secandhand could be a good option

If you get the rigid  then get an Oneida 5gal bucket dust deputy cyclone ($59) to go with your shop vac it'll make a big difference in the suction. I think Clark was selling something similar as well.

The selling point to me about Festools and the Rotex is their anti-vibration to reduce carpel tunnel probably BS

The Rigid seems like a good bargain.

Festools is more a finish tool though and doesn't really compare to a heavy milwaukee with a 7"-8" medium to make your initial cuts and flatten things out. It seems to me that these really heavy tools like the Milwaukee Sander/Polisher and the Skill 100 are designed make the intial cutting work allot easier and faster.

Festools do eliminate 90%-95% of the dust cloud a milwaukee will generate though