anyone have this Festool linear profile sander?

[J.R. Rutter]

I'm considering it for commercial duty doing raised panel profiles and would like some feedback if anyone has experience.

http://www.festool.com/EN/Products/Pages/Product-Detail.aspx?pid=567850&name=Linear-sander-DUPLEX-LS-130-EQ-Plus

http://www.festool.com/SiteCollectionImages/Catalog/Kat_2005/schleifen/portal_kompetenz/pkom_se_ls130_567753_p_01a.png

[Alan Lightstone]

Ooooh!!!!! Shiny green toy...

[Mike Hollingsworth]

They have a 30 day no questions return policy. I brought mine back. Didn't live up to my other Festool experience.

[Chris Rosenberger]

I have the LS130 sander. I used it once for raised panels & it worked very well, but I found I could sand them faster by hand. It does work very well for sanding installed jamb extensions or other surfaces that are against another 90 degree surface. You can sand against the other surface & not damage it. As Mike said, you can get it use it for 30 days. If it does not work out you can return it for a full no questions ask refund. Just for information, I believe the only applies to the tool purchased & not to accessories.

[Scott T Smith]

I have it as well. It's not my "go to sander", but it is nice in that you can create your own profiles, and it works well for flush sanding along the side.

I would rate is as "good to very good", as opposed to a few other Festool sanders which I rank as "great".

[Larry Edgerton]

I have been eyeing that as well.

I have been making sanding blocks out of Bondo to match panels and tried attaching them to the bottom of a Hutchins RO airboard, but the bondo breaks up in use, heat I guess. It was hard not to mess up the details as well.

If you buy one let me know how it works for that purpose, I hate sanding panel profiles.

Larry

[Chris Rosenberger]

Larry, have you ever tried using silicone caulking to make your sanding block profiles?

[Steve Jenkins]

Dynabrade used to make an inline sander with a molding kit for making custom pads. I don't know if they still do or not.

[Larry Edgerton]

Larry, have you ever tried using silicone caulking to make your sanding block profiles?

No. Hows that work?

Larry

[Chris Rosenberger]

Dynabrade used to make an inline sander with a molding kit for making custom pads. I don't know if they still do or not.

Cut a sample profile on a piece of wood.

Attach a piece of scrap wood on the flat of the panel, lining it up with the inside edge of the profile.

Cover the profile & the scrap with packing tape.

Cut a piece of wood for a sanding block.

Put a large amount of silicone caulking on the bottom of the sanding block.

Put an edge of the sanding block, with the silicone caulk towards the panel profile, against the scrap that was attached to the flat of the panel.

Slide the sanding block down until the caulking makes complete contact with the panel profile.

Hold the sanding block in place with a mini quick clamp & wait until the caulking cures.

After the silicone caulking cures, carefully work it loose from the packing tape & do a little trimming.

Apply a piece of self stick sand paper & start sanding.

[J.R. Rutter]

Thanks everyone. I just watched a Cal Door factory tour video that shows them sanding profiles by hand with a ROS. Go figure. I'm still looking into all options.

[Leo Graywacz]

That is how I sand my bevel panel profiles. Same with cove profiles.

[Joe Jensen]

I bought one for sanding raised panels and I found it to be too slow and the paper loaded quickly. I went back to sanding by hand and I sold the LS130...joe

[Larry Edgerton]

I use a little 3" DA, air, I picked up from SnapOn for the cove part of the profile. The small diameter lets you have it on less of an angle, and it is light and easy to hang on to.

I just bought a new Fein and it came with a profile sander. Haven't tried it yet but if it doesn't work any better than the PC one I tried, well, I gave the PC away....

Larry

[johnny means]

I bought the RO 90 and like it a lot for things like raised panels. Its small size and softish pad are great for inside curves. Of course it is still a lot of work doing any type of edges and involves a deft hand. It works well but isn't the Holy Grail that the perfect profile sander would be.

[Martin Wasner]

Just wondering if you ever got one of these JR?

A regular scoop is a cakewalk with a regular da. Everything else that needs to be done by hand, nightmare. The reviews are few and far between, and very mixed.

[Van Huskey]

Wouldn't something like this be a good choice for commercial quantity work?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H63cofkkts

[mreza Salav]

Van, I bought one of them to sand all the (maple) trim for our house (5000lf) and it was a piece of junk! No it doesn't work as advertised (at least not on maple).

[Van Huskey]

Van, I bought one of them to sand all the (maple) trim for our house (5000lf) and it was a piece of junk! No it doesn't work as advertised (at least not on maple).

Huh, I am surprised as it seems like a simple tool, hard to get wrong. Large sanding mops generally work great for this sort of work but might break edges one doesn't want broken. There is always a brush sander with a flatter head like the Supermax but it is in a whole different cost arena, think 20+ times as much.

BTW what was the issue?

[Brad Shipton]

I have the same kit as Mo is talking about. Glad I never took the time to put it together.

Bondo is a good material to make profiled sanding blocks.

I have the Festool linear sander. I have only used it a little but the few times I did it seemed kind of slooow.

[Leo Graywacz]

Sanding profiles by machine is usually a compromise between fast and good. The faster you get it done, the more damage you'll cause to the profile. Doing it by hand is the best way to get the profile to remain, but usually it's the slowest way to do it.

I have a brush profile sander head that I stuck on a motor and use a power feeder. It works OK. It's certainly faster than doing it by hand. But some profiles are harder to get all the sanding done. The harder the wood, the longer it's going to take. The longer it takes, the more you are going to take off sharp edges.

[mreza Salav]

Van, it doesn't sand where you want it, it sands everywhere. So the flat surfaces are still rough and the sharp edges get damaged. I suppose it's worse for hard woods like Maple. The end result was I hand sanded everything. (not to mention the cloud of dust it creates!)

[Mel Fulks]

For that type of stuff I would use only premium steel like T-1 to make, then remove flaws mostly with shaped scrapers. Make the biggest panels first and savagely cut any down to smaller panels that would need too much work. Would not use any flaw finding oil stain. I'm sure you already know that some otherwise good employees can not stand much repetition of work or anything that requires decisions.

[J.R. Rutter]

Just wondering if you ever got one of these JR?

A regular scoop is a cakewalk with a regular da. Everything else that needs to be done by hand, nightmare. The reviews are few and far between, and very mixed.

No, I have not found anything better than a RO sander with soft sponge pad and 220 or 180 H&L discs. The custom molded sanding heads for shaper spindles like Voorwood and Unique use work, but you still have cross-grain scratches.

The key for me is still sharp tooling and limited sanding. It takes maybe 20 seconds per edge on a good sized door to get the profiles. Just a little hard on the wrist. I do have a 3 ft long swing arm mounted above the sanding table that holds the vacuum hose, air line, and a bungee to hold the sander at the right height to take most of the weight off.

[Martin Wasner]

No, I have not found anything better than a RO sander with soft sponge pad and 220 or 180 H&L discs. The custom molded sanding heads for shaper spindles like Voorwood and Unique use work, but you still have cross-grain scratches.

The key for me is still sharp tooling and limited sanding. It takes maybe 20 seconds per edge on a good sized door to get the profiles. Just a little hard on the wrist. I do have a 3 ft long swing arm mounted above the sanding table that holds the vacuum hose, air line, and a bungee to hold the sander at the right height to take most of the weight off.


That's pretty much exactly what I'm doing. Minus the contraption to hold the sander. I've got a good shaper, really good insert head with sharp knives, but when you've got a stack of almost 100 doors and another 60 drawer fronts you know there's a few hours of straight up misery in your future.

My experience with shape and sand machines is the sanding head just masks the crap cut.

[J.R. Rutter]

That's when I have a college kid come in for a few hours to run the shaper and do the sanding. $50 -> done. :)

[Martin Wasner]

You do way more doors than I do. I consider you THE local expert on cabinet door building.