new belt sander or festool rotax

[Jim Barstow]

I've got an old, rarely used hitachi belt sander that is difficult to control and that whose dust collection is worthless. I'm working on a new project for which a belt sander would be quite helpful but the old Hitachi is awful to work with. I'm considering replacing it with a new belt sander or would it be better to use one of the festool sanders that can sand more aggressively? I'e considered the smaller porter cable 371k belt sander but it appears to have a problem with overheating. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Erik Christensen]

I have a PorterCable 4x24 belt sander and it does have its uses. I had to flatten a large butcher block top and that was the only tool that I have that did the job in a reasonable amount of time. But it gets used once a year at most since I bought a Festool RO150 4 years ago. Unless you have a job where you want a big honkin belt sander with 36 grit belt to be more of a hand pwoer planer the Rotex is a much more useful tool. When I did the butcher block top with the belt sander i had it hooked up to my shop vac but even with that it was so dusty that I had to wear a dust mask - something I rarely do with Festool sanders.

I say go with the Festool - but with the caveat that i like green kool-aid.

[Chris Rosenberger]

It depends on what you are using a belt sand for. If leveling panels after glue up, a belt sander will be best. A Rotex will do that, but it will be slow & more difficult to get a flat surface.
If you are smoothing or removing finish from an already flat or close to flat surface, a Rotex would work fine for that.

I very seldom use a portable belt sander anymore, I have a wide belt sander for smoothing glued up panels. I use a Rotex for finish sanding.

[Julie Moriarty]

I have a Makita 4x24 belt sander that I bought a couple of years ago to replace an old Crapsman 3x21. Comparatively, the Makita is an engineering marvel. But consider what I'm comparing it to. Anyway, it has great dust pickup and I use it for large cutting boards after glue-up and for outdoors work. It's heavy and sands aggressively but tracks very well. I am presently building a lot of kitchen cabinet doors but won't use the Makita after glue-up on those panels. It's overkill and would really wear me out.

I also own a Rotex 125 and use that to sand down the major part of the glue before taking the panles to the drum sander. On the panels too large for the drum sander, I used the Rotex with 120 grit Granat to smooth the panels and it did a great job. BUT...without the Festool CT vacuum I don't know if I would love the Rotex as much as I do. I have the CT26 and it's amazing!

BTW, I use Festool's ETS sander for grits from 120 on up. The Rotex requires two hands and can be a bit difficult to control, plus it tires you out faster. The ETS is a breeze, even one-handed.

[Sam Murdoch]

Yup - I've given up on all my big belt sanders in favor of the Festool RO - a better job with more options and a huge reduction in the element of risk. You will need a vacuum system though. Read a few of the recent threads about the ROs to know what you are getting but I don't hesitate to say that you will be lead away from belt sanders. You know that you can try any Festool no questions asked for 30 days. Might be worth a comparison.

[Carl Beckett]

As I have become more comfortable with hand planes, the belt sander sits on the shelf. There are times when I break it out (just wanting to grind something down like some drywall seams from my builder (dont ask).

For glueups its a scraper and then hand planes (or a wide sander if it comes to that).

But if I were buying another random orbit, I would be looking at that Ceros noted in another thread over the Festool...

[Jim Andrew]

I have a 4x24 Makita, it is a great sander, had a bag and I replaced it with my vac, which works very well to get the dust, but hardly use it since getting my G9983 widebelt. But last week built a countertop for my nephew, and went through 5 belts, they had been in the shop for a couple years, the tape failed on every one. The tape holding the belt joint does not store well. If you buy a box of belts, use them up if you want to get any good from them. As far as sanding panels, I got tired of the " turkey tracks" on my panels. Would think I had them sanded perfectly, put some finish on them and there are those pesky tracks.

[david brum]

I have a Porter Cable 3 x 21 belt sander. I've used it extensively over the last few months to flatten wide maple trim glued to sheets of mdf slat wall. It's reasonable easy to control after a bit of practice. Just remember to keep the sander moving and take multiple light passes. I'm using 3M 80 grit belts, which seem like a good compromise between reasonably quick stock removal and risk of damage to the work. I bought a package of belts, but have still been using the first one for ages. No problems with overheating. I have it hooked to a shop van. Dust collection isn't the best, but it does get most of it. I wear a dust mask for sure, along with an ambient air filter. After finishing a project, I blow the dust out of the shop with a leaf blower. In better weather, I prefer to use it outside.

It's kind of a tool of last resort. If I have a bunch of material to remove though, it's hard to beat.

[Andrew Joiner]

Yup - I've given up on all my big belt sanders in favor of the Festool RO - a better job with more options and a huge reduction in the element of risk. You will need a vacuum system though. Read a few of the recent threads about the ROs to know what you are getting but I don't hesitate to say that you will be lead away from belt sanders. You know that you can try any Festool no questions asked for 30 days. Might be worth a comparison.

3x21 inline belt sanders are my favorite, like the Bosch 1274 dvs. They have the best balance so the're easier to control.
I use a belt sander to sand solid wood edging flush to plywood or mdf. Would a Rotex do that? Would it be as fast as a belt sander?

[Jim Barstow]

Here's the scenario. I've got some bent laminated curved pieces that need about 1/32 of an inch reduction in thickness to fit the target. I tried doing this on one piece with my belt sander and it worked but it caused a mess and was nerve racking due to the lack of control. (I even had the old Hitachi belt sander hooked up to a powerful shop vac.)

Do you think a Rotax could do this? (I do have a Festool vacuum, also.)

[Sam Murdoch]

To Andrew's question I admit that I use this belt sander for scribe work - easy to control and I can hook it up to my Festool vac with a simple modification . I would not use the RO for this job. It is the only belt sander I still use. You notice in my first post I specified "big belt sanders".

257988

To answer Jim's question - I think with a soft pad on the RO you could do this with more control and comfort. How tall are these pieces? Not saying that an RO is the go to sander for all applications but I will say again that it is better tool than a big belt sander 99% of the time. In the case of sanding some bent rails x 2" or taller I actually think you could do a great (and better) job with an old 1/4 sheet pad sander working your way up through the grits - again using a pad that will contour. In the old days with my Porter Cable pad sander I would glue a soft sponge to the base and cut my paper bigger in order to sand contours. Scrapers and spoke shaves might be used too, or in combo with the right sander.

[Andrew Joiner]

I just googled around and found comments that made sense to me. The rotex is considered by many users as superior or equal to a belt sander for heavy fast material removal. The rotex is hard to control on narrower edges. The rotex tends to soften edges so it's harder to sand square compared to a belt sander.
Would rotex users here say that's correct?

[sebastian phillips]

I have both an older Porter Cable 4X24 and a Rotex 150. I use both regularly. The belt sander is much better for flattening butcher block tops etc., and I use the belt sander for scribing laminate countertops, and when clamped to a worktop I use it as a stationary sander for fittting cabinet scribes. I hook up the Festool vac to the belt sander and get adequate dust collection (put some tape on the sander for a snug fit). The dust collection is not equal to the Rotex, but it is a big improvement.
I'm a finish carpenter/millwork installer-I need versatile tools that can do multiple things, too many tools is about as bad as too few. Assuming you have a random orbit or such for finish sanding, get the belt sander, does many more things than a rotex (site grinding of chisels etc.).
If you want only 1 sander that sort of does everything, get the Rotex.

[Matt Meiser]

A Rotex is definitely not easy to use on an edge if you want a nice square edge. I have used mine for scribing. Control is a learned skill. The more you fight it the harder it is to control. If you let the sander do the work it can sand nice and flat in my experience on a large table top. The proper technique, as taught to me by someone who went to Festool Dealer School in Indiana, is to hold the body near the back, or even on the hose, and lightly at the front. Very slightly tilting the machine front and back will steer it in the direction you want to go. VERY slight. And no downward pressure is necessary. Also, there are different hardness pads. A harder pad will give a flatter surface.

IMHO, unless you have a real specific need, the 6" machines are the way to go. The 6" ETS sander is a lot nicer than the 5" and if you are going to get a 6" ETS now, or any chance of someday, get the 6" Rotex so you can share consumables which probably offsets the cost.

The local rep does a cool demo starting with rough board and ends with a polished wax surface. Iits not a particularly practical approach but it does demonstrate the range of the machine. That said I wouldn't recommend one as your only sander.

[Sam Murdoch]

I just googled around and found comments that made sense to me. The rotex is considered by many users as superior or equal to a belt sander for heavy fast material removal. The rotex is hard to control on narrower edges. The rotex tends to soften edges so it's harder to sand square compared to a belt sander.
Would rotex users here say that's correct?

Correct - that is why I use the small Porte Cable belt sander for edge work. For another smaller Rotex option there is this http://rotex.festoolusa.com/sanders/models/ro90dx/. Lots more money -again. I haven't used one so can't make any comments.