Finish Sanders

[Tom Leasure]

Well, first grand baby is on the way & the hours in the wood shop have went thru the roof. First piece is a 5 piece changing station & it should be done & ready for finishing in 2 weeks. Crib is next.
I'm looking for some guidance on upgradeing my hand sanders. I have the DEWALTS, PC's & Makita's but want something that has a better dust collection & better performance. I have seen a lot on the Feistool's & have had a demonstation at Woodcrafters & kinda leaning that way. My question is, is there anything out there that is equal to, better than the FESTOOL'S ?? :confused: :confused: I'm wanting to get the best bang for my buck but am more interested in quality. I would appreciate your help

Tom

[Jim Becker]

There are some Metabo and Fein sanders that might be considered as an alternative to Festool, but I'm very satisfied with the Festool system. And I did "test drive" the Festool options with the help of Bob Marino before I made my decision. The 150/3 gets 90% of the sanding work in my shop; so much so that it's always hooked up to the CT22 if I'm not using another one of my Festool products with the vac.

[glenn bradley]

My little Bosch (1295?) with the vac adapter leaves no dust. It even sucks up anything that happens to be close by. I have a relief valve on the shop vac end of the hose so I can reduce suction so as not to impede the rotation. The Ridgid shop vac has a CleanStream filter in it which is no HEPA but vastly superior to the original paper filter.

I think the vac, sander and hoses probably cost around $180 total. That leaves more money for wood! Bear in mind I live where the weather lets me open all doors and windows 10 months out of the year. I am not in a basement. Consider your environment and judge the level of dust control from there. I have seen the Green and the Orange tools demonstrated and it is quite impressive.