Which Festool's for Cabinet Sanding?

[Jim Kaczmark]

Given the variety of sanders available from Festool, I'd thought I'd ask the experts the following:

Which festool sanders, in what order, and for which parts would you select to sand & finish mission style cabinets with? Assume that I'll be making the panels from solid lumber, and not 1/4" ply. Wood will probably be hickory or red birch. I do not own a drum sander, or similar. Considering that this is for personal use and not a kitchen I'm considering spend a bit more "time" than "cash". (Eesh... can one really make that claim when considering Festools? ;)

If surface planer left a good surface (sharp blades, well adjusted, slow feed, etc.) How much time would one expect sanding, say a single door, single drawer 20" base cabinet front?

I may be considering a belt sander of some type to assist with all those smaller door edges... your thoughts?

Thanks again in advance!
Jim

[tom crawford]

Check out Jerry Work's excellent article "Getting the most from Festool sanders" It can be found on the Festoolusa site under Application & Tips then Woodworking. It is a .pdf file.

Tom Crawford
Selma, Oregon

[J.R. Rutter]

Pick up the table saw disk sander from Woodworker's Supply to pre-sand as many edges as you can. It has a slight taper, so it runs at something like a 5 deg bevel to get a flat square edge. Much better than any other table saw disk. I use one in a dedicated table saw for sanding all sorts of edges.

I use the ETS150/3 for sanding flat door parts. The 150/5 (5 mm orbit) is a bit more aggressive, but the 3 mm orbit works fine for me. I make lots of solid wood reverse-raised flat panel doors. It should only take a few minutes per side, per piece. I have the smaller 125 sander (forget the model number) that sometimes gets used with extra soft pad to touch up profiles.

[Jim Becker]

I use the 150/3 the majority of the time. I also try to pre-sand components and "inside edges" prior to assembly to avoid having to get tools into tight places. (I do own the small detail sander, too, but rarely need to use it for that reason)