dynabrade vs festool

[Quinn McCarthy]

I am looking to buy a new ROS. I have it narrowed down to the festool and dynabrade. I have never used the festool but it has good reviews everywhere. I really like the dynabrade. Has anyone used both to compare the two? The dynabrade is about $100.00 less than the festool ROS in the 6". Then when you compare it to the price of the festool rotex you can buy almost 3 dynabrades for one festool rotex.

Is it worth the extra expense?

Thanks

Quinn

[mike holden]

Dynabrade is an industrial quality tool, had one of their mini-belt sanders mounted on a robotic arm, polishing the weld of a seam welded tube coming off a roll machine that ran for years. It was the air-powered version. I think we replace the rollers a couple times, and the belts twice a shift, but ran like a champ.

Festool is designed for the woodworker, and their big claim to fame in sanding is dust collection - it is second to none.

If it was for my personal use? Festool - no question!
If it was for manufacturing? Dynabrade

Mike

[Quinn McCarthy]

Mike

Dynabrade has a line of ROS for woodworking. They go from 3/8 down to 3/32 swirl.

QPM

[David Werkheiser]

Quinn, I have both the sanders you mention, 6"RO150-5 Festool and Dynabrades in 1/8"+3/32". The Dynas are light and durable and the dust collection is ok, the 3/32" is great for removing swirls on stained maple.
I find myself picking-up the the Festool most of the time since its hooked up to vacuum and the dust control is great. If your looking at the Festool air sanders the system is expensive because of the 3in1 hose and the solenoid att. to vac. If dust control is high on your list, get a Festool sander and a vacuum as a package.
David Werkheiser

[Quinn McCarthy]

Thanks David for the info,

Is your dynabrade connected to your dust collection for the shop?

Quinn

[Rick Christopherson]

I have three Dynabrade sanders; 2 with a 3/32 inch orbit (for smoother finish), and 1 with a 3/16 orbit (for more aggressive sanding). As you might already know, I can get any Festool product I want with a single phone call. The Festool sanders have a strong reputation, but the only reason why I have not asked for one is because I will never give up my Dynabrades.

You can't go wrong with either sander, but the compactness and power of the Dynabrade is unrivaled. Several years ago I did a tool review in American Woodworker Magazine on sanders, but this was before the Festool sander existed, so I have not examined one. However, I have compared it to all other electric sanders on the market at the time.

The reason why it provides an incredibly good finish is because the eccentric drive is machined from a single piece of steel that includes the motor shaft as well. Most (if not all) electric sanders have a separate aluminum eccentric flywheel that is separate from the motor shaft. This can allow the eccentric to be out-of-line with the motor shaft, which creates wobble. The eccentric bearing on most electric sanders (don't know about Festool) is only 1/4 inch thick. The Dynabrade eccentric bearing is 7/8-inch thick!

I have a very old article on my website (Dynabrade Sander (http://www.waterfront-woods.com/Projects/airsander.html)) discussing the Dynabrade sander, but I am in the middle of rewriting it. I received a sander rebuild kit from http://www.phillytools.com/ which includes virtually the entire sander except for the motor shaft and outer housing. I am rebuilding one of my oldest sanders (14 years old) and including this in the new article rewrite. The rebuild took less than an hour, and it virtually gives me a brand new sander.

The image below shows the drivetrain of the sander. I reverse engineered the sander as I was pulling it apart. You can see the ruggedness of the components. The red piece is the eccentric shaft, and you can see it goes all the way from the pad to the top bearing. Just above the green pad-mount is the extra thick eccentric bearing. Sorry the image is so tall, but it is supposed to be running down the margin of the article.

http://www.waterfront-woods.com/graphics/MotorExplode-lo.jpg

[Quinn McCarthy]

Wow Rick
That is exactly what I am looking for. Great article and answer to my question.

I was leaning toward a 6" 3/16 and a 6" 3/32. I can get both for 320.00

The one I had used was 15-16 years old and it still worked great.

I think I will stick with the dynabrade.

THanks again.

Quinn

[Rick Christopherson]

Quinn, personally, I like the 5" models because they can get into tighter spots when needed. The sanders are available with or without dust collection. If you can only afford one sander, then buy the 3/32 orbit, as it is still very aggressive but provides a swirl-free finish. The only reason why I have the single 3/16 orbit is because it was a freebie from my editor days, and I wanted something different from what I already had.

Being the newest sander, the 3/16 orbit defaulted as the most commonly used sander, and still provided a good finish. Now that I have rebuilt one of the 14 year old 3/32 inch sanders, it will get more use. (It's still in my photo studio from doing the "how-to" pictures.)

Someone mentioned the DynaFile sander. PhillyTools gave me one of those too, and I am anxiously looking forward to trying it out on a large hollow-spiral turning project that has been sitting unfinished in the shop for years. If you're going to buy on-line, check them out. They will be happy to know that you heard of them from me.

[David Werkheiser]

Quinn, when I use the Dynabrades, I use the Festool vac., and the hose fits the port tight.
Rick, a question for you, when I first got the Dynabrades I only a 2hp. compressor and it would not keep up. I have since got a 7 1/2hp with a 80 gal. tank that while it has no problem keeping up with needed CFM, I have always wondered, how much energy is needed for this little sander?
Thanks, David

[Rick Christopherson]

These sanders don't take as much power as they used to. My father's really old Dynabrade is so old that it has the metal housing. This sander takes a lot more air than the newer models. With each new model I have seen, they take less air to operate. For job-site work, I have a small Craftsman compressor that is about 1-1/2 to 2 hp, 30 gal, actual (even though it claims to be 5 hp). This compressor will operate my sanders for several minutes before I have to pause and let it catch up.

I wouldn't run one of these sanders on this small of a compressor as a habit, but it does work in a pinch. My normal shop compressor is an industrial 5 hp, 80 gal, Curtis-Toledo, and from this compressor, I can/have operated 2 sanders simultaneously and continuously. My father has a retail-quality compressor that I don't know the actual HP, but is probably in the 3 hp range with a 50 gal tank (about 8 cfm at 90 psi). This compressor will run his sanders without a problem, but can't handle two at the same time.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Rick

You make some good arguements for going with the 5".

Thanks

Quinn