Which Festol Sander

[Vince Shriver]

I have a project coming up in a couple weeks for a rental. Refinishing old birch ply cabinets with a poly finish. The cabinets are down to bare wood in spots and I thought I'd just sand them out and reapply 1 or 2 coats of poly. Which Festol sander and vac? Of course I'd be using the Festol for other woodworking project in the future, but right now these cabinets are my immediate concern. I know a lot of you folks have Festol sanders/vac - any help would be much appreciated. Vince

[Jim Becker]

My go-to Festool sander most of the time is the 150/3.

As an aside, you may want to use a stripper to get most, if not all, of the remaining finish off those cabinets to keep your sanding to a minimum, unless you plan on painting them. It' so easy to sand through the veneer on the plywood...

[Narayan Nayar]

If it's birch ply and it's already down to "bare wood" (wouldn't that be bare glue? :)), I'd recommend something really light and work by hand in trouble spots. An ETS 150/3 or 150/5 over a Rotex. The Rotex can do this, but it's a bit bulky and heavy and really excels more (in my opinion) at hogging wood off than it does at finish sanding.

The CT22 is the standard vac. A few people want smaller and go with the mini, a few people want larger and go with the CT33. Any will do you fine; the only difference between at least the CT22 and the 33 is the capacity.

Though this project might be the impetus for you getting a Festool sander, what needs do you have for a sander other than this job? If you do a lot of heavy sanding, a Rotex is ideal. If you usually do finish sanding, the ETS sanders are great. With the right touch and sufficient attention, any of the sanders will do this particular job you have in front of you, so I'd actually look past this job and identify your usual sanding needs and base your purchase around that.

[Bob Justin]

For new work I like my RO 125 but for refinishing, I find the RTS 400 to be a little less aggressive and more forgiving in tight spots. Either sander combined with the CT-22 make for a huge reduction in dust levels in my shop when sanding. I don't know if the quality of the paper or the air flow across it keeping it from heating up and plugging that is responsible, but the paper life is significantly longer with my Festools than with the previous tools/paper I had been using. :)

[Alan Trout]

I am with Jim on this one The ETS150/3 is the perfect sander for that job.

Good Luck

Alan