Festool Sander Rant

[Peter Quinn]

Wow. I'm on my FOURTH ES125 pad in four years! I ride that thing like a rodeo bull, its the best electric ROS I have ever used by a mile, I believe all of the broken pads were caused by either my abuse or hits to the concrete floor. Perhaps that smooth low vibration dust free sanding comes at a price? We use some PC sanders at work for installs, and I'd rather replace my pad every six months than use one of those PC's for ten minutes. I think the guy that invented the wobble dado may have been involved? (festooligan fires back!)


For a while I just kept a spare pad in the box for when I broke it. I have learned to be a little more gentle and a lot more careful so my pad consumption has decreased of late. And the paper? It may cost twice as much, but it last four times as long, and unlike PSA disks, it can be removed and later reused as you sand through the grits on a project. Ever try to stick PSA paper twice?

[Steve Clardy]

Ever try to stick PSA paper twice?

Yes. I do it often. Usually not a problem with Mirka paper.

[Karl Brogger]

Ever try to stick PSA paper twice?

Ever buy sandpaper by the case? I'll throw away a few half used sheets and still come out ahead. Or, do what I do now and use multiple sanders for different grits.

I bought a DeFalt orbital a couple years ago. I was in a pinch and needed a sander, all I could get was the yellow one with hook + loop. I took a very sharp chisel and cut off all of the velcro and it actually worked pretty well with the sticky back discs

edit- just took a peek at my distibutors catalog to see what the price difference actually was. I can't get discs with a cloth backing in a 3M Hookit, so a fair comparison is kinda tough. I'm paying $.40 a disc buying 250+ at a time, the purple discs are $.67/per. The same purple in Hookit is $.35 per disc, but still a "C" weight paper backing, and while fine for flat stuff, it seems to disolve when doing anything where the edges bump into things, (sanding profiles on door edges, insides of face frames, etc.)

[Jim Becker]

I consider the pads on sanders, regardless of brand, as "disposables" just as the abrasives are. They have a definite lifespan, that varies with how often they are used and how hard one might press on the unit while sanding. I replaced the pads on the PC sanders I used to use a number of times and have replaced the pad on my 150/3 once, too. Let's not confuse machine quality with the normal (and variable) replacement cycle for wear items on our tools, whether they are hand-held electrics or big stationary machines.

[Jason White]

Two years on the original pad isn't bad in my opinion (I have some Festool sanders and have had to change a pad or two). The ones that get used the most wear out the fastest. Some also have "hard" and "soft" pads. Maybe you need the "hard" one? I'd just spend the $30. Pads aren't meant to last forever.

Jason

In july of 2006 I purchased a ES125 sander from a Festool dealer. Loved the sander, I used it mainly for finish sanding with 180, 220, 320 grit sandpaper.
This sander was my first Festool purchase, and led me to buying a T55 saw, a 1400 router and Midi vacuum.

Yesterday I was sanding some primer on some cabinet face frames with 220 grit, when the sander started to wobble real bad. After shutting it off I noticed the pad had split, causing part of it to seperate from the mounting screws. Of course this had to happen just two months out of warranty.

I contacted the Festool dealer from whom I purchased it and was told that the plastic probally deteriorated over time.
And a new pad will be $30.00.
Now I have two Dewalts that are almost 8 years old, they get all the hard sanding jobs, never had a problem with the pads. I have burnt up motors on PC333 before a pad failure.
This makes me wonder as to the quality of materials Festool is using.

Thanks for letting me rant.

[Dave Tinley]

As an update-
Bob Marino, the festool dealer contacted Festools senior man to alert him as to my problem.
I have been contacted by Festool and will be recieving a new pad some time next week.

Thanks for all the replies and an additional thanks to Bob Marino for going the extra step to take care of his customer.

[Steve Clardy]

Sounds good.

[Bruce Page]

I'm glad that I bought my one & only (so far) Festool tool from Bob M.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,

And a new pad will be $30.00.
Now I have two Dewalts that are almost 8 years old,

Wait till you have to replace the DeWalt pads, then you can really rant.
The replacement pad for my ~ $50.00 DeWalt ROS runs ~ $20.00.
$30.00 for a new pad for a $170.00 sander seems more than reasonable in my book.