Air powered orbital sanders?

[Van Huskey]

It still wouldn't be as good as the mirka hose. It's like the cord never existed once it dives into the hose. Which make me wonder if the cord is just inside the hose...

I see the advantage and my dealer has them hooked up to the demo sanders but the thing the sleeve fixes that I had is the propensity of the hose corrugations to catch on things. Keep in mind I use the Festool hoses for track saws, jig saws, routers etc which are admittedly more prone to catching. The white Festool sleeve is rather bulky but the ones I have made up function as well or better than the Mirka hose IME in part due to the fact the Festool hoses them themselves are better than the Mirka ones. Mirka does have an advantage with the coaxial hoses since they come in very long lengths.

Now you have me wondering what is actually going on with the cord inside the hose...

[Van Huskey]

I have a sneaking suspicion they all come out of the same place as they all look very similar.

This got me thinking and after looking at the Surfprep and the 3m (not the pictures below vary between the central vac/ non-vac and 5"/6" and although I couldn't get other pictures to load the 3m and SP are identical save graphics and the bottom moulding when you compare the same sander.



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After some searching I found the below sanders which both the sander and the DC supply are identical except for cosmetics. There is even a picture where the DC cord from SP and AirVantage have the exact same white tag on them in the exact same place on the cord. At this point I am 90% sure they came from the same factory in Taiwan. But, I kept poking around...

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Then I found this on the Wurth site: http://www.wurthwoodgroup.com/SurfPr...er-P78748.aspx

While although it is one of the air sanders it clearly links SP and Airvantage... now I am 99% sure these are the same sanders.

A little more digging and some emails back and forth and I have a 6" AirVantage ROS with the external supply and a bare 3x4 orbital headed my way for $150 LESS than just the 3x4 and power supply alone from Surfprep. In fact one could get a power supply and 3 6" ROS for just a few dollars more than a single kit from SP.

AirVantantage also makes supply in sander versions like the Deros.

http://www.airvantagetools.com/


It is an experiment and I will follow up when I have time to play with them. If anyone wants the contact info PM me.

[David Kumm]

Van, any idea yet if the internals are the same quality? It could be that different guts are spec'd in the same body. Let us know as I suspect you will do the homework. Dave

[Van Huskey]

Van, any idea yet if the internals are the same quality? It could be that different guts are spec'd in the same body. Let us know as I suspect you will do the homework. Dave

Dave, I doubt I will ever be able to answer that question. They do have the same exploded parts sheet but even if I spring for a Surfprep and tear them both apart (they are designed to be rebuilt so it would be easy) I don't have the experience to compare motors and bearings at that level. Things like SP's "patented" fan system are from pictures exactly like what is in the AirVantage so that is another clue but doesn't address the component quality issue. I did dance around the question of them being the same as the SP sanders but the vendor didn't bite on my thinly veiled query. I suppose the non-answer could be construed either way. Maybe in person, I could have interpreted the body language but it was simply avoided while answering all my other questions.

I was fully prepared to buy the little 3x4 SP whether I needed it or not but I love a bargain because somewhere deep inside I think I am getting over on the "man". I didn't remotely need another brushless 6" ROS (this makes 3) but for the price, I couldn't resist trying it out. Hopefully, they will be here next week so I can pay with them on the weekend but that is up to UPS.

[Matt Day]

Very cool Van. Looking forward to your thoughts.

[Mark Bolton]

Did you buy from Prime? Do you mind giving the numbers for an RO with dust collection and a powersupply? I believe my cost on a 5" and power supply (surfprep) was around 560$

[Van Huskey]

Did you buy from Prime? Do you mind giving the numbers for an RO with dust collection and a powersupply? I believe my cost on a 5" and power supply (surfprep) was around 560$

I did some further snooping that I will explain in a minute, you obviously did some too. I actually bought from the person/entity that sells them on eBay and Amazon. They were very quick to reply to emails and had "all" the sander variations and accessories in stock, he set up the purchase for me through eBay (so I have all the buyer protections, just in case) and the price for any of the 5 or 6" versions with no vac is $299 shipped and the central vac version is $314. Extra ROS sanders without pads are $199. The bare 3x4 sander is ~$240 and he threw in a pad of my choice they have both curved and straight edge in H&L. So my cost for the 6" ROS kit and the bare 3x4 was was ~$555.

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X'Pole/Prime Tool is the actual manufacturer and Prime Supply seems to be the sales and distribution arm.

http://www.prime-tool.com.tw/

http://www.primesupply.com.tw/

I have the optimistic feeling that I am getting the same sanders (but my money is in the wind so that feeling is to be expected). As Dave points out the internals could be different qualities and that leaves a question I can not answer. The only thing I will be able to do is to compare them to my memory of the in-booth use of the SurfPerp sanders and directly compare them to my 6" Deros and ETS 150 EC.

BTW the supply in sander versions like the Deros run about $350 and also looks identical to the SP sanders. I went with the external power supply versions because I always preferred the Ceros ergonomics (I got my Deros in the recall program) and it allowed me to get both sanders and one supply.

[Ken Grant]

I can't wait to see how this works out for you. I have been waiting to buy one of these new dc electric sanders for a while now. I wonder why the more common consumer type brands (bosch, dewalt, etc) haven't come out with something like this yet?

[Van Huskey]

I can't wait to see how this works out for you. I have been waiting to buy one of these new dc electric sanders for a while now. I wonder why the more common consumer type brands (bosch, dewalt, etc) haven't come out with something like this yet?

Oddly enough a more consumer-focused brand did come out with one first. The Porter Cable 390k was a low profile brushless 5" ROS.

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It simply never got traction and was discontinued a case of PC being ahead of its time. I expect given Festool's move to offering their EC versions that Bosch won't be too far behind since they use brushless (EC in Euro nomenclature) motors in many of their cordless tools. If/when Bosch does I expect they will have a performance/price ratio that will entice a lot of fence sitters.

[Mark Bolton]

Didn't really do any snooping but have had a few surf prep options in my cart in my wurth account but never pulled the pin.

Are you saying a 5" RO with s power supply and cord is 314? I think my 560 number is the sander with pad, power supply but likely doesnt include a cord. I think a 12' cord is like 50 bucks.

[Van Huskey]

Didn't really do any snooping but have had a few surf prep options in my cart in my wurth account but never pulled the pin.

Are you saying a 5" RO with s power supply and cord is 314? I think my 560 number is the sander with pad, power supply but likely doesnt include a cord. I think a 12' cord is like 50 bucks.

Yes, the $314 is the pad, sander, DC cord (I assume it is the 12' cord, they make a 24') the power supply, the AC cord and includes shipping. The prices are all the same for 5 or 6", 3/32 or 3/16 orbit, H&L or PSA, the central vac versions are $15 more vs the non-vac which is $299.

After I finalized my offer I did find that they make 21 hole or so pads which they call a screen pad, I assume that is for use with mesh abrasives and since I use mainly Abranet once I am comfortable with the quality of the sanders I will likely get the higher hole pads for both of the sanders.

[Van Huskey]

I received the sanders today but only had a couple of minutes with them before I had to catch a flight. I will be out of town a couple of days but will get pictures and first impressions up when I get back. I was able to hook both of them up and run them quickly, I am impressed, as far as I can tell they are indeed identical to the SurfPrep sanders and I feel confident that XPole is the white label manufacturer. I downloaded the Surfprep manuals for their sanders and they are exactly the same. The only difference is the SurfPrep and Airvantage names and the SP manual has additional stock numbers for parts, everything else is identical.

The sanders feel perfect in my hands and have near zero vibration maybe even a tad better than the Mirka but I have to compare them at the same time to tell. The little 3x4 sander has me all kinds of excited. As a note, both sanders came with 12' DC cords when I actually expected the "bare" 3x4 sander to be sans DC cord.

Hopefully, they will continue to impress me, as long as they do I think they are a steal (compared to the market) for the price.

[Warren Lake]

I think the Air Vantage stuff are Ex Dynabrade guys, if I remember correctly a friend in LA was a friend of the owner. bit of a while back. I dont like stuff hanging off my tools, still like the dynabrade with the tiny air line then up my pressure to make up for it. Radius work nothing could touch it light and the air line has no weight you can fling it around like its just a bare tool. Big gain from putting on a swivel air fitting.

[Martin Wasner]

Big gain from putting on a swivel air fitting.

Amazing how different people achieve the same goal.

I hate those swivel fittings. On anything. I remove them pretty quickly if a tool comes with one.

[Warren Lake]

depends on the tool first one was on a roofing nailer next on a framing nailer both easier to use. My dynbrades have small air lines outside diameter is likely 5/16 stuff from the pneumatics industry I dont have the swivels on the air sanders at the moment but other stuff, Lots of the times in finishing the hose is in my left hand and the swivels make that a lot more comfortable with the air line bending at the spray gun. I can see it being a disadvantage at times as well reaching over things, likely times I have had the air line in my left hand as well while sanding not wanting it to drag. Quite a few times i had it dropped from the ceiling.