My 15 year old PC sander has bit the dust (mid project, mind you), so now I'm shopping for a new sander. I've run the searches on here and see that the Festool are overwhelmingly recommended. I'm just not sure if budget allows for it at the moment. I also see several people speaking highly of the Bosch ROS65VC, which is within budget. My application is mostly finish sanding after assembly, typically 120 grit and up. The embarrassing part is that I've never really given much though to what I've used for sanding. I've just bought the 8 hole sanding disks at the local borg store and gone about my merry way with my PC sander. I can tell you a couple thing I've always detested about the sanding process - 1) my hands vibrate for hours after I'm finished, and I hate that; 2) I typically hook up my sander to my plumbed dust collection, which at best has only been moderately successful (not to mention the cumbersome hose....); and 3) I go through sandpaper like it's toilet paper. I've just never looked at what different abrasive options are.
So, I guess my questions for the group are -
- if using the Bosch (or any other non-Festool), is there a brand/type of sandpaper that is better than what I've been using that will last longer and be worth what I'm expecting to be more $$ (I'm anticipating that to be an overwhelming 'yes')?
- While I would love the Festool system with dust collection, if I were to go with a Festool is there any reason not to use it with my regular dust collection system? I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but wanted to check.
I'm really trying to come to a justification of the Festool, but the cost of the sander and outfitting all of the sandpaper is way more than I'd like to spend on an unexpected replacement.