How much less vibration between a Festool and other cheaper sub $100 sanders?

[Robert Mayer]

The Bosch ROS65VC is not sub $100, but it's way cheaper than an equivalent Festool & it is extremely smooth. Vibration will not be an issue no matter how long you use it. Dust collection without a vacuum is quite good as long as you keep the filter empty & clean. Powerful too.

Looks like its 1.8 pounds heavier. which is a lot

[Bruce Page]

The difference in vibration between my ETS125 and my old PC333’s is like night and day. I love the 6” pad, dust collection is excellent too.

[Clark Hussey]

With the ETS 125REQ I hold the vacuum hose in my right hand to balance the sander and just lay my left hand on top of the sander to guide it. With the Rotex 125 on rotary I hold it the same way only with more pressure on the left. My hands used to go numb in 15-20 minutes. It is no longer a problem

[Robert Mayer]

I am going to get the Festool tomorrow! Woodcraft has it in stock and I can support them. The Bosch is out of stock almost everywhere, except amazon where its listed for $70 more than anyone else.

[Myles Moran]

do you find this is a little heavy to single hand hold? I do this a lot to knock down sharp edges, or hold parts in one hand and the sander in the other. It looks kinda tall.

Yes, it's a two hander for sure. I absolutely love mine, but I only one hand it when I need to move the hose/cord around, otherwise it's 2 hands all the time. I still have my old 5" porter cable ROS for when I need something smaller and more controllable. I use a sanding block for all my edge breaking, but that's more because I find a ROS is too uncontrollable doing that for my liking.

[Michael W. Clark]

With the ETS 125REQ I hold the vacuum hose in my right hand to balance the sander and just lay my left hand on top of the sander to guide it. With the Rotex 125 on rotary I hold it the same way only with more pressure on the left. My hands used to go numb in 15-20 minutes. It is no longer a problem

This is my experience with the Rotex 150. It’s heavy enough that you can drag it around by the hose when in sander mode. Much less vibration than a Dewalt ROS I bought.

[Brian Holcombe]

I sold my festool in favor of the Mirka. The vibration level is much lower.

[John TenEyck]

do you find this is a little heavy to single hand hold? I do this a lot to knock down sharp edges, or hold parts in one hand and the sander in the other. It looks kinda tall.

I use it with one hand on horizontal surfaces w/o issue, but it is a poor choice if you need to knock down edges or otherwise sand at odd angles. Yes, it's fairly tall, and that contributes to the problems using it for anything other than horizontal surfaces.

John

[Harvey Miller]

My PC333 left my hands numb after a couple hours. I even tried padded bicycling gloves with it. I replaced it with a Festool ETS 150 which I could literally use all day without hand problems.

[Frank Pratt]

do you find this is a little heavy to single hand hold? I do this a lot to knock down sharp edges, or hold parts in one hand and the sander in the other. It looks kinda tall.

Yes Robert it is heavy, which is no concern on horizontal surfaces & not much bother on vertical surfaces. But holding it one handed while balancing it on a corner is not something you want to do a lot of. I've got an old 5" Dewalt that I use for stuff like that, but that's about the only use it gets anymore.

[Bill McNiel]

Robert you are welcome to come out to the "Quah" and test drive any and all of my 5 Festool sanders. Mask and social distancing of course.

[Jim Becker]

My PC333 left my hands numb after a couple hours. I even tried padded bicycling gloves with it. I replaced it with a Festool ETS 150 which I could literally use all day without hand problems.

Ironically...that was exactly the same situation and tool exchange I made as noted previously, including the attempt with padded gloves.

[Robert Mayer]

Robert you are welcome to come out to the "Quah" and test drive any and all of my 5 Festool sanders. Mask and social distancing of course.

Sending you a private message, definitely interested!

[Jim Becker]

Sending you a private message, definitely interested!

That's a really good opportunity, Robert. "Back in the day" I was very fortunate to be able to "test drive" a lot of the tools before I made the investment.

[Rob Damon]

Once thing about Festool sanders used with a Festool vacuum that is rarely talked about is the suction level set on the Vacuum. If you are using a FT Sander that seems to be jumping around, you may need to reduce the suction setting on the vacuum. I find that for me, setting the FT vacuum at 75% suction gives the best/smoothest ride with many of their sanders. If you are using the gear driven mode on some sanders where you use two hands to hold it then 100% setting works better because you are trying to be more aggressive with your sanding.