# Festool orbitals



## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

Well, after reading the comments on here singing the praises of Festool over and over again I finally got one, the RO 90.

I've been extremely impressed with the aggressive mode on the 90. Used it to sand a deck with it in aggressive mode, and once I got the hang of it I could make better time than two people with 5' orbitals. And it didn't leave swirl marks like a regular disc sander would. The delta head is nice also. 

Honestly though, I haven't been too impressed with it in orbital mode. It's kind of....slow.. Part of it I'm sure is just that I'm not used to it yet. And I suppose it's designed more to facilitate very fine finish sanding (no swirlies). But compared to the Dewalts I'm used to, the 90 is weak. I did a side by side on some cabinet doors yesterday and the Dewalt was way faster and more effective. 










Obviously the Dewalt is bigger, but even taking that into account in orbital mode it outperformed the 90 IMO. 

I'm wondering if the Festools that are specifically orbital sanders are better at that function? Would something like the ETS 150 perform better as an orbital? 

The 90 is the only Festool I've used, and it was certainly a good investment for the aggressive and delta features if nothing else. I could see it being better for really fine finishing or polishing in orbital mode, but for standard orbital duty I'm disappointed a little.


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## stelzerpaintinginc. (May 9, 2012)

The 90 is an awesome all-around sander, but for sheer power of material removal, the RAS115 is an absolute beast. Still, if you're looking for great multifunction utility sanders with power, the RO125 & RO150 will restore your faith in all the hype.


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## The Cutting Edge (May 25, 2014)

I had to buy a new orbital last week. Just couldn't make myself let go of the money for the festool. Ended up getting the Bosch. It works very well. Has a good filter system on it without using the vac. Of coarse I don't have a festool to compare it to.


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## doctors11 (May 17, 2010)

Edge which Bosch model did you buy? I have the small 5 inch and it's great for finer sanding but not powerful enough for bigger (deck) jobs.

I have the Festool RO 90 and love it for what I use it for. It's not a replacement for a Dewalt 5 inch type sander. It's good at rough material removal on smaller dimension pieces but especially for getting into hard to reach places with the delta and the delta extension. 

I can't imagine sanding a whole deck with the 90...my back is hurting just thinking of it!


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## The Cutting Edge (May 25, 2014)

doctors11 said:


> Edge which Bosch model did you buy? I have the small 5 inch and it's great for finer sanding but not powerful enough for bigger (deck) jobs.
> 
> I have the Festool RO 90 and love it for what I use it for. It's not a replacement for a Dewalt 5 inch type sander. It's good at rough material removal on smaller dimension pieces but especially for getting into hard to reach places with the delta and the delta extension.
> 
> I can't imagine sanding a whole deck with the 90...my back is hurting just thinking of it!


Its the 2.5 amp 5in. I don't ever use them for decks mostly cabinets and small stuff. Ill be putting it through its paces tomorrow. Ive got a bunch of beams to sand down and stain.


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## MikeCalifornia (Aug 26, 2012)

I love my rts 400 for pretty much everything. It is very fast at sanding out cabinets like you have and no swirl marks, obviously. It is a great drywall sander for patches. Because is is square, great for door jambs and doors. Still have to hand sand insets and mouldings, but you would for a 5" disc as well.


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

I've got two Dewalt orbitals. On one I opened it up and pulled the white restricting plate. Turned the thing into a beast. Have to be careful with it though, it can practically torque out of your hand on startup. I just use that one when I need to get crap removed quickly.


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

stelzerpaintinginc. said:


> The 90 is an awesome all-around sander, but for sheer power of material removal, the RAS115 is an absolute beast. Still, if you're looking for great multifunction utility sanders with power, the RO125 & RO150 will restore your faith in all the hype.



Yeah, it is great. I'm really surprised at the versatility of the aggressive mode. I've found it can even work for rough to medium finish sanding. Sanding the grain reducer on those doors for instance. It was just when I got the final sand and needed orbital function that it fell a little short. 

Don't do much heavy removal these days, that deck was an anomy. For real heavy removal, the Dewalt 5' disc sanders work well, and will plug into the Festool vac without duck tape. If I do get some heavy stripping jobs, might try one of the RASs.


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

The Cutting Edge said:


> I had to buy a new orbital last week. Just couldn't make myself let go of the money for the festool. Ended up getting the Bosch. It works very well. Has a good filter system on it without using the vac. Of coarse I don't have a festool to compare it to.



There is one Bosch in our fleet. When we were sanding that last deck, it did better than the Dewalts as far as speed. Only thing I don't like about it is the filter outlet is not round and not easily adaptable to a vac hose. 

The thing that made me finally willing to spend the money on a Festool was the increased unreliability of the Dewalts. I used to could count on at least a year, year and a half of heavy service life out of one. These days your lucky to get one that isn't a complete POS right out of the box. Quality control at Dewalt has gone to the dogs.


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

MikeCalifornia said:


> I love my rts 400 for pretty much everything. It is very fast at sanding out cabinets like you have and no swirl marks, obviously. It is a great drywall sander for patches. Because is is square, great for door jambs and doors. Still have to hand sand insets and mouldings, but you would for a 5" disc as well.



Thanks, I've been curious about the 400. A rectangular orbital seems interesting. Does that just mean it vibrates in an orbital pattern? Obviously it doesn't spin. 

Most vibrating sanders can leave terrible marks if your not real careful, bet the 400 doesn't do that.


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

I only have one major complaint about the Festool set up so far. You would think that when you buy a $120 vacuum hose extension that it would come with an adaptor to hook it to the other hoses, but no you have to buy that separate apparently. 

$10+ a foot for vac hose is pretty high, they could at least through in an adaptor.


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## The Cutting Edge (May 25, 2014)

Mine has a round adapter that hooks right up. Dewalt has a better warranty than the bosch. I think youre right about their quality. Its maybe slipped a little. I bought one of the first 20v lithium impacts when they came out and its a good one. Everyone I used to frame with bought the same set up. All of theirs have went back to the factory repeatedly. The bit holder keeps falling apart on them. One of the guys just said screw it and bought a Milwaukee. Is festool made in the states? Its hard to find anything made here anymore. I think Dewalts been made in Mexico for quite sometime.


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## The Cutting Edge (May 25, 2014)

Thanks Jmay for your grain reducer info you gave on another thread. Im gonna try it out when I get the chance.


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## Rbriggs82 (Jul 9, 2012)

Jmayspaint said:


> Thanks, I've been curious about the 400. A rectangular orbital seems interesting. Does that just mean it vibrates in an orbital pattern? Obviously it doesn't spin.
> 
> Most vibrating sanders can leave terrible marks if your not real careful, bet the 400 doesn't do that.


I have the DTS 400 (delta shaped one) it vibrates. I think it has a small 2mil stroke which is why it doesn't leave any marks. For drywall patches and non aggressive sanding I prefer my ets 125 which IMHO has better dust collection than both the DTS/RTS and the RO90.


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

Jmayspaint said:


> Don't do much heavy removal these days, that deck was an anomy. For real heavy removal, the Dewalt 5' disc sanders work well, and will plug into the Festool vac without duck tape. .




One thing about that though, while the Dewalt disc sander shroud dust port will fit directly on a Festool vac hose, it won't run off the power supply on the vac at all. Won't even turn on. Must be different amperage or something.,

I wish Festool made a fully shrouded aggressive sander like the Dewalts. With a slight modification to the shroud, I've been able to achieve total containment with the Dewalt disc sanders at low speed.


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## canopainting (Feb 12, 2013)

For fascia boards I've been using the Makita 5' . I bought a dustless technology disc buddy shroud that attaches to it. It' cuts way back on paint dust.


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