# Festool rts400 in corners?



## sayn3ver (Jan 9, 2010)

Long story short, those who have the rts400...can you sand into say a corner where a wall meets the ceiling or where a wall meets door casing, etc? Is the pad tapered back like the dts400 Or does the pad scuff the adjacent surface? 

Back story: 


Just took the plunge into some festool Sanders. I ordered the dts400, the ets ec150, and took a gamble on the ro90. 

Mainly interested in using these for new trim prep, sheetrock repair and skim coating and paint prep on previously painted surfaces. 

Anyways they came in Friday. Only could spend about 4 hours or so between the last two days using them. 

Thrilled with both the dts400 (used the black and Decker equivalent items for years) and the ets EC 150. Both these are incredible in their respective categories. 

The ro90 I think I'll be returning. I mainly bought it for the small Delta pad since the dx93 has been discontinued. I spent the most of my time this weekend with the ro90 and it's just OK for what I need it for. If I did exterior repaints or stripped pieces down to raw wood on the regular the ro90 would be great. 

The ro90 is just not comfortable enough for me to use for prepping installed trim, built-ins, etc. My cord and cordless Bosch oscillating tools have much better hand feel, they just lack dust extraction and true orbital sanding.


----------



## Paint Chip (Dec 25, 2013)

The rts400 will get you very close as the paper slightly over laps the pad. For interior work I don't think festool has a better sander imo. By far the most used sander and I have them all.


sayn3ver said:


> Long story short, those who have the rts400...can you sand into say a corner where a wall meets the ceiling or where a wall meets door casing, etc? Is the pad tapered back like the dts400 Or does the pad scuff the adjacent surface?
> 
> Back story:
> 
> ...


----------



## PNW Painter (Sep 5, 2013)

The pad on the RTS doesn't have as much taper as the DTS pad so it's tougher sand to the very edge of the corner compared to DTS. If this is a major concern i'd recommend buying a DTS. 

My local Festool rep pointed out the how the pads have different amounts of taper and that the DTS is much better for sanding corners because the pad is more tapered.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

We use our RO90 more than our other Festool sanders. I like the delta head for interior trim.


----------



## sayn3ver (Jan 9, 2010)

I have put another couple hours on the ro90, both in RO mode and in Delta. If I was working on pieces on say a work bench I would have no qualms. It's quite the sander. 

Example, I worked some door frames and the over head parts were difficult with the ro90 while the dts400 was pretty good. 

I'm undecided on whether to send the ro90 back for the rts400, send the ro90 back and buy the rts400
plate and pad to convert the dts400 to rectangle when I want it or keep the ro90 since I already have it and buy the rts400 plate and pad. 

For say craftsman 1x base the RTS seems a better fit than the DTS. It also seems like it would do better when sanding drywall corners. Most of the time where wall meets casing on repaints the caulk is out far enough that you can't sand right to the trim anyways. 

I already find myself using my index finger as a spacer to keep the edge of the DTS 400 off the 1/16" to prevent it when running along an inside corner or up to say door casing.


----------



## expertpainter (Nov 13, 2010)

Mississauga handyman painting and carpentry uses the RO90 rotex sander a lot painting a home and there is a lot of trim work that have corners you cannot get into easily the Delta pad on the sander works great it's worth its weight in gold. Also when we are painting homes with decks it's a good tool to stand between pickets.


----------



## sayn3ver (Jan 9, 2010)

I've hung into it but it's not my favorite yet. I'm gonna break down and get the rts400 soon. The DTS400 is nice but the tip like everyone says gets destroyed pretty easy (the tip of the paper). Especially sanding Elmer's wood filler....it melts to the tip without trying. 

I think the RTS may be the best fit for my detail work at the moment.


----------



## Mr Smith (Mar 11, 2016)

I bought a RTS400 and returned it. I had a Kitchen Cabinet job and thought I could use this sander for obviously smaller areas to sand. After priming with shellac BIN,I used the RTS400 with 400,320 and 220 fine grit paper. It was just too aggressive to manage properly without burning through the primer or scratching the surface. This sander would be better for window sills,baseboards or door frames that doesn't require a super fine finish.


----------



## Rbriggs82 (Jul 9, 2012)

You have to turn the speed all the way up and the suction all the way down on the dust extractor. I do cabinets all the time with it and never have a problem with it being too aggressive.


----------

