Festool Sanders Manual

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Getting the Most from Festool Sanders

Text and photos by Jerry Work

It is always fun to watch visitors who come into my small gallery and studio

as they approach the ﬁne furniture I design and hand craft. Unlike those

who stand back to look at ﬂat art or sculpture, when looking at furniture

most people move quickly to a piece and invariably move their hands

across the surface while they take in the piece with their eyes from up

close. They might pause

to ask if it is OK to touch

the pieces ﬁrst, but once

they know they can, the

tactile urge takes over.

At some point the question

is always asked, "what

kind of ﬁnish do you use?"

It does not make any dif-

ference if it is a ﬂat oil

based ﬁnish or a highly

polished mirror-like ﬁnish,

they seem to think the

silky tactile feel is some-

how accomplished by the

application of a magic

elixir.

While the choice of ﬁnish

material is important to

achieving the desired

overall look and feel, the

far more important factor

is how the raw wood was

prepared before the appli-

cation of the ﬁnish material. And, that is what this manual is all about.

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Summary of Contents for Festool Sanders

Page 1 Getting the Most from Festool Sanders Text and photos by Jerry Work It is always fun to watch visitors who come into my small gallery and studio as they approach the ﬁne furniture I design and hand craft. Unlike those who stand back to look at ﬂat art or sculpture, when looking at furniture...
Page 2 800 by another and 500 by still another “standard!” All of these are important to getting the most from Festool sanders so I decided to or- ganize this manual by ﬁrst talking about the differences between the three grit “stan- dards,”...
Page 3 FEPA 'P' component parts of MICRON US CAMI (Festool) JAPAN JIS we today call “sandpaper” the piece. Yet, was born. That is where it sanding processes, started, but far from where tools and materials it ended.
Page 4 ﬁner grades the differences Here is a picture of a typical Festool become greater. round sanding material in the 150mm di- ameter size. The photo shows the back...
Page 5 The CT Mini pictured above has a 10 liter (2.6 gallon) capacity and hose/cord stor- age built into the top of the unit. As with all the other Festool dust collectors, it can utilize hoses of with all of the Festool sanders and cutting different diame- tools.
Page 6 by releasing catches on the sides of the unit and then lifting the whole top assem- bly off of the base section as is shown in the bottom photo on the previous page. The bag snaps into the bottom assembly Inlet air tube and a cone shaped section in the upper assembly engages the bag opening...
Page 7 They are a most welcome addition to my studio and will be to your studio or shop as well! CT 33 behind Another important feature of the Festool CT 22 in front dust collectors is the sealed motor cham- ber shown above. Only clean air drawn...
Page 8 CT 33 than on the CT 22. primary sanding station with all the vari- They draw 134 CFM and pull an impres- ous Festool sanders close at hand. Yes, I sive 90” of static water lift (23000Pa) while generating only a 72dB noise level.
Page 9 (called “Systainers,”) eas not easily reached by the dust collec- but instead will direct you to the Festool tor hose. The photos here show both the catalog and web site for more details.
Page 10 Festool sander working in conjunction with the HEPA ﬁltered Festool dust collectors, so it is now time to move to the topic of the sanding media itself.
Page 11 Cristal paper will cut more ag- ferent shapes and sizes of pads so there gressively and load up less than the Bril- are seven different shapes for the Festool liant, but the Brilliant will leave a ﬁner sur- supplied sanding media as shown here.
Page 12 Brilliant is a has been bonded, also by a synthetic paper based resin compound. It uses special ﬁlling material of dif- materials to prevent premature clogging fering weights with sanding dust or wood ﬁbers. It tends to which high- to last longer than Brilliant and is some- strength alumi- what more expensive.
Page 13 The view above is of the working surface any ﬁnish I know if. A bit of wax will main- of Festool’s Platin while the photo above tain that patina, but it is an easily marked right shows the foam layer (this photo of surface unsuited for any wear and is not another manufacturers similar product).
Page 14 (These photos are from the Handy maga- zine article which can be found on the Festool web site, www.festoolusa.com.) Since that time Festool has reﬁned and expanded the art and science of power hand sanding. Along the way they have...
Page 15 125mm (5”) pad diameter unit (shown We are going to look at nine different right most of the trio). Festool sanders covering the range of different ways of moving the abrasive. To help you judge relative size, each sander we talk...
Page 16 DX 93 Deltex (right most pictured) a circle in a rotary motion, or back uses a tight rotary motion. and forth in an arc. Festool uses the ﬁrst two motions but not the arc motion. ETS 150/3 (left most), 150/5 (not...
Page 17 I refer to as “boating.” The curves in the other Festool sanders like the RO are more abrupt (have a smaller radius) 150 behind it. Instead, there...
Page 18 Once you develop a feel for it, you will ﬁnd it in your hands often. Dust extraction, while very good, is not as complete as with the other Festool sand- ers which employ the nine hole system we discussed earlier where air is drawn...
Page 19 LS 130 EQ is a pure linear sander. It moves the pad fore and aft in a 4mm (5/32”) stroke. There is no rotary or side to side action. This allows the efﬁ- cient sanding edges proﬁles that would not be possi- ble by any other means.
Page 20 Both are so much smaller than most of the other Festool sanders that they are ideal for getting into corners or areas like the inside of the box pictured above where the RS 2 E (on the left) and the ETS 150 3 (on the right) simply won’t ﬁt.
Page 21 larger orbit (2.5mm), has a much larger worry about dips or gouges showing up pad (115mm x 228mm or 4 1/2” x 9”), and after the ﬁnal ﬁnish is applied. at 5.5 pounds is twice as heavy as the The weight works very much in your fa- DS and RS 400 sanders.
Page 22 els that are not raised ﬂush with the sur- stand shown both in process and com- rounding rail and style components. pleted) without it. You can get either hook and loop pads or pads with a clamp on each end to me- chanically hold the abrasive material.
Page 23 ﬁne abrasive, and the DX becomes a very precise sanding tool that won’t tear up details that you want to preserve. While the DS 93 is featured by Festool as common with other brands of arc swing detail sanders. Those other brands sim- ply move the pad in a ﬁxed arc which ex-...
Page 24 Both hard and soft pads are available. Festool materials are offered in Brilliant, Rubin or Saphir (shown right) up to 400 grit. I often hand cut much ﬁner grits from other size materials and use them on the DX 93 when I want very ﬁne ﬁnishes in very tight corners.
Page 25 ETS 125 (not pictured) has a 2.5mm orbit. Random orbit machines rotate a pivot point while allowing the attached but All three feature the Festool unique “Jet- not mechanically driven pad to move stream” system for dust removal and con- trol. As we dis-...
Page 26 These have the form factor of angle grinders but that is where any compari- In all the time I have used Festool sand- son stops. The Rotex units, whether the ers, I have only replaced pads on two of...
Page 27 ﬁnest variable speed polishers I have ever used. To buff out a build ﬁnish to a mirror-like surface takes only the Festool felt pads and a couple of grits of an automo- tive polishing compound. With rotary motion speed control from 240 to 560 RPMs and ec- action.
Page 28 No question about it, the Rotex ma- of the Bloodwood. After the ﬁnal sanding chines, along with the big ﬂat pad RS2E, (with the RO 150 and Festool CT22 dust are my favorite Festool sanders, hands collector,) wax was used as the ﬁnal ﬁn- down.
Page 29 If you are only able to buy one Festool surface areas as the pad is only 93mm x sander, and you do general woodworking 93mm.
Page 30 Most of my customers prefer a soft rounded edge like is shown here which I like to cut with a Festool 491-015 round- over bearing guided router bit. To ﬁnish sand that curved edge I use a 491-197 pad on the LS 130. While the round-over bit has a 9.5mm radius and the pad is a...
Page 31 “new” and “previous” versions of the Rotex sanders. I want to comment a bit more on the differences as it reﬂects well the Festool focus on continuous improvement engineering. There certainly was nothing “wrong” with the previous Rotex sander. I can’t...
Page 32 Bravo Festool! new version the same change is accom- plished by simply moving the green rec- tangular button on the front top of the unit.
Page 33: About The Author
About the author. Jerry Work designs and hand crafts ﬁne furniture in the 1907 Masonic Temple building in historic Kerby, Oregon. Un- less otherwise noted, all of the photos used in this manual were taken in his studio and gallery. Located on the Red- wood Highway (US 199) 26 miles SE of Grants Pass, OR, where visitors are al- ways welcome.

This manual is also suitable for:

Ro 150 Ro 150 e Ets 125 Ets 150/5 Ras 115 Ls 130 ... Show all