I got a chance to use my new sander and dust extractor last night. I’m going to put together a 4′ x 8′ raised garden bed, and I bought some red cedar planks that I wanted to sand down a bit because of the wee ones who’ll be playing around it. One board in particular was rough-sawn on both sides. So I dragged the sander and dust extractor out to the driveway and got set up. My next-door neighbor swooped down almost immediately, since guys seem to have an instinct for detecting new power tools in their proximity. I first tried some Rubin 50-grit paper, but the package that I’d bought wasn’t compatible with the RO 125, even though both other packs were. The 80- and 120-grit papers did a magnificent job. The only noticeable chips and dust came from the plank that was especially rough; other than that, running a finger over the sanded surface really did come up clean. The sander is also much, much more powerful than my pathetic little DeWalt 4″ orbital sander, and it took some getting used to to find the right amount of pressure and control to exert on it.

The dust extractor worked very well. The automatic on/off setting is a marvel to behold; my neighbor was competely amazed. However, I lost one of the front casters en route from the basement to the driveway. I knew that the casters were loose from the moment I removed the extractor from its shipping box, but I didn’t think that they’d fall out. I spoke with a Festool service rep this morning about it. He thought that the steel posts to which the casters are mounted are supposed to be molded into the extractor’s base, and so shouldn’t just fall out. I told him that it looked like the posts were part of the casters, and that they hadn’t been inserted all the way. I’ve even deformed the mounting holes in the extractor’s base a bit trying to tap the casters back in. The service rep is going to check the parts diagram and possibly ship me a new base that I can install myself.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Toolery, Cool Stuff, Woodworking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.