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On softwoods it can't pick up all the dust, but it would have been much worse without this setup. I love this machine for smoothing large flat surfaces.One reviewer noted that the on/off switch is placed in a poor location and can be accidentally shut off.
I own Dewalt and Bosch 6" sanders and they don't hold a candle to the Fein on large flat surfaces. I would agree, but you can get used to it.
I purchased this sander because I was restoring a 150-yr-old pine floor and didn't want to remove 150 yrs of patina (just the paint and rough surfaces). On hardwoods there is practically no dust.
You can buy sandpaper for this machine from Klingspor much cheaper. Plus I wanted to hook the sander up to a HEPA vacuum to collect the lead paint dust.The sander is powerful and is aggressive.
I never would have bought this for my woodworking shop, but for large flat surfaces nothing beats this for doing an excellent job quickly.
And the Bosch is $500.00 cheaper. I bought the Bosch at the same time and use it over the Fein 9 times out of 10. Do yourself a huge favor and buy the Bosch 6 inch random orbit sander model 1250 DEVS.
For the money, this tool rates at the bottom. It is one of the most annoying tools I have ever used. I have been a carpenter and cabinet maker for over 30 years and have used many tools.
It does, however, do a decent job of dustless sanding, but at a stiff price both in money and comfort. The Bosch has much less vibration and has a non orbit mode that takes material off fast and is much less fatiguing than the Fein. It has enormous vibration that will fatigue the user quickly and the on/off switch is put in the worst possible location.
It is impossible to use this tool without inadvertently turning it off.
But, boy does it chew up wood. This product works very very well. Highly recommended. Not good for small work, but for the furniture I build, it's great. I hooked it up to a non Fein dust collection system and there's hardly any airborne dust that I notice. Very aggressive sander, usually requiring two hand operation.
I never heard from them. There is absolutely no comparison. One other downer is the high cost and lack of availability of sand paper for the Fein. I bought the Fein sander hoping not only to solve the motor brush problem but maybe improve over the Festool.
Controling the Fein is difficult at best. If you don't want the above problems, go with Festool. The motor brush problem is the only down side and that might just be a problem with the one I have. Other people have told me they have never changed motor brushes in their Festool sander. If you have been using cheap orbital sanders, the Fein will be a big improvement. For about four years, I have been using the Festool 6" Rotex 150 but it goes through motor brushes about every year. When sanding narrow pieces like a cabinet face frame, the Fein jumps around. The worse thing of all is the poor quality when sanding with high grit paper for the final pass.
I am especially disappointed in the amount of vibration the Fein has. By the way, I spoke with a Fein representative prior to buying the sander and told him I already have a Festool. The price is about the same on both sanders. So much for honest salesmanship. When sanding larger areas, the Fein sucks down onto the work piece making it more difficult to move. He said Fein is the best.
So, I thought a change was in order. And if all that isn't enough, I emailed Fein regarding problems trying to register my sander online for the extra 2 year warranty. The Fein is aggresive but, when you want less agressive sanding, you don't have a choice since it is only one speed not variable. The Festool is a far better sander. Long periods of sanding with the Fein are a struggle.
Maybe I should have gone the Festool route. When sanding drywall I only use this sander for the first phases, because on finishing coats, it gouges too easily. They said I would have to buy a new head, so I just epoxied the pad back on. No variable speed, so no way to turn the power down. In my estimation, 80 grit is about the highest you'd want to go with this sander. I'd call it a demo sander (as in "demolition", for those of you not involved in the trades).Positives:-Dust free-Powerful, fastNegatives:-No variable speed-Poor vibration dampening-Poor quality head attachment (see above)-Loud-No case-Extremely expensive If you use it all day you will get numbness. As I said, the vacuum is relatively quiet, in fact it's the quietest industrial shop type vacuum I've ever heard, and even quieter than a lot of indoor house vacuums.
I see now that this Fein 6" sander is selling for over $400. Not enough tools come with cases these days, and at this price a case would be nice. For instance, I also own a 5" Bosch random orbit sander, and when I use it with the Fein vacuum, it also results in nearly dust-free operation. I don't mind paying a premium price for a premium product. With regards to the sander however, it seems like Fein didn't even try to quiet it down. Sometimes I do jobs in an office space during business hours, or in someone's home where a child might be taking a nap.
There's a reason Amazon includes vibration dampening gloves under accessories. This sander vibrates excessively. Why Fein would leave this basic feature off this expensive tool puzzles me. It's extremely powerful (an advantage when you need it, a drawback when you don't). I bought this sander packaged with Fein's vacuum a couple years ago. For these reasons I try to support manufacturers that take db levels into account when engineering tools. I rented a floor edger with 20 grit paper. Indeed, the raves from others here about the dustless aspects probably have more to do with the vacuum itself rather than the sander.
Variable speed circuitry is almost ubiquitous throughout the industry, used by all major manufacturers on many different types of tools. The vacuum I have to say is great. The sander does seem a bit loud for a random orbit. The sander has a long cord, so you don't need an extension cord when using it with the vacuum. Now on to the disadvantages. Unbelievable.It's not that this sander can't perform certain tasks well.
The lowest Amazon lists under Accessories for this sander is 80 grit. Quiet and dust free. It will get the rough jobs done. I almost always wear hearing protection, but it may be a concern if others are in the area. It would have been great to keep the dust down, but I don't know if I can get 8-hole 20 grit 6" discs for the Fein.
Which brings me to price. If I have to strip some rust or peeling paint off of something fast, I bust out the Fein. It's not like I use this tool every day. It worked pretty well, but made a huge mess. I called Fein, but it wasn't under warranty anymore. In fact, I did a job where I needed to strip some old glue and stains off of a concrete floor.
That's not to say there aren't sanders out there that even when hooked up to a good vacuum, let dust escape from the sides, I'm sure there are. I bought mine in a package deal with a Fein TurboII vacuum for about $580 in 2005, and I feel I was ripped off. I haven't had a problem with it since, but this is something that shouldn't have happened. I don't know about the other users here, but when I'm sanding something with 220 grit and higher, I almost never want the sander operating at full speed. In fact, I think it may be this vibrating that caused the sanding pad to dislodge from the rotating head after about a year and a half.
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