I purchased a Rotex 125 for a refinishing job I took on for my wife's school, unfortunately it was all volunteer. I have used the sander extensively on 8 tables, a large inlaid cutting board and a gun cabinet in last 2 months. It works exceedingly well at leveling the surface and removing stock quickly in rotex. On the maple gun cabinet I had no swirl marks and sanded the project from start to finish in rotex only, it was amazingly smooth. So much so that I almost dropped it several times due to the smooth surface being hard to grip.
The 8 tables all had softwood tops, I noticed fine scratches in the hard late wood when I sanded it with 220 both in rotex and in random orbit. I ended up sanding the top again with 220 using my Bosch ROS20VSK which did not leave the swirl marks. Is this a technique problem or just a quirk of the rotex sander?
I did notice that the bosch spins fast in random orbit than the festool does, not sure if that helps but it was an observation. Thank you
The tops were made of glued up panels from douglas fir 2×12s that had been ripped, jointed and planed
The 8 tables all had softwood tops, I noticed fine scratches in the hard late wood when I sanded it with 220 both in rotex and in random orbit. I ended up sanding the top again with 220 using my Bosch ROS20VSK which did not leave the swirl marks. Is this a technique problem or just a quirk of the rotex sander?
I did notice that the bosch spins fast in random orbit than the festool does, not sure if that helps but it was an observation. Thank you
The tops were made of glued up panels from douglas fir 2×12s that had been ripped, jointed and planed