Thread: A little ROS advice: General and ROS20VSK/C or BO5041KX or....?

Not specific to those sanders, but in general...

- Between 120-240 grit will I be seeing swirls and scratches? The 120-180-240 process is generally where they become invisible to the naked eye
- What do orbit measurement(s) and speeds count for? Mostly for how aggressive the sander is. A 3mm orbit is really for fine finishing only, 5mm is more general purpose and will handle both rough/flattening and finishing. Speed is less relevant, but it can be used to make the sander a bit more gentle for delicate work or to reduce heat when stripping paint/varnish.
- What's the difference in results and use of hard and soft pads? They dictate how flat your surface will be; the harder the pad, the less it will follow differences in grain hardness and the less likely it will be to round over edges. For flat surfaces, a hard pad is best, but you can still get good results with a medium pad if you make sure your paper is always sharp and you don't push too hard - let it do the work.
- If I have, say, a 5mm wide strip of inlay that's sitting a little proud, will I be able to get it flat without just rounding it over and overworking the surrounds? Yes, see above.

NOTE: I use the Festool pad hardness scale, many so-called "hard" pads are only a Festool "medium". You shouldn't go softer than this for flat surfaces and crisp edges.

I concur with Elan's post

I believe the ROS20VSK are 120v and the GEX 125-1 AE are the same but a 240v version but I stand to be corrected.
I have the equivalent to the ROS60VSK, a GEX 125/150. I have the soft, medium and hard backing pads. I have used it with the hard pad on thin strips and as long as you don't force it down, it will flatten not round.

The dust collection on mine is OK with the attached box but great when hooked to my vacuum cleaner BUT I had to buy the adaptor from Amazon USA because a Bosch Australia don't keep it and refuse to bring it in to OZ. It comes standard in USA kits.

Thank you both very much

My dodgy 1/3 sheet Ryobi OS just doesn't cut it and whilst I enjoy sanding by hand, in an almost continual production line with these boxes it's overly time consuming having to dodge around frame mitres particularly.

I hope that this next purchase will save myself a whole bunch of time and effort so I can maybe eek a tiny profit out of these puppies. I'm losing out extraordinarily on time spent. Gotta spend money to make money doncha?

Oh yeh...btw Lappa, you are correct about the ROS20VSK being 120v. The GEX 125-1 AE has pretty much the same specs and is what's sold to us "upside down people". How annoying!!!

Interestingly:
- the Bosch is ~$110 and the Makita ~$210;
- the Bosch definitely has interchangeable pads but I'm yet to find that info about the Makita (gonna give 'em a call);
- the Makita has a smaller orbit (2.1mm vs 2.5mm);
- the Makita (apparently) can't be connected to a vac;

I was thinking of adding to my Makita collection at first, but after a bit more reading of reviews and manuals, the Bosch is looking better and better by the minute as the finishing sander I'm wanting...and at almost half the price to boot.

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

Oh yeh...btw Lappa, you are correct about the ROS20VSK being 120v. The GEX 125-1 AE has pretty much the same specs and is what's sold to us "upside down people". How annoying!!!

Interestingly:
- the Bosch is ~$110 and the Makita ~$210;
- the Bosch definitely has interchangeable pads but I'm yet to find that info about the Makita (gonna give 'em a call);
- the Makita has a smaller orbit (2.1mm vs 2.5mm);
- the Makita (apparently) can't be connected to a vac;

I was thinking of adding to my Makita collection at first, but after a bit more reading of reviews and manuals, the Bosch is looking better and better by the minute as the finishing sander I'm wanting...and at almost half the price to boot.

I Bought the bosch gex125-150ave which comes with both 125 and 150 pad from bunnings special order for about $200. It's an awesome unit. I sanded down 10m2 of decking with it last week on a shopvac, minimal dust. Hand didn't feel numb at all from the vibration. I got bunnings to price match supergrip tools who was selling for $229 with free freight at the time.