ETS 150 sander going off course due to the "jagging" phenomenon

[nt900]

Hi FF. Can you take a video side and front on of the ETS?

[FenceFurniture]

Hi FF. Can you take a video side and front on of the ETS?

Jeez, I'm already jumping through hoops to some extent. What do you want it to show?

[FenceFurniture]

Hi FF. Can you take a video side and front on of the ETS?

Before I do that Anthony, can you see in the current video that there is a difference of movement?

[FenceFurniture]

Here is another vid from before. The first disc is a Festool Rubin 2 220 (brand new), the second is Granat 320, and the third is the Jöst 320.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...agging0006.AVI

When I play them from my computer (i.e. not through the internet) I can very quickly jump between the three different discs. The first two are clearly bobbing around and the third can very easily be seen to be much smoother. I don't know how it is when playing it through the internet, and will depend on your net speed (mine is not good enough), so to be able to do this it might have to be downloaded.

Apologies if I'm starting to sound a bit testy, but in order to prove to readers that I'm not making this up, I've driven 40 mins each way to another shed (total 2½ hours or so), done several other tests which proved nothing new to what I had already said (another hour), and now taken videos with uploading time etc (about another two hours).

Nothing has changed during all that, and yet I'm still asked to provide more evidence.

[nt900]

Before I do that Anthony, can you see in the current video that there is a difference of movement?

Yes - different sander movement.

[FenceFurniture]

Yes - different sander movement.

Ok, so what do you want to see from the side and front views that can't be seen there?

[nt900]

Not sure yet - looking for anything really. Split pad maybe, worn velcro. I've seen people with three layers of velcro on their pads before.

[FenceFurniture]

Not sure yet - looking for anything really. Split pad maybe, worn velcro. I've seen people with three layers of velcro on their pads before.

Ok, to save me even more mucking around will you accept my word that the pad is fine and that it is identical in movement even when I fit a brand new Hard pad (which I have done)?

[nt900]

Your word is fine. Send a pic or two may be beneficial to a diagnosis. Just trying to help.

[FenceFurniture]

Just trying to help.

Yes, understood. There's been other stuff happening that makes me a little guarded at the moment (some pretty wild accusations from outside here). I'll get some stills of the pad which will show much better detail than a video in any case.

Oh gawd, I've just received an email from Dropbox to say that my "Public links have been temporarily suspended for generating excessive traffic" with a recommendation that I visit my accounts page - obviously they now want some money.

So, given that there has been "excessive traffic" would anyone else like to comment on what they have seen???

[FenceFurniture]

and the brake:

[nt900]

Can't say if it is the cause of your differing movements of the sander, but the pad brake (the rubber 'skirt' fitted to the base of the sander looks to be in need of replacement). The circular scuff mark around the top of the hard pad is a sign of the brake being worn some, or sometimes work a lot.

This means the pad is probably spinning faster than it should, as this pad brake stops the over spinning, especially important for control and stopping scuff marks when you put the sander on the workpiece to start sanding, and to stop the sander quicker when you have finished sanding so you can put it down quicker.

One other thought, because the different abrasives fit the 17 hole pad differently causing different air-flow speed and volume, the vac power is effectively higher or lower depending on each abrasive. Changing the vac power setting up or down with different abrasives will alter things. Again, may or may not be related to the sander movement.

[FenceFurniture]

Can't say if it is the cause of your differing movements of the sander, but the pad brake (the rubber 'skirt' fitted to the base of the sander looks to be in need of replacement). The circular scuff mark around the top of the hard pad is a sign of the brake being worn some, or sometimes work a lot.

This means the pad is probably spinning faster than it should, as this pad brake stops the over spinning,

Maybe...except that the other chaps sander would be far less used than mine. We both purchased around the same time but his had nil use for more than a year.

One other thought, because the different abrasives fit the 17 hole pad differently causing different air-flow speed and volume, the vac power is effectively higher or lower depending on each abrasive. Changing the vac power setting up or down with different abrasives will alter things. Again, may or may not be related to the sander movement.

My post from the 30th of August:

Hmmmm

I had hoped to report back that I was silly enough not to have figured this out before - that it was too much suction.

I tried a few different discs just now, on various vac settings from 3/4 right down to the minimum.

Still jagging the same.

Right! Took the vac hose off the sander so that the only air movement was from the sander's internal system.

Still jagging just as much as ever.

[nt900]

I've run out of suggestions then.

Shoot it off to TTS (Festool) service department and they will look into it for sure. Give them a call. They know more about the finest and most technical details of these sanders down to specific weights of pads to match the eccentric counterweight fitted to the sander, stuff like that. And they have Festool Germany to refer off to if necessary for anything extraordinary.

I doubt it's abrasive type specific problem, as many people all over the world use Festool abrasives and others and the sander's perform beautifully.

[FenceFurniture]

Ok, I'm happy to send it to them when I'm sure that I've finished testing the abrasives, but with caveats:
What do I do if they can't find anything wrong with it? I'm further out of pocket under that circumstance, and nothing has changed
What do I do if they find something and fix it, but when it comes back it does the same thing? (given that a near new sander does the same thing)

They are not questions I'm looking for answers to right now.

I'm quite sure that this is getting very tedious, but ....