Quick forum help please: Gumtree Festool Sander

[rustynail]

A mate of mine was selling a diamond ring on Gumtree. He was contacted by a prospective buyer and arrangements were made to meet at a seller chosen location. The seller took his aging father along, more for company than bodyguard. As things turned out he would have been far better off if dad had stayed at home and a bodyguard had been employed. Both were stabbed and my mate died on the spot. Dad survived but died a few weeks later due to complications. This all took place in a busy shopping centre carpark. The ring was never seen again. The perpetrators were identified from surveillance footage and arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned but that didn't do my mate and his dad much good.

[Austin_Turner]

I posted the link to this over in the other thread, I saw it because I watch the Festool section of Gumtree pretty closely. The price seems about right for a decently used model with no paper, pads etc, an as-new condition ro150 or a used one with a stack of paper and pads in another systainer seems to sell for about 800.

There is one seller (christian) I trust in particular because he sells a lot of festool gear and I bought my ts55 from him in as new condition. The discount on as-new 2nd hand should be at least 20%, you are missing out on the new product registration with the excellent festool warranty etc.

Maybe you have all had worse experiences, but I have been happy getting festool gear, computer gear etc shipped from sellers on Gumtree. Sometime it’ll go pear shaped, but I save enough to cover the odd bad egg. I like using payID, it gives some traceability in the transaction because it’ll show their full name etc when you pay them. If you are concerned about stolen property, ask for a photo of their driver’s licence for a high value item.

[Austin_Turner]

A mate of mine was selling a diamond ring on Gumtree. He was contacted by a prospective buyer and arrangements were made to meet at a seller chosen location. The seller took his aging father along, more for company than bodyguard. As things turned out he would have been far better off if dad had stayed at home and a bodyguard had been employed. Both were stabbed and my mate died on the spot. Dad survived but died a few weeks later due to complications. This all took place in a busy shopping centre carpark. The ring was never seen again. The perpetrators were identified from surveillance footage and arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned but that didn't do my mate and his dad much good.

Rusty, that is a tragedy for their family, their friends like yourself and the community in general, I’m so sorry that the world has monsters like that in it and that your friends had the misfortune to meet one.

Thanks for sharing as a warning to others to be careful.

[weldinggrump]

Dear BERNMC: Saw your enquiry and the interesting thread about buying on Gumtree - yeah I get all that.

Regards buying a Festool: bluntly - I'd advise you to save your money. I'm a floor sander and we give these orbital sanders curry at work, sanding out all the sanding swirls from other machines, etc. I presume that's the kind of machine we're talking about. A work colleague has a Festool orbital and the dust extractor to go with it. Good quality, except for the leads, which have been literally breaking [!] and the customer service [6 weeks in the shop with nothing done, and it's his livelihood!] In the end he decided to fit new leads himself and worry about warranty issues later.

I have 3 big orbitals: My original 600 watt Bosch, which stopped running in the middle of a job, the 750 watt Makita I replaced it with, and another 600 watt Bosch. I mostly use the Bosch and should probably look into repairing the first one I had, might be something simple. The Makita is more powerful on paper but has a less aggressive action than the Bosch, which seems to punch above its weight. Makita seems easier to get discs for [for the Bosch I just use the Diablo discs with a zillion tiny holes, from Bunnings,] but the pad on the Makita has a "dead" zone around the edge approx. 2 mm which doesn't seem to work at all - it may or may not matter to you; and the exhaust is a flimsy blow-moulded item prone to breakage, I speak from experience. And Makita actually wanted the retailer to return the machine to them over this! For real?

I prefer the Bosch, on the whole. I DEFINITELY wouldn't pay what they're asking for a Festool. $500, was it? No warranty? Not worth it. Not worth buying new either, imho. I'd get a Bosch, or a Makita. Hope that's of some help to you.

Cheers, George

[aarggh]

I would disagree with some of the above George. Yes the extractors can have issues with cables breaking internally at the clamp point, but generally they are pretty bullet proof and perform exceptionally well, and tend to last years and years.

One of the big selling points for the hand held sanders for me is not just the fact they are so much quieter than most of the sanders around, but also the fact they generate bugger all vibration up the body in use. For a young bloke this might not mean much, but for anyone using and holding an orbital sander for 30mins or more, the almost complete lack of vibration extending up the hands/arms is a really important point short term and long term. And for people who may already have some Carpel Tunnel issues, or older people, it becomes especially important. The forums are full of stories of people with CT who have been able to go back to woodworking specifically because they bought a Festool sander.

I've had many other sanders over the years, and my 30YO Festo sander is still the best sander I have ever used, I can use it for the better part of a day and have no tingling in the hands, let alone numb fingers. If I use my Bosch or Metabo, or Makita, completely different story.

Horses for courses, of course, but this is talking about hand held sanders, not special purpose floor sanders that I've no experience with.

cheers, Ian

[Austin_Turner]

Ian, I wouldn’t recommend the rotex to people with vibration sensitivity, its a big powerful sander and the centre of gravity isn’t over the pad, meaning more strain on the wrists. I would recommend an ETS (even better a LEX) which is a much smoother random orbit experience.

George, let me just check, you are saying your Bosch just stopped working in the middle of a job, the makita seems to lack power compared to its rating, the plastic dust port on the makita broke and yet you reckon everyone should stay away from the Rotex which had no problems, because the Festool vacuum cable had a problem? (Surely it can’t be the lead on the sander, because the lead has a quick connector and you just plug leads in and out of the tool and a spare is $30?).

I get they’re really expensive, but apart from the fact you don’t want to pay double the other sander’s price for one (yet you’ve now bought three of the other sanders), I’m not sure what they did to earn your disappointment?