New Tool Review - "Festool ROS Sander Plus"

Like all woodworkers, I get concerned about the amount of fine wood dust that I breathe in the shop air — not to mention the dust from MDF and flakeboard.    I never believed that a dust collection attachment to a sander  really caught that much, so I didn't use them.    In reading over the Festool catalog, I noted with interest that the sander they offered used the same dust collection system that I have come to respect with their circular saw and the router.
	I went to their website and watched the animation of the "Jetstream" action and it was very convincing, but I wanted to see and try it first hand.    [Note: this graphic was captured from the animation "slide show" on the Festool site. Click her to see it. That link will go to the site. Then click on "product animations" and then "Rotex RO 150E Grinder, Sander, Polisher." It is a cool animation. If the actual unit works that well, it will be great.]
Festool sent me the Festool Rotex RO 150 and a wide assortment of sanding discs. I happened to have an 8-foot length of rough walnut sitting on the horses, so I decided to do some experimenting.    I have just put a 36 grit hook and loop disc on the machine and have connected it to the vacuum.
	The green knob on the side allows you to switch from "finished sanding to coarse for "fast removal." I tried this knob several times and it does indeed change the amount of eccentricity, or lateral, action.
These two captures don't show you what the animation illustrates. You should look at the animation. I did and that is what I am about to test — in real life.
	The arrow points to a handle that I screwed into the right side of the head. I started out using it because I thought I would have to hold onto this unit "and hang on for dear life." Not so. It is so well balanced that I could control the unit with one hand — even with the 36 grit paper and most aggressive eccentricity.    I purposely am sanding an area about 16" square. I spent about 7 minutes with this grit. I had to remove the rough saw marks from the mill.
About 20 minutes have passed and I am finished sanding working from 36 grit all the way to 220. The surface is perfect.    I should note that the "Jetstream" principle works. There was no dust in the air or on the piece — not a bit. If the surface hadn't been so well sanded, I would have thought the sander wasn't working at all.    Take a look at the sanding discs also — they have little sawdust build up and NO clumping. I was able to brush off the sawdust that you see on that one disc.
	I had to see how the sanded walnut would look with penetrating oil — to me, this is a sure way to show off defects of a bad surface preparation job. I am using VelvitOil. It worked perfectly for several past projects, I would like to see how it worked with this.
One of the discs that the company sent me was this 1200 grit "screen." It is hook and loop also. It has no holes, so I disconnected the vacuum.    I didn't know how or when to use this disc, but I thought it might work similar to my using 1200 grit wet/dry paper to rub in more oil. So that is how I used it.    I dribbled a small amount of oil on the already oiled area and touched the rotating screen to the wood — very lightly. It worked beautifully. You couldn't see the effect right off, but you sure could feel it. Very smooth.