The DX 93 E “Deltex” sander is a spe-
cialty sander with a number of tricks up
its small “sleeves.” It rotates in a short
orbit to prevent the scratches that I found
common with other brands of arc swing
detail sanders. Those other brands sim-
ply move the pad in a fixed arc which ex-
acerbates scratch marks since, unless
you constantly
move the ma-
chine, the same
sanding grit
passes the sur-
face of the work
piece at the
same location
repeatedly
leaving often
hard to remove
deep scratches.
The DX sander
does not do this
and the results even in tight corners are
outstanding.
The pad at 93mm x 93mm (left in the
photo to the right) is quite a bit smaller
than the 100mm x 150mm pad on the DS
400 (right) we discussed earlier. Also, the
form factor is flatter so you can maneuver
the DX into even smaller areas than you
can with the DS sander.
It is gear driven so it can drive even
coarse abrasives easily, but where I find it
really shines is in doing careful detail res-
toration sanding. This was required by
my son, Alex, for the fragile pieces on this
folding lap table made a half century ago
by Tubbs, the Wallingford, VT, snow shoe
company. Turn down the speed, put on a
fine abrasive, and the DX becomes a
very precise sanding tool that won’t tear
up details that you want to preserve.
While the DS 93 is featured by Festool as
“.... designed for strong abrasion through
reduction gearing ..... ideal for stripping
off old, thick and stubborn coatings,” I find
it also is one of the gentlest and most
easily controlled of all the Festool sand-
ers when the speed is turned down. I
don’t make scale models, but, if I did, this
would be the first sander for which I’d
reach.
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