This brings us to the best known of the
Festool sanders, the random orbit ma-
chines and the highly regarded Rotex
units.
Random orbit machines rotate a pivot
point while allowing the attached but
not mechanically driven pad to move
in a random motion. This produces
very fine finishes with little or no scratch-
ing so long as you keep the pad flat on
the work surface. Tip the pad to get more
aggressive stock removal and
scratches are sure to be the re-
sult.
In the Festool lineup three ran-
dom orbit sanders are offered:
two 150mm (six inch) pad size
units and a 125mm (five inch)
pad size unit. The ETS 150
EQ units are available with either
a 3mm orbit for fine sanding
(shown here on the left and be-
low) and a 5mm orbit (not pic-
tured) for more aggressive, but
still very fine, stock removal. The
ETS 125 (not pictured) has a
2.5mm orbit.
All three feature the Festool unique “Jet-
stream” system for dust removal and con-
trol. As we dis-
cussed in the
beginning of
this manual, the
machines draw
air through a
hole in the cen-
ter of the abra-
sive material
then out
through eight
holes around
the outer pe-
rimeter of the
pad through a
port designed
into the sanders
themselves. This system is so effective
that even after a day of sanding I seldom
need to clean off my sanding center nor
do I find a need for ceiling mounted am-
bient air dust cleaners. I only wear a
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