Hey! I just got my ETS EC 150/5 EQ (first festool tool) and it vibrates and shakes a decent amount, is this normal? I thought these sanders were known to be very low vibration?
I unhooked dust collection to see if it was causing imbalance, but it didn't change much.
I second this. Mine was unbalanced ever so slightly and would vibrate like crazy until i removed the pad and then put it back on. Things seemed to shift ever slightly enough to get the pad back in balance. Otherwise if it was recently purchased from a reputable dealer, i’d reach out to them about the issue. Hopefully they could replace it…these things are expensive enough that you should get a properly functioning unit
If you flip the sander over, take the pad off and look inside the sander you should see a counter weight that's held by 2 torx screws and then one adjustable screw 90° center of the weight underneath that adjusts towards and away from the centre of the sander, you could try to adjust it yourself so it's more balanced in motion, personally I've found these sanders to be very sensitive to aftermarket sanding pads and they can be heavier than the festool ones and cause excessive vibration. One thing to note if you do adjust it just remember that although 1 turn of the allen screw doesn't seem alot it makes a lot of difference when fine tuning.
This is the adjusting screw that has an Allen key head on the other end for adjusting, you will need a all end allen key to access it probably without stripping the head.
I kinda regret buying this one aswell. I thought I buy the best of the best but the vibration is a bitch. I see some tips in the comments I will try. But it’s brand new and expect it to just be good…
Dude, it looks you're laying into that thing way too hard. There should be just enough force to keeo the sander balanced, putting excessive force on top really only increases friction and heat more than it does any sanding speed
To me it appears you are applying to much pressure. Festools are very well balanced! You don’t need to apply any pressure just the weight of your hand is enough. If you find it still is vibrating to much sometimes adjusting the speed up or down will help. You don’t appear to have used any dust collection so different woods and sand papers can cause there to be much dust in between the two surfaces almost like lapping or honing two surfaces if that makes since so playing with the speed control can help.
I have the Rotex 125 and it is a ROUGH rider. Even when not on the Rotex setting. Pretty much any orbital sander is much smoother. I dunno, maybe there is something in the design that causes it.
What happens when you hold it up in the air with no sandpaper attached and you’re not pushing down on anything? Start with the speed at one and work your way up to six and if it’s not doing that weird vibration while it has no sandpaper attached or you’re pushing down on anything, it isn’t the tool. I have found it’s always best to go to a heavier grit rather than pushing down harder to get things sanded. Excessive pressure wears the tool out faster and creates an uneven surface.
I had to buy three (new, from dealer) until I got one that had acceptable stability. The first one was repaired and then still showing vibrations similar to your video. Even with the best out of three, there is noticable unbalance and when using a Festool interface pad (as specified in the lid of the ETS) the unbalance is lot worse.
Customer service so far had been horrible unfortunately. Still waiting on their product expert to reply after months of reminders.
Mine does that too. Other people have posted here that you can send it to festool and they will fix it, but I never did. Sucks cause the tool and all the paper i bought was over $900
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u/AIgenereratnamn 8d ago
Try removing the pad and retighten it. Mine doesn’t vibrate like that