Within one week of light use, the sanding pad needs to be replaced. Sanding disc will no longer stick to it. Somebody please tell me this is not normal.

Did you perchance use a mesh paper?

So I bought an Festool ETS EC 150/5 EQ-Plus along with a CT MIDI I one week ago.

Within one week of light use, the sanding pad needs to be replaced. Sanding disc will no longer stick to it. Somebody please tell me this is not normal.

It’s very hard to wrap my head around a tool, this expensive, having an issue so soon, and 30 times the cost of the palm sander it replaced, that I’ve never had a single problem with it in years of use. Granted when the Festool is working, it’s a Best orbital sander I’ve ever used! It’s not even close, however, if this is what I’m going to expect from their tools, that’s unacceptable to me. So I’m boxing the whole thing up and returning it, and getting a brand new one, if I have this issue again that soon, I’ll never buy another Festool product again.

We all know that the pads have to be replaced on any orbital sander from time to time, however, not after one week of use in a home garage.  I have two DeWalt orbital sanders, that I’ve had for over 10 years, and then those 10 years, I’ve may be replaced the pad 8 or 9 times between the two of them.

@Cheese I would assume that extra friction area of the Twin-Land bits would be a problem in a drill press especially. Since it is going straight by design, the extra contact is unnecessary. The best use-case for those has to be free-hand drilling, where the rub rib could help keep the bit straight, when your hand doesn't.

Kind of like hole saws. It always bugs me to see someone use a hole saw in a drill press.

Ya, you're exactly right I was installing/pegging flooring & stair treads in hard maple/Jatoba and needed to drill the holes perfectly vertical so everything was done on a drill press. 

As far as the hole saw goes...I always use a drill press.   

@Cheese I would assume that extra friction area of the Twin-Land bits would be a problem in a drill press especially. Since it is going straight by design, the extra contact is unnecessary. The best use-case for those has to be free-hand drilling, where the rub rib could help keep the bit straight, when your hand doesn't.

Kind of like hole saws. It always bugs me to see someone use a hole saw in a drill press. That perfect alignment makes the teeth all travel in exactly the same path. All that does is pack up the dust in the tiny gullets and cause heat and binding. The teeth cannot clear and even pulling out does not solve the problem, gravity keeps the debris in the kerf.
I see hole saws as the drilling equivalent of reciprocating saws. Rough/crude demo tools that can be wobbled around some to open the path and help clean out the dust.
If you need a nice (big) hole, use a Forstner bit.

I only own a couple of hole saws, mostly for grommet holes in countertops.
I don't really do that much drilling, other than screw/countersink holes, pocket screw holes, and those in access panels. Those are all regular twist drills.
I use the DeWalt bullet points for most other things, though I do have an import set of twist drills in all of the fractional sizes, for random stuff. The fractional Brad points are only by 1/8" increments and metric from 3mm up to 10mm. My Forstners are in 1/8" increments too, but I think there are 1/16" increments available?

UK Spec HK 85
(Attachment Link)

The older ones say 2300W 

Quote from: Coen on Today at 07:42 AM

Festool prices in the USA are inflated compared to Europe anyway, so he might not have lost any (significant) money by selling in the USA and buying new in Europe.

Quote from: alltracman78 on Yesterday at 09:13 PM

Quote from: Coen on Yesterday at 05:16 PM

The 110v UK plug is just a standard 110V IEC 60309 16A plug

I can find a boatload of these adapter cables. But you might just as well make them yourself. But if you keep the tool in the USA, just replace the plug and be done...

Adapter cables to US 120 or 240?
Link please?

NEMA 5-15 plug to IEC60309 110v 16A socket;
https://toughleads.co.uk/products/american-nema-5-15-plug-to-cee-16a-110v-socket-adaptor

IEC60309 110v 16A plug to NEMA 5-15 socket;
https://toughleads.co.uk/products/cee-16a-110v-plug-to-american-nema-5-15-socket-adaptor

But there is nothing magic about it. You can just make those yourself by taking an normal extension cord and replacing one end with the IEC60309 110v 16A plug / socket.

The same in 240V is probably harder to find... because who is taking their European appliances with them to the US when moving? But they too can be made. I don't really know what to search for anyway since the USA seems to have a near endless choice in different 240V outlets, but assuming you can buy separate plugs you might just as well fabricate the cable yourself.

But when importing from the UK for permant stay in the USA; just cut off the UK plug and replace with your US equivalent.

Funny, the connector that's more niche ( UK 120 volt ) is easier to find than the more common UK 240 volt.
I hate cutting plugs if I can help it (OCD thing); I made an adapter cord for mine. But yes, very easy to cut the cord and wire a new plug on the end.

NEMA 6-15 is the US 240 volt 15 amp connector ( P on the end for plug, R on the end for receptacle).
NEMA 6-20 is the US 240 volt 20 amp connector.
The 6-15P will plug into the 6-20R and is allowed to be used in it.
The 6-20 won't plug into the 6-15 for obvious reasons.
You want one of those 2; the other 240 volt connectors are rated for ( and can carry) higher current, which if you have a short can cause a big problem.
IIRC there is also a 15 and a 20 amp twist lock connector for 240 volts FYI.
*Looked it up so there wouldn't be any confusion.
NEMA L6-15 is the 15 amp locking connector
NEMA L6-20 is the 20 amp locking connector.
In this case the 6-15 will not plug into the 6-20.*

https://www.amazon.com/Universal-110-250V-American-Electrical-converter/dp/B07FKLLW2W

Thinking about this UK 120 volt "requirement" has me thinking though. I wonder if there's more 120 volt tools over there than 240 volt ones? What percentage of the tools are used on jobsites vs at home? What's considered a jobsite? I would assume building a new house would be? What about renovations? Do professionals with a home workshop use 120 in their workshop? Or do they have different tools for jobsite vs home/customer site work?

No way there is more 110V stuff in the UK. No clue about percentages. Afaik they are not using 110v when renovating single homes.

Remember that in the UK, as in NL, new home builds are often row houses, not unattached homes. Whole area tends to turn into a mud fest. It's not uncommon that drainage has to be used even for things 1 meter deep.

UK electricity common practices and regulations differ quite a lot from those on mainland Europe. They consider our plugs unsafe, we consider their "ring main" and plastered over cables to be unnecessary confusing and labor intensive.

You can find endless "UK house rewire" videos on Youtube where they cut open the walls and put in new cables. You won't find the equivalent for NL since we use wires in conduit. A complete home re-wire here doesn't involve cutting anything, doesn't involve anyone have to plaster anything and is perfectly legal for a lay person to do and can be done alone in 1 day.

For extensions; their flush mounted boxes are square and require a square hole in the wall that they chisel or grind into the wall. Ours are round, we just use a 82mm diamond core drill with dust extraction and be done. They inhale more dust wearing the full face mask chiseling out that square than we do putting in a round 82mm hole without face mask.