The new flex 700 vario+, a jointers view so far!!

[turktown taper]

used it today, looks the nuts, heads change great, hose clicks in nice but using it was not so good!, its heavy!, doing ceilings was hard work and you have to push on it quite hard to take edges off and then it jumps as im pushing on it (might be brush ring needs wearing in) and gouges joint and it is a more powerful motor which is good but i had to turn it down as was ripping the b/g gear right off with 100 grit, the triangular head what is that about ?, all it does is vibrate lots & not do much, not impressed with that!!.
took me half hour to do master bedroom & en-suite with it then i put it back in the van and got out my old flex giraffe & wizzed round the rest of town house with it & poled corners, then got the 700+ out again for the kitchen to try it again but still the same, weight being the main problem here & pushing hard!
but it is the first time ive used it so i will keep on with it & hope it gets better once it wears in a bit,
so at the minute im not that impressed with it

[TonyM]

Oh dear. That sounds similar to my experience with the Festool I borrowed from my mate. Tried it two or three times and thought, no thanks.

[turrican_007]

Good honest review from the end user, getting out your olde sander says it all.

[the_legend]

If i remember right when i bought the first flex you also had to push on that until the brush ring wore down,try a pair of scissors or offset the sand paper so that it hangs over the brushring and switch it on for little while that should wear it down maybe phone belmore i think they do thicker backing pads they should get the sandpaper sitting above the brushring...
How fast does the sander spin(rpm)i think the old one does 1650 rpm it'll be nice to know how fast the new one does if your saying it rips bg cement with 100 grit..........
So all in all you would'nt recomend it?shame i had high hopes for the triangle head just need to stick with 3in1spear angle sander..
Chears for the info.

[amestaper]

Been waiting ages and I think thats the first proper review we've had. Thanks!

[turrican_007]

Try it with the norton backup pad, this pad will take the sandpaper just above the brush ring we use them all the time.

http://www.belmoretools.co.uk/cgi-bi...%23a6964#a6964

[TonyM]

That Norton pad is shit on a normal flex. It's too thick and bounces around all over the place. I have 2 in my sanding bag if you want to try one, don't buy one.

[turktown taper]

That Norton pad is shit on a normal flex. It's too thick and bounces around all over the place. I have 2 in my sanding bag if you want to try one, don't buy one.

cheers tony, i have one like that as well but this new one has the holes in, i think i will just keep on till it wears in a bit. & if after say 12 times of using the sander i still dont like it , u might see it for sale on e-bay !

[turrican_007]

That Norton pad is shit on a normal flex. It's too thick and bounces around all over the place. I have 2 in my sanding bag if you want to try one, don't buy one.

Sanded 1000s m2 never had problems with the norton pad.

[DMS]

I was looking at possibly stocking them, but waiting for a feedback, so far only 1 customer in norway is using it and he had a similar experience to turktown. guess i will stick to selling the 3-1 hand corner sanders. not quite as much profit in them though! just to test the waters out there,how many of you are interested in applitech? i have been getting more demand for it, and some positive feedbsack from the last person to buy some, i would like to know, and i may look at getting some limited stock.

[TonyM]

Which of you boys bought this then?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...:B:WNA:GB:1123

[amestaper]

Surely the seller made a loss on that sander at 430? They do look the part but after the comment about the heavy weight and not getting into the corners etc months after they went on sale, they really dont seem to be shifting in big numbers, do they?

[TonyM]

I was tempted to bid but thought i'd wait and see what this one went for and hope he puts another one on. Bet he doesn't.

[belmoreboy]

ok so 22 units sold, only 2 small complaints - both with the weight really, but its more balanced than the festool and sold stacks of them over the last few years.

Agree the original flex sander was a real icon and still tajes some beating, but they are just too expensive to repair nowadays with average spend over £100 at least once if not twicw a year for the average house basher.

Don't think its a uk first news release but flex are releasing a new entry level drywall sander to replace the discontinued ws 702 original
pic attached - pricing will be available in next couple of weeks for me and stock by end of Jan - def a place in the market for enrty / mid range sander.

The wse 500 classic sander - imporved hose connection at the back of the sander , improved imternal gear system, improved driveshaft, improved casing and quite a few more tweeks! not as fast as a porter cable, but no sander in the uk is really even though many other claim to be!

Oh couldnt resist a little plug haha - i still have stock of original drywall sander the last few left in europe im told by flex (who tried to buy back from me !) If anyones interested let me know as they will be gold dust in a few months time.

Ta !

[amestaper]

i still have stock of original drywall sander the last few left in europe im told by flex (who tried to buy back from me !) If anyones interested let me know as they will be gold dust in a few months time.

Ta !

Are there still plenty spare parts around for the 702 model?

[turktown taper]

used it again today it seams a bit better as i have worn the brush ring down a bit,but still heavy, arms still sore now & im 18 stone so any little fellers out there will struggle !
but the triangle head is crap big time!! does nothing but vibrate.
if you get it for a very good price then ok but i would save your money lads!!

[turktown taper]

ok so 22 units sold, only 2 small complaints - both with the weight really, but its more balanced than the festool and sold stacks of them over the last few years.

Agree the original flex sander was a real icon and still tajes some beating, but they are just too expensive to repair nowadays with average spend over £100 at least once if not twicw a year for the average house basher.

Don't think its a uk first news release but flex are releasing a new entry level drywall sander to replace the discontinued ws 702 original
pic attached - pricing will be available in next couple of weeks for me and stock by end of Jan - def a place in the market for enrty / mid range sander.

The wse 500 classic sander - imporved hose connection at the back of the sander , improved imternal gear system, improved driveshaft, improved casing and quite a few more tweeks! not as fast as a porter cable, but no sander in the uk is really even though many other claim to be!

Oh couldnt resist a little plug haha - i still have stock of original drywall sander the last few left in europe im told by flex (who tried to buy back from me !) If anyones interested let me know as they will be gold dust in a few months time.

Ta !

belmoreboy it would of been nice if being a big player you could of done a decent hands on review of this product rather than just selling them , as im sure you would
get more sales by testing them with real jointers
why not offer some of these to the proper jointers on this website to test & review!

[TonyM]

used it again today it seams a bit better as i have worn the brush ring down a bit,but still heavy, arms still sore now & im 18 stone so any little fellers out there will struggle !
but the triangle head is crap big time!! does nothing but vibrate.
if you get it for a very good price then ok but i would save your money lads!!

That's a real shame. It should have been 'something else.'

[belmoreboy]

In an ideal world extensive uk testing would have happened, time has been the issue here and these sanders have been released in germany and scandanavia well before release over here in 240v version, with no real issues and used daily by jointers like you all.

We waited so long for the release in the uk a few machines all be it the 240v version made their way into the hands of jointers over here using step down transformers, speaking with these guys we know they had no problems with the machine and weight was never mentioned - so we took the advantage to stock and move the 110v here.

We have actually had more complaints about the weight with the festool ! the motor being on the head makes the machine hard to use over long periods of time.
With the flex we are impressed with the multitude of handle points that it offers, holding one of the machines you can see the variation of cut outs and grips that make the machine universal to everyones size and weight and hopefuly what they are used to.

Its a more solid machine than the original flex, maybe not so light but it is still a balanced machine.

Ok so the feedback on some of the machines we have sold so far - the vario is as you say faster so, it needs to either be run slower or use finer grade paper both if possible - we are finding customers that used to use 100g now use 120 or even 150 ir lighter 180 g paper, with the tri head customers are actually going higher grade sme up to 80 g depending on the brand of ames.

We are looking forward to playing with the new wst500 - although the vario will still be a contender after getting through these initial teething problems, we had exactly the same with the festool. - Turktown it may be worth speaking to whm you got the sander from because it too suffered from incorrect pad at its release - if your dealer had one of the first uk stock it will more likely have the german 1st release spec heads which were herder than the ones machines are now shipped with.

happy to keep this thread open with any questions you guys have with drywall sanders - apologies is taking time to reply to this, our move has taken more time than physically available in a day!

Ames regarding spares - no issues - as delta porter still produced 90 % ofthe spares and the pc7800 continues to be the ~USA's #1 selling drywall sander year after year.

Thanks all

[scottishlad2k10]

used it today, looks the nuts, heads change great, hose clicks in nice but using it was not so good!, its heavy!, doing ceilings was hard work and you have to push on it quite hard to take edges off and then it jumps as im pushing on it (might be brush ring needs wearing in) and gouges joint and it is a more powerful motor which is good but i had to turn it down as was ripping the b/g gear right off with 100 grit, the triangular head what is that about ?, all it does is vibrate lots & not do much, not impressed with that!!.
took me half hour to do master bedroom & en-suite with it then i put it back in the van and got out my old flex giraffe & wizzed round the rest of town house with it & poled corners, then got the 700+ out again for the kitchen to try it again but still the same, weight being the main problem here & pushing hard!
but it is the first time ive used it so i will keep on with it & hope it gets better once it wears in a bit,
so at the minute im not that impressed with it

have to get your self a set of weights & a bench lol and if you didnt leave edges you wouldnt have a problem lol