Festool vacuums

[rubus]

Hi folks,

Looking at purchasing the 6" orbital sander and was wondering which size of vacuum would go best. Not much of a price difference. Is bigger better?

Thanks

Shane

[STL Woodguy]

Capacity, more or less. Smaller vacuum might be better if you are moving it between floors / houses a lot. CT26 seems to be the sweet spot, IMO.

[..Kev]

Depends on how often you want to empty it which depends on how much use it will see.

 

I have the 26 in a hobby shop doing some commissioned pieces and only need to empty it a few times a year.

[wdwerker]

I have been told that they all have the same motor just bigger capacity . I have the CT26 and do woodwork professionally. I have never managed to fill the vac in a single day. Used the Domino all day with a 10 mm bit, didn't fill the vac. Ripped 5/4 x10 ft oak all day with the TS 75 track saw didn't fill the vac. Cleaned the entire floor of the shop after going nuts with a huge router bit throwing chips everywhere......you get the idea. So I don't see the logic to buying a bigger vac.

I have worn out a couple of Fein vacs and the Festool is quieter in my opinion. They are expensive and so are the accessories !

[Reiska]

+1 for the CTL26. I own the AC version and must warn you that the premium you pay for the auto clean function is worthless unless you sand regularly dry wall or mdf. I work with wood and have AC disabled all the time.

[minorhero]

The shop I am at has multiple festool vacuums. As dust collectors they are decent, as vacuums they are sub par. I certainly haven't found an advantage to them over say a ridgid vac from home depot costing a fraction of the price. I will say that when hooked up to a tool the smaller hose does move about a bit easier. But that is pretty much it. Having used one for a few hours I would not spend money on one in my own shop.

[Eric.]

The biggest advantage of the Festool vacs is their compatibility with Festool tools.  And the boom arm is awesome.  If you don't have Festool tools, I couldn't justify the extra cost.  I have an old beater Craftsman vac hooked up to my Kapex, and it works fine.  But it's permanently hooked up with a ridiculous collection of fittings to get the hose to fit to the saw's DC port...if I had to unhook it all the time to swap tools, I wouldn't deal with that.

[rubus]

Thanks for the replies. I am iinterested in the antistatic ability as my ridgid gives off bad shocks when sanding. What is the best way to outfit my ridgid to not allow for static build up.

[wdwerker]

You can add a grounding wire to bleed off the static. I have seen an article about it somewhere. If you get a Festool or other good Random orbit sander you need to be able to dial back the power of the vacuum or it sucks the sander down to the board and increases the heat and friction, which wears out the hook and loop sanding pads quickly.( and replacements are not cheap !)

I spent a good bit of time creating a series of holes in a vac fitting to reduce the suction. Festool vacs have a knob you can dial back the power of the motor for sanding, or crank it up to pick up dust and shavings from a tool.

The Domino has to be used with a vac to remove the shavings, it clogs up quick when used without one.

[JerrySats]

I run the CT 26 as well. Most of the time I use it with my sanders . However I use with for my ts 55 , domino and kapex. Bags last a while for me. I reuse them and get about 3 uses out of one bag.