Was looking at the Festool Youtube channel about an episode on the CT26 regarding the self-cleaning bag. This got me thinking about the state of my setup described in an earlier post, describing my small tool dust collection setup, not requiring the big dust collector.
Included footage showed the difference inside the CT vacuum of using a bag (virtually no sign of dust) versus not using one (visibly signs of dust close to the filter and other area of the upper body of the vacuum).
Well I did put in the bag in the vacuum but also, use the Oneida Dust Deputy as a first stage to capture the dust.
This is what the content of the dust bin looks like inside the Dust Deputy :
And also looked at the inside of the vacuum, just to be curious to see what the combination of the cyclone separator and bag would do and here it is
Pretty clean right ? Well, I was expecting this a little bit as I have to stage of filtering, the dust deputy for most of the dust and the bad inside the vacuum. I checked also for the potential content inside the bag and although I have not removed it from the vacuum, it feels pretty empty. I’m pretty sure there must be pretty fine dust inside the bag, but the content is pretty light.
This just to say that the closest you can capture the dust to the source, the better it is. I think that this combo, cyclone separator and bag, seems to be doing a pretty good job at containing the dust. This setup is a keeper.
Small Tool Dust Collection
As I am still working on the entertainement center for my sister, I got to sand most of the parts and was faced with not really being satisfied with the dust collection for my sander and in the way the connection for the dust collection was designed.
Also, the dust collection was not the only thing I was not happy with and was looking at changing to something better. After looking for a while, I decided to go with the Festool© ETS 150/3 sander. I also got the bundled version with the CT26 dust extractor. I already owned a Festool© router (OF1400) so hooking everything up was pretty much a breeze to integrate the whole system together.
What also makes the system a charm is that I already baught an Oneida Dust Deputy before the Festool purchases and virtually no dusts gets into the CT26. Some of the festures of the CT26 that I really like are the control of the suction and the tool triggered vaccuum.
Here is the combo hooked up together :
So now I believe that I now have a system that can accomodate most of my portable or smaller tools dust collection needs and keeping the production of airborn dust under control for these specific tools. It does not address the bigger tools need, nor was it ever intended to address these needs.
Yes it’s Festool and it is not cheap compared to other alternative. Yes I like the system and willing to wait to pay for the system and the integration that the system has to offer. Is it always the “best” tool? Not always. Other alternative available ? Definetly.
But this works for me and it works well for what I need to accomplish in the realm that Festool has to offer.
Stay Tuned
Dust Collection – Update Dust Deputy
From the last post, I did mention that I did get a Dust Deputy from Oneida. I got the deluxe kit, which included the cyclone, 2 5 gallons buckets and accessories for different mounting options.
I did have a chance to put it to the test, picking up some different kind of dust and also some routing with my Festool router and the results are amazing. No dust into the vacuum and I did generate some dust and nothing within the vacuum and all the dust got sucked from the routing.
I guess that the combination of Festool very good dust collection and the use of a small cyclone does the trick to pick up pretty much all the generated dust that was “thrown” at it.
I can also testify to the documentation claims that came with the cyclone that the biggest chips might not clear completely and by just powering down the vacuum, clears the dust from the top of the cyclone. Nothing big of a deal in my opinion.
Very nice product and would recommend to people to look into this addition for the portable dust collection jobs. Really worth it.
