Vacum

[John Keane]

I recently bought a Festool 125 ROS. I opted to connect it to my 5HP Shop Vac. It appears that the Shop VAC has too much vacuum. The end result is that it restricts the random orbit of the sander. If I use it without the vacuum hookup, the sander works fine. I didn't buy the Festool vacuum because it is too expensive. Do some of you folks have a different setup, i.e a smaller shop vac or other combination.

[Jamie Buxton]

One way to get your existing system to work might be to poke some holes in the vacuum hose. You'd get some air being pulled through the holes, and some air being pulled through the sander. With the correct holes, your sander would be happy.

Okay, don't attack the hose with a knife. Do something a little less destructive, but which still has the effect of bleeding extra air into the vacuum cleaner.

[Jim Dailey]

John,

I recall on one of my Mom's vacuums, in a section of the tube, it had a sleeve or cover that rotate over a square hole that allowed you to control the suction. You might want to fab a short tube with holes that would fit between the vacuum & the sander. Start with one or two, run the sander to check suction... if still to much, drill some more holes....

Hope this helps,
jim

[Tom Pritchard]

John, you could try drilling a 3/4" hole in the end of the vacuum hose where it connects to the ROS, and then partially cover the hole with duct tape to get the proper amount of suction. You may have to drill a couple holes as it sounds like your 5 HP vacuum is really producing a strong vacuum! You could use a sleeve to try this on instead of drilling into the actual hose sleeve. Just a thought.....good luck!

[Tyler Howell]

That really SUX:D . All good info above. Festool will sell just the hose if you'd like to adapt to other vac sys.

[Dave Falkenstein]

One of the reasons that the Festool dust collector works well with their sanders is the variable speed option. If you can determine a way to reduce the speed of your shop vacuum, it would probably work better with the sander. Perhaps one of those external router speed reducers would work on a vacuum???

[Mark Singer]

Fein is fine

[Jim Becker]

Dave is correct...in most cases, the sanders are operated with the Festool vac "turned down". I run mine at about half speed, whatever that is. You can approximate that, as others have indicated, by having some form of gate on the hose to allow air to enter away from the tool. 'Best if it's adjustable, too. Honestly, this applies to any ROS that you use with a vac, not just the Festool. Too much air makes the tool "sticky".

[John Keane]

Thanks for all of the comments. Jim Becker describes it best. "Sticky"
I don't know whether this has anything to do with anything. The Festool Mini has Max suction cap rated at 99 CFM, C22E & CT33E & 134 CFM.
I have no idea what my Shop Vac is rated at, but Shop Vac has a quiet series of 2HP @ 135CFM and a 2.5 HP & 138 CFM They also have a 3HP rated at 143 CFM. Looking at their data I surmise that my vacuum is up around 170+ CFM. Great for cleaning the garage, but not good for my new best friend Festool ROS.

[John Lucas]

John,
For what it is worth, I have my Festool Rotex 150 always connected to the Festool mini...it works perfectly.