Festool Antistatic vs. non-Antistatic hose with Dust Deputy?

[Matt Meiser]

Since I bought a boom arm from another member here, I'm thinking of picking up another Festool hose so I don't have to take the hose out of the boom when I take the vac out of the shop. Hoses of course aren't cheap, but I see that the non-antistatic hose is about 2/3 the price of the standard antistatic hose. Anyone use both and have a feel for what I might miss?

And actually I'm wondering if the AS hose actually even does anything for me since I've got it hooked to a plastic Oneida Dust Deputy when I'm using the vac in the shop?

[Peter Kelly]

Those OEM Festool hoses are outrageously expensive, I'd just get the cheaper one. You could also ring up Bob Marino if you're concerned about it. He seems to know pretty much everything there is to know about Festool. http://www.bobmarinosbesttools.com/contact-bob/a/17/

[Matt Meiser]

I can't call them outrageously expensive. I haven't found anything of similar size and quality for sale elsewhere to compare them to. I did have a Ridgid hose that was pretty nice but the length was pretty short (6' I think) and if I'd have bought and connected 2, it would have been getting up there toward a similar price range.

I bit the bullet and ordered the AS version. I think I'm going to put the new one on the boom and use my old one for portable use since its getting fairly beat up. I won't see as much use and should last a good long while.

[Mike Nguyen]

I don't know if this helps Matt but I am using the Ridgid Universal vacumn hose with a CT26 and dust deputy when connected to a TS55 and it works great. This hose is 10FT long and only cost $37 dollars.

[joe milana]

I know you ordered one already, but what about using the 2" clear wire reinforced flex tubing? Grizzly has 10' for $13.95. That & a few PVC fittings...Just a thought.

Also found some 2"commercial carpet cleaning hose 25ft. for $50.

[Larry Gipson]

The Bosch VAC005 5-Meter Vacuum Hose 35mm listed on Amazon will work directly with my Festool 1400eq. $28. The other end is supposed to fit shop vacs and it sort of does. It just won't fit directly into the machine like the hose does on my Rigid. It's a 2 1/4" male fitting - the same as the shop vac tools.

[Lawrence Richards]

not outrageous if you are vacuuming out a cnc... a normal hose can fry the computer in my Carvewright so I take it pretty seriously. If it were just my tracksaw though, I'd probably not worry too much about the zap.

Lawrence

[Eric DeSilva]

I found this: http://www.mcfeelys.com/tech/festool-hoses.htm when I was trying to figure out how to connect my D36 hose to my D27. There is a note about midway through indicating that one connector is not AS and that defeats the AS nature of the system, but then they go on to say "this piece is not made of conductive material, and for antistatic use, a piece of foil or conductive wire could be used to bridge across the junction." So it sounds like the AS hose on your DD probably doesn't work, unless the DD is conductive end to end, but you might be able to fix it by running a wire from the inlet hose to the outlet hose.

[Gary Venable]

I have the Dust Deputy on the CT26. I will say that the setup creates a LOT of static electricity. The Dust Deputy came with an non-antistatic hose but I changed it for one of the festool AS hoses which helped but did stop it.

IMG_0791.jpg

[Michael W. Clark]

Matt,
It is my understanding that the AS hose dissipates some of the static charge through its conductive connection at the extractor and then to the extractor's "ground". If you are connecting the AS to the DD, then you lose this conductive connection (unless the DD has some means of continuing this connection). I'm assuming that the DD is all plastic, which is not a conductor. Having said that, I think you still did a smart thing in buying the AS hose as you may need it for another application in the future. Based on what was posted about the CNC machine, I would be a little concerned given all the electronics in the Festool sanders.

As far as a performance thing, the static is generated by the dust particles rubbing against themselves. You can't stop this, its part of DC, and is even more pronounced with other materials and higher dust loads (we've done some cyclones for plastic shavings and dusts). The best you can do is try to take away the static charge from the shell of the cyclone for safety (being zapped) and to prevent plugging in the cone. If you have neither of these problems, then you may not need to do anything. I would suspect that the primary function of the AS hose is to protect the electronics of the tools, but I maybe mistaken.

Mike

[Matt Meiser]

Gary, that looks a lot like my new setup, except I got my DD before the Festool specific bin was out. I just switched mine from using the hose that came with it over to using the extension hose included with the boom arm, since I dont need that hose between the cyclone and the tool hose.

Maybe I'll try adding some foil tape to circuit between the two hoses on the outside of the cyclone. I've not noticed static issues other than on the cyclone itself, but maybe I don't realize that there would be an improvement.

I don't think the AS hoses are intended to protect the tools--I've never seen any warning against using the Non-AS hoses with tools.

[Michael W. Clark]

I don't think the AS hoses are intended to protect the tools--I've never seen any warning against using the Non-AS hoses with tools.

You may be correct, I never thought about it until I saw the other post about the CNC equipment. Other handheld tools have electronics too, such as routers for constant speed under varying loads, but I can't recall seeing any requirements for AS hoses and ducting. Festool provides reasoning (benefits) for the AS hoses, but I can't remember how they word it, maybe they just say it is a benefit and leave it at that.