Festool vacuum decision...

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Glad I could do my part Damon, enjoy that HEPA bliss!

[Paul Murphy]

I think I will try to hook my old Rigid vacuum to the saw and see what happens. I hate the racket that thing makes, and it is defiantly not HEPA, but it will be proof of concept. If it works, I will buy a HEPA machine.

Steve, why not buy a HEPA filter for your old Rigid vac? It will still be loud, but used with a HEPA filter and a bag the air will be so much more breathable.
http://www.cleanstream.com/products/...an_ridgid.html

I have the CleanStream on an old ShopVac, and it has been in use for almost 10 years. Money well spent in my case.

[Steve Peterson]

I kicked around the idea of getting the Dewalt Hepa Vac 'on sale' at Rockler. I checked out the specs (noise level, cfm, hose size, etc.) and they all were comparable to the Festool. I'm sure the build quality would be much better on the Festool but for what you're talking about, this one is much cheaper. There's free shipping through Sunday at Rockler as well so, just a bit of icing on that cake. In the end, I decided that I really didn't need a hepa vac (my dynabrades aren't set up for dust collection) so punted on the whole idea. Anyway, thought you may want to check it out.

I bought the Dewalt at the Rockler sale and I really like it. There is no comparison between it and my old shop vac. I can't see paying $950 for a Festool when you can get the Dewalt for $219 right now. The auto start switch is only good for 3-5 amps depending on the blower speed. This is good enough for a ROS which is the primary reason I bought it.

It comes with a more expensive felt filter bag that is recommended for heavy dust like concrete. The paper bags recommended for sanding dust are only about $15 for 3 so I will pick up a few of those.

Steve

[Ellen Benkin]

Er.....Ellen might have something to say about that...lol

Thanks for noticing but that's something I live with to be part of the woodworking world. The guys who know me treat me like one of the guys, and that's OK.

[Matt Meiser]

Where are you guys getting $950?

CT36 - $625
CT26 - $575
CT Midi - $465
CT Mini - $410

All have the same specs performance wise. Form factor and bag size are the difference. Not that the Dewalt still isn't much cheaper, but $950 bad information.

[Andrew Joiner]

...and not to get off track...but how do you guys stand having a hose connected to your sanders ???

Honestly, I'm not trying to start any great debates here, I just never could stand steering a hose along with my sanders. Am I the only one?

I'm debating this too. I was researching lightweight hoses. What I'm going to do first is take a light house vac hose I have and tape it to my sander cord and see if it drives me crazy. I think it might so I'll continue to wear a mask and deal with the dust.

I'd like to try a vac on my sander to get better life/value out my disks and lower my cost of disks.

[Damon Stathatos]

My sincerest apologies to Ellen. Incidentally, it was her glowing review that added to my slide down this cliff. In my own defense however, I would like to point out the fact that I did quote-mark my reference to 'men' in my post and my intention of doing so was to reference a more general 'mankind' populous rather than just the male gender specifically. That being said, I take full responsibility for this apparent slight and will strive to communicate in a more sensitive manner in the future.

I plan to pick the Dewalt up on my way home tonight. If the OP, Steve R., hasn't already taken the plunge, I'd be happy to post my assessment of it tomorrow at some point. Today I'm going to start gluing up walnut boards for my new, self-contained-dust-collecting-jointer-stand/cabinet. Definitely need to work on the Rockler plan design but am eager to get my chip-spewing beast 'at bay' soon.

[Alan Wright]

Damon, good luck with the new "tool" I was in the same spot last year and went with the Dewalt. I've read some reviews about the max amperage tool you can plug into the vac as compared to the Festool, which limits the Dewalt to hand tools. Not sure why this would be a deal breaker. I love my Dewalt and even thought I didn't get the hepa filter, I plug my Festools Rotex sander into the Dewalt and sand away. When I look in the air, I can see virtually no dust. I'm sure a hepa filter would be nice, but come on.... for another $99 for a disposable Hepa filter, just seems like overkill to me. I know there are those that would disagree, but again, having gone from sanding with little real dust collection to the Dewalt is like night and day.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I was just looking at my Oneida SG, and I was wrong, I have the 3hp machine. The 82 Db I used for the 5 hp machine earlier in this thread is according to Oneida actually 80-82 Db for a 3hp machine. Not that it matters much for this thread, but thought I better put the right info out there.