Shop Vac plus Festool dust extractor. Do I need both?

[Nick Decker]

I don't know anything about the Powr Flite machine, but at $250 you're pretty close to the Fein Turbo I, which I've been using for a couple of years and recommend. Truly quiet and plenty of suck.

( By "truly quiet" I mean "as tested by my ears" as opposed to mfgr. decibel ratings which are often nonsense.)

[Hoang N Nguyen]

I'm like most here and have more than one shop vac. I have a dedicated rigid vac for my Kapex, one for my big green egg to vac out the ashes, a newer rigid vac for general clean up (it's no where near as loud as the older rigid vac) and my festool CT36 to use with all of my festool stuff. I also have a Roomba that sweeps the shop every night at 2am and that sucker does a really good job. I only vacuum the shop if I'm making crazy dust like hogging out a few dozen 35mm holes for door hinges or stuff along those lines. Other than that, I just blow everything to the floor and let the roomba handle it.

[Ryan J Carpenter]

I too can't be separated from my music in the shop, but I have always worn ear protection 100% of the time in the shop. Last Christmas my family gave me a pair of the isotunes pro bluetooth ear protection and I was skeptical but very pleasantly surprised how I can still hear my music even while the rigid shop vac is screaming away.

[Randy Heinemann]

With a CT48 in the shop and given the CT's great performance, I wouldn't buy another one. If you can stand the noise for general clean up then just keep the Rigid for that (assuming it also has a HEPA filter). I currently own a Fein from many years ago, but it is quiet and I use it outside of my shop mostly. In my shop, I almost always use the CT. It's quiet, high performance, and collects much more of the dust with both Festool and other tools than any other vac I've owned. Whether you take the advice of another and equip the vac with a Dust Deputy or similar depends on how often you fill up the CT? I have just chosen to use the CT for almost everything. It is a great vac and I have found none other that does a better job.

One question though, why don't you create a Y connection and collect all the dust from your table saw with the dust collector? I suspect the result would be better with the DC anyway.

[Jim Becker]

Workshop is my happy place with good music on. I turn on the shop vac way too frequently to clean up after every cut etc. Its not practical to walk around with the ear protection 80% of the time.

While I might use a band-style hearing protection for a quick operation, anytime I'm doing sustained work that has a higher level of sound pressure, I use a pair of 3M Work Tunes so that tunes continue while I'm not exposing myself to excessive sound levels. They are not expensive at all and reasonably comfortable. There are other noise-reducing music solutions available, too. I tried a pair of IsoTunes a few months ago, and they did a good job at noise reduction while keeping the music on. I only returned them because the level of bass response was far below my long-term requirements as I wanted them for travel needs (such as on a plane), too.

[Rod Sheridan]

Like Jim, I use the 3M Worktunes earmuffs either with the built in FM radio or my ipod..........Regards, Rod.