Dust Extractors - Festool competitors

[Justin Rapp]

I have a big Ridgid vacuum with both the filter and the collection bag. This is ratchet-strapped to the Rockler Dust Right separator. While it can roll if needed outside the shop, it usually lives in one area of the shop with a 20 foot hose attached and is used mostly for the shavings and sawdust generated by my hand tool activity. Very little of the debris gets to the vacuum bag itself and it has been ages since I have accumulated dust in the pleats of the filter. I run the hose to the tablesaw or the lunchbox planer or the bandsaw when needed (not often as I now do small-scale work). It is far from perfect but good enough. It even works with the 6' jointer for the little jointing I do. As I do almost no power sanding I am happy with the setup which with the dead space of the separator can still provide the suckage I need for the hand tasks and can reach anywhere I need with the hose. Many other workers would wince at the pythonesque hose and I admit if I were doing it again, I'd have a real dust collector with a sweep as well as a Festool.

That is good to know, re: about the filter bag in the ridgid. I royally hate cleaning the filter pleats, and its' always clogged at the worst times, so next time I am at the orange store i'll grab some bags just to have them. However, I am going to grab the festool Midi and see how that works out for most dust collection and shop cleanup. All of my larger machines are ducted to a 3hp cyclone, and i'd make way to much dust for a smaller system sometimes. Today for example I was milling a pile of boards down and filled my cyclone bin twice with the amount of debris it sucked in.

[Justin Rapp]

Midi is on the way

[Greg Funk]

I used to own a Festool CT22 for years. Couple years ago switched to Metabo ASR 35.

Did the Festool die? I still have a CT22 that keeps on sucking.

[Jim Becker]

Yea, I still use a CT22...other than some dirt and dust, it works like new.

[Justin Rapp]

So after a few uses on my festool 125 sander and the festool Midi, I can honestly say, I don't know why I didn't take the plunge years ago. There was no dust 'spray' like I get from my other sanders, even when hooked up to a shop vac. The noise, no more 100% required hearing protection to deal with the shop vac, sander and air filter going. The air filter will go on anyway just for the heck of it. The use of a mask or respirator is even questionable, pending what I am doing I guess.

[Justin Rapp]

Didn't see this mentioned, I use Powertec bags for my CT-26, pack of 5 ($17).

https://www.amazon.com/POWERTEC-7503...61&s=hi&sr=1-1

It looks like festool does make a bag for the Midi however it's the pre-2018 model. They changed the bag design so it would work with the midi, mini and a few other models. Powertec doesn't have it yet. I have a 5 pack plus the orig, I suspect it will last me a pretty long time.