boom arm advice.

[Trans former]

Hi all,

I'm looking at getting a boom arm for my small workshop, however at the moment I only have a midi extractor to run it with.

I'm wondering if I might be able to set it up bolted to the wall or side of a bench till I get a bigger ctl.

also I'm not totally clear what comes with the purchase, hose, cable etc.   (Festool 496468 CT-ASA CT 26/36/SB GB 240V CT boom arm)

and finally is it going to be the right thing for me i've not used or seen one in action, i'm mostly cutting, routing and sanding 8x4 sheets on one bench.

love to know what you all think, thanks

 

[Alan m]

i have  my boom arm bolted to the wall. there is an external corner in my shop and i put it there.  i used an old tv areal mounting bracket for the chimney.
it works great. i wheel the vac over (usually there anyway) and plug int he 50mm hose and plug
i hated the boom arm on the vac. i found it too low (i was always hitting my head) and a pain to remove so i could  bring the vac on site (its only a minute or two but its anoying and then you have bits left scatered around theshop)
you get the rear handle, two halfs of the boom arm,2 stability outrigers (waste of time just dont bother fitting them) ,1m of 50mm hose,
i bought my vac and boom arm as ex demo  so i got the 27mm plug it hose,short extension cable

 

[Trans former]

Nice one thanks for reply Alan,

do you find you have any problems with reach with it fixed in one place,

 

[mhch]

Nice one thanks for reply Alan,

do you find you have any problems with reach with it fixed in one place,

Yes, a few times, but mostly because my DIY boom arm setup limits the arm rotation to 180 degrees, so I ended up having 2 different poles (with hinges) to attach the arm.

Just have to slide the arm up, move it to the other place and fit it on the other pair of hinges, but that happens rarely when I need two different work areas to perform different tasks in parallel.

 

[Alan m]

Nice one thanks for reply Alan,

do you find you have any problems with reach with it fixed in one place,

sometimes yes.
i used to(rearanged shop a bit since) put my two mfts under the arm with the boom arm behind them. i had full reach and more if i wanted it. a few times when doing larger pieces i was restricted a bit so i just used the normal hose.
having the boom arm bolted to the wall allowed me to use a thien baffle seperater for it . this meant the vac was almost empty all the time so i didnt have to empty it before i went on site
i removed the bolt that limits rotation on the festool boom arm. i could rotate it all around. the bolt only stops the vac tipping
im thinking of getting one of those boomarms that 'michael in swed'en has . i would have practically full coverage in my small shop.

 

[sgryd]

"Michael in Sweden" here..
I'm completely happy with my boom arm. It covers a bit more that half of my shop. When I use it with tools I have a 36 mm and a 27 mm hose that are shortened. They are about 1,2 meters each and "lands" on top of the table. When I switch to a full length 36 mm hose I can easily reach into every corner and clean the floor etc. A great bonus with the shortened hoses is that they are very easily stored as I can hang them straight on the wall without needing to coil them.

Here it is: Boom arm deluxe

 

[Sean7a]

Michael thanks for sharing that link.  I'd missed your original post for that deluxe boom arm.  VERY cool.  Nice work.  Looks pro.

 

[Trans former]

fantastic, very smart bit of work there Michel.  love the D handle, looks like something from the operating theatre.