CT 22 Hepa... should I? Should I really?

[jdanforth]

I'm not currently an owner of anything Festool makes.  I have a great need for dust/chip collection for the following:
Small hobby CNC using a rotozip (this is an important one)
Router (dovetails using a Leigh Super 12)
Jointer
TS (probably hopeless)
Router table
RO Sander (DeWalt)

So I'm not sure what to get.  I thought that just about everything out there used 4" hose for collection but the Festool has a 1" hose!  I have a cheap shopvac that has a 1" hose!  Is that size really enough if I attached it to a shroud to collect chips?

The Festool looks very nice, powerful, and quiet.  I'm a moderate user and it's a hobby so I'm not sure if it's worth the 500 clams.

 

[greg mann]

The CTs can use up to a 50mm, or 2 inch, hose. This is adequate for anything up to a 2 inch port, for the most part. More than adequate for your RotoZip (watch out, it may diasappear down the hose when you fire it up  ;D).

You can hook up a 2 inch hose to a 4 inch port with a reducer but you will not get optimum results, period. Having said that, I have a two inch hose hooked up to a 15 inch stationary planer so I do not practice what I preach. :

 

[Warrior]

The CT vacs are not designed to be the primary DC for a shop with stationary tools.

A cyclone or bag style DC is built for that. The CT vas are excellent DCs for power hand tools that do not require more than 130 CFM for efficient DC. You need at least 350 cfm of air flow thru a 4" hose to get effective DC from a table saw, jointer or planer.

For less than 400 clams you can get a very nice bag style collector with 1500 CFM, 1 micron cannister filter and 50' of free hose! PSI DC

 

[greg mann]

The CT vacs are not designed to be the primary DC for a shop with stationary tools.

A cyclone or bag style DC is built for that. The CT vas are excellent DCs for power hand tools that do not require more than 130 CFM for efficient DC. You need at least 350 cfm of air flow thru a 4" hose to get effective DC from a table saw, jointer or planer.

For less than 400 clams you can get a very nice bag style collector with 1500 CFM, 1 micron cannister filter and 50' of free hose! PSI DC

Eiji's right about suitability. I should have elaborated that the planer feeds a mini-cyclone and a shop vac, not a CT vac. This is still very, very marginal bu, if I used a CT only, I would be filling bags left and right. The CTs are at their best with saws and sanders, dominos and routers, just what Festool designed them for.

 

[Warrior]

Greg,

Check out the psi dc and let me know what you think.

Eiji

 

[greg mann]

Eiji, I like that unit and it is pretty reasonable. I am holding off until winter to decide how I deal with big time DC. I am set up in a basement that is pretty spacious and a walkout to boot. There is a separate storeroom that used to house an in-floor hottub in the floor above that would be pretty nice to put a cyclone in. I am not yet sure if I want to permanently transform the basement or build a separate studio. I have the room but have not 'prioritized my investments' if you know what I mean. I know, more info than you needed but the gist is whole hog or not. :-\

 

[Dan Clermont]

You can do it with a CT 22 and a 50mm hose. Get a long life bag if you go that route cause you'll be emptying it constantly!!

I have a cheap DC I use on my Bandsaw and combo machine. The CT is used for everything else. I used to run my old planer with the CT and the 50mm hose with no problems but when the free DC was given to me I put it to use on the bigger machines

Dan Clermont

 

[semenza]

Hi,

  For hand held power tools the CTs are great.  For most stationary stuff they are not going to do the job. For some they will work ok, but not nearly as good as a regular DC.

    It will be very good on the DeWalt sander.  It wil certainly collect from the Roto Zip assuming that you have a shroud and the port connects alright. Probably be pretty good on the router table depending on the set up of collection on the table.

    If you want a truly remarkable sanding experience get the CT as a package with one of the ETS random orbit sanders

      Have you used the shop vac with 1" hose that you currently own  with any of the tools you want to collect from?

Seth

 

[jdanforth]

Wow thanks for all of the friendly responses!  I'm likin' the FOG!

I've tried using the ShopVac on the rotozip and it works fairly well though I need to create a better shroud for it.  Perhaps I'll raid my wife's Tupperware drawer.

It sounds like a cyclone is the way to go (and cheaper too!).  I liked the idea of the CTs because they're fairly compact and could sit underneath a workbench or table in my VERY small shop.

 

[Jim Becker]

A cyclone system  is not going to be "inexpensive". You also have a mix of tools. A DC (single stage or cyclone) is most appropriate for your stationary tools because dust collectors are designed to move a lot of air (CFM) at low pressure. That moving air moves the material you are extracting. Smaller, hand-held tools are better handled by a shop vac (including the CT-22) since their ports are small...the vac provides low CFM, but at higher pressures ("suction") more appropriate for those small ports. IE, you really need two dust extraction systems for best performance with the tools you have. Some manufacturers, like Onieda, do have specific cyclone products with a design target appropriate for CNC (higher pressure) but again, they are not inexpensive.

 

[greg mann]

A cyclone system  is not going to be "inexpensive". You also have a mix of tools. A DC (single stage or cyclone) is most appropriate for your stationary tools because dust collectors are designed to move a lot of air (CFM) at low pressure. That moving air moves the material you are extracting. Smaller, hand-held tools are better handled by a shop vac (including the CT-22) since their ports are small...the vac provides low CFM, but at higher pressures ("suction") more appropriate for those small ports. IE, you really need two dust extraction systems for best performance with the tools you have. Some manufacturers, like Onieda, do have specific cyclone products with a design target appropriate for CNC (higher pressure) but again, they are not inexpensive.

Jim,

Everything you say is true, but I believe the mini-cyclones create a third category of DC that can be quite useful. That is, for tools with relatively small dust ports that benefit from the positive displacement characteristics of dust vacs like the CT or even the lowly shop vac, but also create relatively high volumes of chips. Some router table set-ups, handheld routers doing healthy stock removal, handheld power planers, etc. It can be hard to get a big cyclone to pull on these small ports, and at the same time, the volume of chips can overwhelm a dust vac, especially one without a bag as the filter will blind off in a heartbeat. I agree that the bigger DC systems are great, but the cost and logistics of install can be daunting and the temptation to buy less than an adequate set-up is high for many guys. That is probably the worst of all situations as it can be money down the drain. An added benefit is the mini's also 'teach' a newbie what cyclones are all about without a major outlay of funds. And, they are cool to boot.

Nice to see you over here. You have a lot to offer so chime in more often. We need more guys like you in the mix.

 

[semenza]

Hi,

        Did you know that Rotozip makes a DC shroud ?  It says it will connect to a 1 1/4" shop vac hose.  Which means that you would probably need to adapt the Festool hose to fit  in some way. But this is probably easier than making your own shroud.

Seth