CT-Midi Hose Garage "Eating Electrical Cord"

[3PedalMINI]

First off let me make very clear that this is an incredible Vacuum and I love every bit of it. Clients love how "clean it is" it has hepa filtration and i vacuum up after myself after im finished working (what a novel idea, i figured most contractors vacuumed [blink] ) love the auto on feature too

Anyway, i have a minor problem that could turn into a larger issue later down the line. I use this vacuum everyday so it gets "frequent" use. The 12ga Cord is to thick for the notch cut out on the rear for the cord to "enter" the hose garage. When I push it in for transport or pull it out to use the vacuum it wares away at the rubber sheathing on the cord because the plastic is sharp and a smidgen too small for the cord. Is this normal? Im worried that over time it will diminish the sheathing on the cord.

Im thinking about grinding a bit of the plastic away, but feel like i shouldn't need to. anyone else have this issue? Purchased December 2012

 

[panelchat]

Is the notch the same as the one on the CT Mini?
I use a mini and had the same problem, the seam from the injection molding is surprisingly sharp and actually cuts, significantly, into the cord insulation.
I finally hand sanded it down with a piece of 220, took about 60 seconds, solved the problem.
A bit surprising that this would happen in the first place (!!)

 

[3PedalMINI]

Is the notch the same as the one on the CT Mini?
I use a mini and had the same problem, the seam from the injection molding is surprisingly sharp and actually cuts, significantly, into the cord insulation.
I finally hand sanded it down with a piece of 220, took about 60 seconds, solved the problem.
A bit surprising that this would happen in the first place (!!)

+1

I think they are exact, sounds like you had the same problem as I. I'll hit it with some sand paper to take care of it. Although minor now ; over time this could lead to some very serious safety/fire hazards. Especially if this cord happens to short out "over" a pile of sawdust or other combustabe material in the shop or clients home.

Hopefully Festool sees this and investigates and ultimately rectify the "issue" maybe it's just a bad mold and we got a bad "batch" ???

 

[ajones]

I think its probably a NA issue caused by the large diameter cable required due to thee lower voltage I would sand or file(although you should not have to)

 

[festoolviking]

Hi!

I'm not able to check how tight the fit is on my (european) MIDI due to my current setup but I can tell you that the outer diameter of the cord is 8,5mm.

Festoolviking

 

[Bikeboy80]

Same issue with my Mini. I haven't done anything about it yet. The cord is so stiff it is almost impossible to get it to coil nicely. I'm hoping that it softens up with more use, and warmer weather.  [tongue]

 

[Knight Woodworks]

Same issue with my Middi. I used a file, easy to take care of.

John

 

[AlexThePalex]

Im thinking about grinding a bit of the plastic away, but feel like i shouldn't need to.

Maybe you feel like that, but it's not gonna grind itself away, so if you don't do it yourself it wil stay like this until the end of time.

The hose garage is obviously made with European cord size in mind, and not adapting it for the American market might be a little oversight on part of Festool USA, but not a big deal since it can be easily remedied yourself with a couple of strokes from a file. 

Personally, I would have liked to see a cord holder on the back of the Mini. With the hose in its garage, there's not enough space anymore for the cord. I always wrap the cord around the Mini.

 

[Bikeboy80]

Personally, I would have liked to see a cord holder on the back of the Mini. With the hose in its garage, there's not enough space anymore for the cord.

I completely agree!

 

[Dan1210]

Im thinking about grinding a bit of the plastic away, but feel like i shouldn't need to.

Maybe you feel like that, but it's not gonna grind itself away, so if you don't do it yourself it wil stay like this until the end of time.

The hose garage is obviously made with European cord size in mind, and not adapting it for the American market might be a little oversight on part of Festool USA, but not a big deal since it can be easily remedied yourself with a couple of strokes from a file. 

Personally, I would have liked to see a cord holder on the back of the Mini. With the hose in its garage, there's not enough space anymore for the cord. I always wrap the cord around the Mini.

yes i agree too, space is tight in the top of the mini and the bits you mean to file have snapped off my mini both front and back :-(

 

[johninthecamper]

Personally, I would have liked to see a cord holder on the back of the Mini. With the hose in its garage, there's not enough space anymore for the cord.

I completely agree!

I think so ,26&36&48 also for boom arm use

 

[Timtool]

Personally, I would have liked to see a cord holder on the back of the Mini. With the hose in its garage, there's not enough space anymore for the cord. I always wrap the cord around the Mini.

I first wrap the vac cord loosely around the handle in the garage, and then wrap the Hose with a plug it cable strapped to it around in the garage.
It's tight but it fits with enough room to grab the handle, a cord holder on the back could make it more practical, but you can always screw something DIY to it, i think i saw it once here before.

 

[jonny round boy]

I have a mini, and have a plug-it cord with the hose in braided sleeving.

I put the hose in first (tight to the outside) and then loop the vac cord & drop it into the middle around the handle. I've never had any trouble fitting it all in the hose garage.

Having said that, I know the US cords are larger, and maybe not as flexible.

 

[Sparktrician]

Is the notch the same as the one on the CT Mini?
I use a mini and had the same problem, the seam from the injection molding is surprisingly sharp and actually cuts, significantly, into the cord insulation.
I finally hand sanded it down with a piece of 220, took about 60 seconds, solved the problem.
A bit surprising that this would happen in the first place (!!)

Same thing with my Mini.  A laminate file followed by some 220 Granat solved this issue. 

 

[3PedalMINI]

Had a chance to sand it down today, took me all of 30seconds!

Still think festool should look into changing the tooling slightly to prevent this in the future

 

[WilsonRmdl]

Have the same problem with my MIDI. I'll have to hit it with sandpaper and a file next time it's out. I normally wrap the hose almost all the way into the garage, then put the cord in the middle and finish the hose into the garage the last bit and it seems to fit great.

 

[GPowers]

+xx Have the same problem with my MIDI. Guess I need to get the sandpaper out.  [wink]

 

[srzsrz]

As for fixing the problem by changing the plastic: injection molding is an unfortunate process in that it has very high fixed cost and very low variable cost. Once you have a mold, you can churn out parts by the thousands in the blink of an eye, but getting a good mold made can easily run into 6 figures. If the gap were too wide, you could possibly grind a little bit out of the mold, but getting the gap to be wider probably cannot be accomplished without a whole new mold.

A different question is whether the cord needs to be as thick as it is. The CT Mini has a 3x12AWG with 105°C rated insulation. I don't have calipers handy, but it seems to be at least 10mm thick. Next, we need to know how much current a CT can draw. The publicly available specs are confusing. The nameplate mentions "8.3A" and "∑10A" (no idea what the ∑ stands for), the flap over the auxiliary outlet tells you to hook up at most 3.1A. The manual claims the unit uses 400–1200W (presumably depending on the hare/turtle knob), and the load connected to the outlet on the CT another 1200W (which would be 10A, way more than the 3.1A specified on that flap, which we can only assume was erroneously copied from the original 230V model of the CT). So we have a total power draw of 8.3A, or 10A, or 1200W+1200W = 2400W, which at 120V is 20A. Strictly, US electricity is specified as 120V±5%, so going with the lower bound of 114V, you could get 21.05A. This doesn't matter, though, because there is no thriving market for 21.05A or 10.53A fuses. The CT is going to presumably contain either a 20A fuse (quite probably self-resetting) or two 10A fuses for the motor and the outlet separately. I think 20A is the number to go with.

So... do you need a 3x12AWG cord for 20A? It's unclear to me. The NEC rates 12AWG at 30A with >90°C insulation and 25A at >60°C; for 14AWG the numbers are 25A and 20A respectively. Those numbers may be for single conductors, though; I don't know if they apply to multi-conductor cables. Actually, I don't know if they apply to appliance cords at all; I think the NEC may only be for the wiring of structures. My Mouser catalog has 4 densely printed pages of power cords, but only one rated for 20A, a 10' hospital grade model costing no less than $18.27, which does indeed have 3x12AWG. So I suppose that the 3x12AWG cord may actually be appropriate, and it would not surprise me if UL forced Festool to use one.

If I were saddled with this pickle, I would look at different cord form factors. There exist heavy-gauge flat power cords, with the conductors next to one another instead of in a circular arrangement. Can't find them in the Mouser catalog, but they are commonly used in extension cords for window air conditioners, like this one on Amazon. Sourcing them in quantity may involve dealing directly with the Chinese and not be feasible for a hobbyist, but Festool should have no problem with it.

Meanwhile, a piece of 60-grit on the triangle pad of my Ryobi multitool fixed the whole problem in 20 seconds, much less time than it took me to write this comment!