CT Vac and shop cleanup?

[aufinger]

I've got a question on the CT 26 and bag capacity with chips. I'm searching all around and it seems it hold a lot of dust, but wondering how many bags I can expect to burn through in my use?

My shop vac crapped the bed a while back and considering a CT26 to go along with a new domino. I sweep for most cleanup around the shop, but I'm interesting in using a vac around the planer, jointer, and router table. Chips escape the dust collector here and it's a pain to clean up.

Would the vacuum get cost prohibitive with replacement bags doing regular shop cleanup? I'm a hobby guy with maybe about 10-15 hours per week in the shop.

I'm looking at the 26 rather than 36 due to size. I've got a small shop and I think I can get fit this under the end of my bench. Plus I'll want to bring it out into the connected garage where I've got the jointer and planer. I imagine too I'll find other tasks outside the shop like car mats and home improvement projects.

 

[semenza]

Hi,

  Welcome to the forum!  [smile]

    If you are just cleaning up  some    chips it will be fine. But if sucking up small piles it will fill quickly. I have my DW 13" planer hooked to a regular DC system. But I do clean up the escaped chips with a CT33 (probably similar fill capacity to the CT26). I use it to vac the chips from around the router table too.  Should be fine for just chip clean up.

Seth

 

[mlindholm]

Why not add a cyclone in the middle?  The Festool one, the Oneida Systainer-bottomed one, or fashioning a way to hold a bucket-style cyclone on top of the extractor.

Or you can just take the bag out, and collect straight into the bottom.  You'll just fill the filter with dust and other junk faster than if you don't use a filter bag.

It depends on how worried you are about static build-up and discharge, I suppose.

 

[tallgrass]

I use my festool vac of general Clean up. When there are wood chips i put the cyclone in the mix. I do not sweep. Why, because I not want to breath any of the fine dust. Why go to the problem if using hepa filtration just to start breathing floor crud. I think my lungs are worth it.
   

 

[Chinski]

The other thing to consider here is hose size.

The 26 and 36 both come I believe with a 27 mm hose. I immediately upgraded mine to the 36 mm hose for better extraction with the TS 75 and other bits of kit.

However, I would not attempt to connect this to my planer. That thing generates way too much for anything less than a 4 inch  hose in my opinion. I have a dedicated and much cheaper large metal bin vac with a 4 inch hose connector that I use for my planer – and the CTL 26 I switch into all of my festooll tools when I use them. I also use the CTL 26 to vacuum up the floor as required.

It is possible to buy a reusable vacuum bag which costs about the same as 20 of the disposable bags.  You can also find sellers on eBay who have put a zip into a standard bag to make it reusable. I have not tried one of these.  I have found that my bags last long enough and I have no problem with the rate of fill so long as I do not connect to anything that generates as much chipping as the planer.

I am giving serious consideration to a cyclone – but I am currently scratching my head regarding the effect this will have on the 36 mm hose suction assuming any interlinking hose is necessarily smaller than 36 mm…

 

[aufinger]

Thanks for the comments so far.

I think a cyclone/separator is in my future, but Festool got enough of my money for now.  [big grin]

I'll probably just use it for cleanup and see how it goes for the first couple bags. To clarify, it won't be hooked up to any machines (jointer, planer, router table) but to clean up what the big dust collector didn't get.