CT Vac Maintainence

[Per Swenson]

Authors note, all tools discussed  were purchased with my own hard earned money

Hey All,

First let me give you a little background.

I am that type of guy where maintenance is a foreign concept.

You know me, the guy who's lawn mower never runs in the spring time

due to last years gas. Oil changes are a sometimes thing. And its a wonder my spray guns

still function.

When it comes to the CT22 you should nick name me Brickem.

That's what happens when you fail to change the bag in a timely fashion.

They Brick, Then there is my bad case of Scandinavian thriftiness.

Run out of bags and keep reusing the old one. For so long they become half silver with duct tape.

Go ahead smirk, I ain't the only one.

So, I had to break down and do some work.

Lets have a look at those filters
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It takes a humble guy to show you this.
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By the way, did you know you can remove the motor clean off the body?

Just lock the wheels push that green tab all the way over and pull it off.

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Flip the motor over and remove the filters, I took em outside and just banged them out.
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You pay for being a jerk.

By overloading the vac and not keeping it clean, I suspect the outlet became a wee bit warm.

My first clue was when the CT wouldn't work on Auto.

Notice the toasty gasket for the outlet. 
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So I ordered and replaced the outlet.  Nothing complicated at all.

Then by goodness I cleaned the whole machine, scrubbed layers of over spray,

glue, stain, Spackle, you name it, came right off with a little effort.

Then feeling a sense of accomplishment, no really I don't clean much,

I did the same thing to the other one.

Wait!  One more thing.

Because having both together is a very rare thing,

I took the opportunity to hook them together.

Before you get excited I couldn't find my vacuum tester.

So you guessed it, I stuck the hose on my fat belly.
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I could tell no discernible difference between the two.

When I get a chance though I will hook them up to a bag and get a more scientific test.

Keep em clean, thanks for reading,

Per

 

[Warrior]

Nice ;D ;D

So true about humility. Thanks for sharing.

I on the other hand try not to share my faults and everyone loves me until they know me. Good thing no one knows me ;D

Last week I was about to buy my 7th and 8th box of CT22 bags. Ive had the CT for a year and reused bags for the first 3 months or so. I stopped doing that after noticing a bit of dust on the filters. The dealer informed me that he had a longlife bag in the back. I bit. I just tossed out my last brick bag last night and put in the new longlife bag. I know it is a chunk of change for a vac bag but I feel much better knowing I have one less supply to worry about.

Eiji

 

[Michael Kellough]

Nice ;D ;D

So true about humility. Thanks for sharing.

I on the other hand try not to share my faults and everyone loves me until they know me. Good thing no one knows me ;D

Last week I was about to buy my 7th and 8th box of CT22 bags. Ive had the CT for a year and reused bags for the first 3 months or so. I stopped doing that after noticing a bit of dust on the filters. The dealer informed me that he had a longlife bag in the back. I bit. I just tossed out my last brick bag last night and put in the new longlife bag. I know it is a chunk of change for a vac bag but I feel much better knowing I have one less supply to worry about.

Eiji

I've got a big box full of full bags waiting for the day when I really can't think of anything better to do than empty them into the dust collector. I've done a batch before worrying the debris back out the hole in came in through. It takes a lot longer but I don't trust trying to re-seal a cut open bag.

Speaking of trust, I don't see how the long life bag could filter as finely as the paper bags without getting clogged itself. I'm afraid the main filters will begin to look like Per's.

On humility. For a long time I tried to go by Mark Twain's saying, "It's better to allow people to assume you are a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
Obviously, I've given up on that.

 

[Dan Clermont]

Thanks for posting Per! Sometimes it is easy to forget or remember when the last time you pulled that green handle on the back of the vac which is used to clean the filters.

Still a good thing to visually check them every now and clean them by hand!

Never get those filters wet or you will destroy them as you probably member from Hendersen. 

Dan Clermont

 

[Warrior]

Speaking of trust, I don't see how the long life bag could filter as finely as the paper bags without getting clogged itself. I'm afraid the main filters will begin to look like Per's.

You need to see it before you can judge it like that. The longlife bag will not clog. There is a perforated film on the inside and looks and feels very high quality. I do not think that clogging or durability will be an issue. Time will tell.

Eiji

 

[Per Swenson]

Those filters clogged cause I am a negligent jerk.

Like 95% of carpenters and contractors trying to scratch a living.

Its a mundane task always put off to another day.

The Festool vacs are so efficient you hardly notice you have a issue..until its a big one.

Hope this clears things up.

Per

 

[Michael Kellough]

Thanks for posting Per! Sometimes it is easy to forget or remember when the last time you pulled that green handle on the back of the vac which is used to clean the filters.

Still a good thing to visually check them every now and clean them by hand!

Never get those filters wet or you will destroy them as you probably member from Hendersen. 

Dan Clermont

Another thing I don't quite get,
as if vacuum cleaning was rocket science,

when you pull that handle where does the caked dust go?
Seems like it falls back down onto the surface of the bag.

And when you turn the vac on where does that dust go?
Seems like back into the pleated filter.

 

[semenza]

Hi,

    Per,  I think I need to go maintain my CT just so I can have an excuse to remove the top and check it out.

      Michael,  If you recite the magic words from page 7 of the manual while you pull the green handle, the dust just disappears. In fact you never need to change the bags either if your incantation is powerful enough : ;D    I have wondered about where that dust goes too.  Maybe the idea is that it keeps the filters from becoming really clogged, then when you change the bag you can vac out the loose dust in the enclosure (knew I needed the Mini for something). Not that I really ever see much dust in the tank.

      I tried emptying the bags through the hole a couple times, decided it just took too much time that I could spend doing something else.

      I tried sucking it out through the hole with both a regular shop vac , and a DC but that didn't work.

      I have not used the Long Life bag yet. I am sure from other posts on it that it works great, but taking it out to a bin or what not to dump seems like a dusty nuisance to me. Though I may give it a try someday.

      I may also go with a mini cyclone set up sometime.

      But when it comes right down to it, swapping out the standard bags in is quick , clean, efficient, and gets me right back to work.  Good for now

Seth

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Great post Per!  I've made a few bricks myself.  Matter of fact, better go check out my CT-22.

 

[Tim Sproul]

just tossed out my last brick bag last night and put in the new longlife bag. I know it is a chunk of change for a vac bag but I feel much better knowing I have one less supply to worry about.

Eiji,

Let us know how much it is worth it when you get dusted (literally) emptying the longlife bag.

One nice thing about the disposable bags is the lack of mess when you dispose of them.  Place them in the trash receptacle and you're done.  No cloud of dust raised.  I suspect emptying a resuable bag will have quite a different outcome..... .  But there is plenty of precedent for me being completely wrong  .

I'm sticking with the disposable bags for now.

 

[Warrior]

Eiji,

Let us know how much it is worth it when you get dusted (literally) emptying the longlife bag.

One nice thing about the disposable bags is the lack of mess when you dispose of them.  Place them in the trash receptacle and you're done.  No cloud of dust raised.  I suspect emptying a resuable bag will have quite a different outcome..... .  But there is plenty of precedent for me being completely wrong  .

I'm sticking with the disposable bags for now.

Tim,
One thing I learned when emptying my big bag on my DC .  I put the entire bag upside down inside a plastic trash bag. While the dust bag is nearly enclosed I tug up on the bottom of the bag emptying it into the trash bag and there is hardly any dust that escapes. I think I will use the same technique with the longlife bag. Also on a jobsite you can alway dump the bag into a container outside where, if you are careful, dust can be managed with no porblems.

Eiji

 

[Warrior]

In my small shop I have 2 overhead air filters so any dust that may escape is quickly taken care of. They are placed to create a vortex current in the shop so no dust has a chnce to settle.

 

[Per Swenson]

Tim,

Let me tell you how it is in real life, at least my real life.

Customer is 30 days late on payment

I start counting nickels and dimes.

Son hunter is in charge of dust to dumpster transfer.

Accidentally holes the bag. Quack tape.

Then we have the, "it is what it is" customer, we become up to our systainers in bags.

Its the natural ebb and flow of consumables.

We try to give the same sterling service to everyone,

but the economic reality for the "can ya do bettah?" types....

well, not really ,but if you insist and I'm starving.....

You with me on this? because usually Canonization, comes after you have departed the planet,

then, who cares?

Per

 

[Per Swenson]

Oh Man,

With all my pontificating and reading your replies..

It just came to me. %^&* me! dang it.

I just put two new bags in the vac's and that was it.  I'm out.

See how I am?

I never thought for a minute the other day, ya know its time to order some of these.

And that folks is real life.  I would have gone merrily on my way repeating the same cycle. :

Per

 

[HowardH]

And we all need to remember to wash behind our ears like our mama's taught us... :

 

[Warrior]

Well, I made another brick. But this time with the longlife bag.

The bag was packed yet it was removed easily. I slid off the closure clip and placed the bag with the openside down in a large trash can and tugged up on the other end. No dust with that operation. I did shake it out a bit and some dust did become airborne. I didnt need to shake it out but wanted it to look clean before putting it back in the vac. the inside of the bag is actually a very tightly woven nylon of some sort and the dust does not stick to it at all.

I am happy with it.

Eiji

 

[Dan Clermont]

Well, I made another brick. But this time with the longlife bag.

The bag was packed yet it was removed easily. I slid off the closure clip and placed the bag with the openside down in a large trash can and tugged up on the other end. No dust with that operation. I did shake it out a bit and some dust did become airborne. I didnt need to shake it out but wanted it to look clean before putting it back in the vac. the inside of the bag is actually a very tightly woven nylon of some sort and the dust does not stick to it at all.

I am happy with it.

Eiji

Eiji

What are you filling the longlife bag with and not getting fine dust? Planer shavings? I don't let my longlife bag fill up to the "brick" tolerance and always have dust.

Mine gets used for sanding, the TS saws and routah's

Dan Clermont

 

[Warrior]

I mean't that there was no dust in the air when I empied the bag. there was plenty-O-dust in the bag. I just didn't have to breath it.

If you pour the contents of the bag into the trash receptacle then alot of dust will get in the air. I use a different technique that I have explained earlier. let me know if I am not communicating that clearly. I am not known for my communication skills

Eiji

 

[Qwas]

What are you filling the longlife bag with and not getting fine dust? Planer shavings? I don't let my longlife bag fill up to the "brick" tolerance and always have dust.

I would expect Festool to attach a "Weather String" to the long life bag. Whichever way the strings move, you move the opposite direction.

 

[semenza]

I would expect Festool to attach a "Weather String" to the long life bag. Whichever way the strings move, you move the opposite direction.

Hi,

  How about a wind sock on that wire hose holder that can be attached sticking up on top of the CT?

Seth