CT vacs: Hose opening & bag opening covers.

[Cableaddict]

Yes, I am possibly a little anal retentive about dust, but since I have silicosis, you must forgive me.

Lots of healthy people are also concerned about cement & fine wood dust, not to mention lead & asbestos.

One uses a fleece bag because you don't have to dump the whole cannister, which makes a mess. - But when you remove the bag & carry it around, there is always some dust that puffs out.  I see that the old paper bags came with hole-plugs taped to them.  Why not with the fleece bags?

As for the vac,  I don't like to move it around, esp up/down stairs or into my truck, with the hose attached.  Same deal, every time I remove the hose I get a large puff of dust.  (Esp if working with plaster & sheetrock.)  I would love to see some kind of spring-loaded cover for the cannister opening.  Ideally, it would work like the doors on an old west salloon: Swinging inward when the hose is inserted, and closing as it is pulled out.

- Make that a LOCKING hose, and I'd be in CT Heaven.

 

[Alan m]

i have to agree about the hose issue. if you shake the ct too mush it puffs out. kinda defeats the purpose of the vac .
a little non return valve would be great.
i dont have the fleece bags but that sounds like bad form from festool on the end caps. i use them every time on my ct22 bags. drop one of those after doing a lot of sanding and you will know all about dust

 

[tbellemare]

The fleece bags have a sliding piece of cardboard that seals them like the paper bags had a cap. You can also get a cap for the inlet of the CT.

Tom

 

[Cableaddict]

The fleece bags have a sliding piece of cardboard that seals them like the paper bags had a cap.

Wow, I didn't realize this. - THANKS !  I see the diagrams on the bag, but thought that was just showing how to install it. (Not sure if this is explained in the manual or not.)

The fleece bags have a sliding piece of cardboard that seals them like the paper bags had a cap. You can also get a cap for the inlet of the CT.

Yes, that's what I did, and it hangs on a little chain. - But you still get a decent puff of dust every time the hose comes out.  It's an OK, but not great, solution.  A spring-loaded trap door would be fantastic.

 

[tbellemare]

A spring-loaded trap door would be fantastic.

I agree completely! Something like the exhaust port had on the CT 22 or CT 33.

Tom

 

[greg mann]

When I remove the hose, I turn the DC on and knock the fitting a few times to suck out whatever is left in the end of the hose. There is always some dust left in the fitting due to eddy current. Once I do this I really don't seem to have much dust to deal with. As far as bag removal is concerned, it always seems to be a crapshoot keeping the last little bit of dust out of the air. I have the same issues whether it is one of my Feins or my Meile house vac, but compared to the so called high tech bag-less machines any of the above are a dream. Slow and gentle movements are the order of the day, IMO.

 

[semenza]

When I remove the hose, I turn the DC on and knock the fitting a few times to suck out whatever is left in the end of the hose. There is always some dust left in the fitting due to eddy current. Once I do this I really don't seem to have much dust to deal with. As far as bag removal is concerned, it always seems to be a crapshoot keeping the last little bit of dust out of the air. I have the same issues whether it is one of my Feins or my Meile house vac, but compared to the so called high tech bag-less machines any of the above are a dream. Slow and gentle movements are the order of the day, IMO.

I turn the vac on when removing the hose too.

  I like the little bag end caps. Lets you get it out  of the vac without the puffing mess.  Maybe I should save couple from old paper bags after I take them out of the vac.  Much easier to not puff dust after it is out of the vac. Replace with some duct tape after removal and save the cap for the next one?

Seth

 

[Cableaddict]

When I remove the hose, I turn the DC on and knock the fitting a few times to suck out whatever is left in the end of the hose. There is always some dust left in the fitting due to eddy current. Once I do this I really don't seem to have much dust to deal with.

Good idea !  -  Not as good as a valve, but still.... 

 

[monte]

I too have a dust issue when taking the hose off my ct36 and moving the vac around.
I prefer my ct36 to my older ct33, but one advantage (only concerning the dust - the 33 had over the 36 is the length of the internal tube before it hits the bag the 33 tube is about eleven inches long. The 33 dumps directly into the bag from the opening. Better for stuff not clogging in the tube, but not for the wiff of fine dust.)
Personally I'm not a great fan of the removable cap.

Enter the new ct-autoclean.
On the second video between the 29- 33 second points you'll see an animation for internal gate system on the ct-autoclean.
You could see it here,,,,,,
Festool CT AutoClean (AC) Drywall Dust Extractor
http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/consolidated-qa-for-planex-and-ct-autoclean/

As soon as I saw that I called my Festool area rep when he was at a meeting at Festool Corporate
That "blast gate" part you see on the ct-ac is now (after march 1) available as an option for the ct26 or ct36.
It's $55.

.

 

[Cableaddict]

That new blast gate looks pretty good. - but we don't know yet if it will reduce suction. It probably will, a little, just like a 90 degree dryer vent causes more back-pressure.

For guys like me who use the CT a lot for routing and general clean-up, every last bit of suction is desirable.  I wonder why they made this gate so clunky?    Seems to me that a simple inline, spring-loaded flap would have been simpler & more efficient.
- Maybe there's such a device made by some 3rd party. Since Festool doesn't use a locking mechanism, any 2.25" flap would work.

Time to do some research.....

 

[semenza]

Should be pretty easy to find a D50 compatible blast gate. They are made for various shop vac based DC systems. Antistatic is another story though.  A little jumper would be needed.

Seth