Do you hate putting the cord back in the Systainer?

[WastedP]

I found the sys1 for a fein mm to be worse than a fein OEM case with regard to cord management.

I don't have a Fein OEM case to compare it to, but I am in agreement over the orange SYS-1's lack of room for the cord.  Props to Fein for putting a nice, long cord on it, though.

At the shop, I have two hoses: 36mm x 7m, and whatever the smaller one is that comes with the CT36.  I bought a 10m heavy gauge plug-it cord to zip-tie to the longer hose (I have some Techflex sleeve on order to do it properly), and keep the shorter original cord coiled with the shorter hose in the hose garage.  I only have a TS 75 and an ETS-EC 125 at the shop, so I just swap hoses for each tool, although for short cuts I'll use whatever's on the vac.  I keep the long hose hanging on a garden hose caddy when not in use.

At home, I just leave the cords, all short, attached to the tools.  Systainers always seem to have a ton of room.

 

[freddmc]

I only use tools in my shop and in a production type environment. I cut the cords on all my portable tools to a foot long and then use a single retractable cord for all the tools.

Works for me.

 

[Sanderxpander]

By the way, this cord thing, is that a North American "feature"? Because the cords from my TS55 and RO90 seem to be identical...? I'm in The Netherlands.

 

[antss]

That's fantastic  :

Where's NAINA when we really want it ?

 

[pettyconstruction]

I have a sys 1 orange systainer that came with my supercut.
I quit using the box , to much hassle with the cord.
Plus I think I use it to much to keep putting it back.
Just wrap the cord around the tool and go.
Charlie

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[harry_]

By the way, this cord thing, is that a North American "feature"? Because the cords from my TS55 and RO90 seem to be identical...? I'm in The Netherlands.

The smaller gauge cord has a key on it, the larger does not.

 

[Gregor]

By the way, this cord thing, is that a North American "feature"? Because the cords from my TS55 and RO90 seem to be identical...? I'm in The Netherlands.

The higher the V the lower the A for the same W.
With 110V in the states they need thicker (from an european standpoint) cords than we do - while we (thanks to 220V) get away with a one size fits all plug-it cable.

The smaller gauge cord has a key on it, the larger does not.

The key on the plug-it is so you can't use thinner cables on tools that need the thick ones (which would turn the thin cable into an electric space heater).

For some arcane reason the imperial guys have it backwards (and completely unintuitive from the standpoint of an european who grew up with the metric system) with 'gauge': the higher the number the smaller the cable (or metal sheet) is, so 'smaller gauge' actually means 'bigger cable diameter'.
If I had one wish I'm not sure if it would be world peace but everyone still using it ditching the imperial system...

 

[Cheese]

The higher the V the lower the A for the same W.
With 110V in the states they need thicker (from an european standpoint) cords than we do - while we (thanks to 220V) get away with a one size fits all plug-it cable.

Wow...who’d have thunk. So this is really just another NA thing.  [tongue]

 

[Cheese]

Wow...who’d have thunk. So this is really just another NA thing.  [tongue]

A second thought...after this information settles in and takes hold...

This may appear at first to be just another rant, however it's meant as strictly constructive criticism.

So if this is truly the case, and I have no reason to not believe it, after months of this forum publicly castigating Festool corporate in multiple threads for producing two different gauge cords, if this is indeed the fact, why didn't Festool USA just clear the air?  They have at least one representative in the US with internet access that could have simply stated the same thing that Gregor has put forward.  It's really simple, just communicate, I'd think that was the original reason this forum was drummed up in the first place. 

One would think that clear concise communications between Festool NA and the NA members of FOG would be enhanced because this website is hosted in the US and one would also hope that the FOG community would be notified of items they are particularly keen to gain an insight on.

Just today someone asked what happened to the Bit Box? I replied that it was obsoleted, only to find out that the obsolescence appears to be only a NA issue.
I then queried Oliver if the MFS was still available in Germany and he confirmed it was.

So my question is why were the 25mm bits obsoleted in the US and why were the MFS products obsoleted in the US?  I hate being nothing more than an old nagging man, but some timely input from Festool USA, on a continual basis would be appreciated.

 

[bzotya]

I always cut the little key out on the plug with a knife. No issue works the same way just like the heavy cable on any tools. Try it. Another solution is buy a 10m heavy cable and put it on top of CT vacuum so you have it all the time right where you will plug your tools anyway.

 

[antss]

This has me thinking about the recent discussion about the cord change on the CT vacuums to a smaller gauge.  [member=191]Rick Christopherson[/member]  was commissioned to do a test to see if there was any adverse affect on power delivery with the smaller cord. 

He found that there really wasn't with the smaller gauge cable.

So, if a CT and a tool plugged into it drawing max current isn't affected by its new smaller gauge cord - which is larger than the 16ga "big" cord supplied with the more powerful tools - why then is a TS55 not able to run adequately with the "smaller" 18ga cords from the sanders ect....

[member=57769]TylerC[/member] ,  [member=101]Festool USA[/member]  - do you think you could query the engineers for an answer to this question ? 
Namely why the vacuums are ok with smaller gauge cords , but the hand tools aren't .

 

[tallgrass]

my problem is that it is a case " no pun intended."  there are so many choices in systainers that the right one can be chosen. the need to choose a fiendishly small case so as to make the stowing of the cable more difficult is frustrating.

 

[luke duke]

This may not make the cord easier to fit in a systainer, but it will make it easier to uncoil.

 

[huntdupl]

I remembered having this saved on my (ahem) Pinterest Systainer board. Here is the orginal post from 2010 via @ChrisMeggersee

I re-uploaded the picture from the board

Maybe he could repost how the hooks are secured to the lid, I assume you could always epoxy a flat bottom hook or screw into small blocks of wood.

Another tip for carvex owners is attaching a small strip magnet to the lid for holding tshank blade.

 

[semenza]

I remembered having this saved on my (ahem) Pinterest Systainer board. Here is the orginal post from 2010 via @ChrisMeggersee

I re-uploaded the picture from the board

Maybe he could repost how the hooks are secured to the lid, I assume you could always epoxy a flat bottom hook or screw into small blocks of wood.

Another tip for carvex owners is attaching a small strip magnet to the lid for holding tshank blade.

There are four holes in the Classic lid at the rib intersections where the hooks are located. Things can be screwed into the holes.

There are similar holes in the T-Loc lid but in different locations more towards the outer edge of the lid.

Seth

 

[Coen]

This has me thinking about the recent discussion about the cord change on the CT vacuums to a smaller gauge.  [member=191]Rick Christopherson[/member]  was commissioned to do a test to see if there was any adverse affect on power delivery with the smaller cord. 

He found that there really wasn't with the smaller gauge cable.

So, if a CT and a tool plugged into it drawing max current isn't affected by its new smaller gauge cord - which is larger than the 16ga "big" cord supplied with the more powerful tools - why then is a TS55 not able to run adequately with the "smaller" 18ga cords from the sanders ect....

[member=57769]TylerC[/member] ,  [member=101]Festool USA[/member]  - do you think you could query the engineers for an answer to this question ? 
Namely why the vacuums are ok with smaller gauge cords , but the hand tools aren't .

Eh, the CT was changed from 12ga to 14ga? And the US Plug it cords are 16ga and 18ga?

So for metric, that's 3.3 mm^2, 2.1 mm^2 and 0.8 mm^2

So the CT still has a much thicker cord.

The obvious solution is of course to switch to 230V; that cuts currents in half, and reduces the need for thicker wires everywhere. We only have 1 size Plug-It cord here. Normal house-wiring is 2.5mm^2 (about 13ga); that's good for 20A, or 4.6 kW. In my country we usually have 16A circuit breakers (mains is fused 1 phase 35A or 3 phase 25A), but that's still 3.7 kW. The CT's have, I think, 1.5mm^2 (15-16 ga), but I'm not really sure. It's a lot heavier than the Plug-it cords for sure.

And 16A is still enough to run both CT (1200W), OF 2200 (2200W) and have plenty left over to light the garage, in case you only have one circuit there (like by default everyone has here).

No split phases here either. Either 1 phase 230V, or three phases 230V, meaning 400V between the phases.

I suggest you also adopt mm^2 for cable cross section at the same time you adopt 230V  [tongue]

Back to the root of your question; for the calculation of the CT cord they probably had to take into account that people don't unroll the cord, while for the plug-it cords that isn't applicable. Heat buildup in rolled-up cords becomes a problem at some point, so my guess is that played into the thicker CT cord.

 

[antss]

This has me thinking about the recent discussion about the cord change on the CT vacuums to a smaller gauge.  [member=191]Rick Christopherson[/member]  was commissioned to do a test to see if there was any adverse affect on power delivery with the smaller cord. 

He found that there really wasn't with the smaller gauge cable.

So, if a CT and a tool plugged into it drawing max current isn't affected by its new smaller gauge cord - which is larger than the 16ga "big" cord supplied with the more powerful tools - why then is a TS55 not able to run adequately with the "smaller" 18ga cords from the sanders ect....

[member=57769]TylerC[/member] ,  [member=101]Festool USA[/member]  - do you think you could query the engineers for an answer to this question ? 
Namely why the vacuums are ok with smaller gauge cords , but the hand tools aren't .

[poke]
[member=57769]TylerC[/member] ,  [member=101]Festool USA[/member]  - do you think you could query the engineers for an answer to this question ? 
Namely why the vacuums are ok with smaller gauge cords , but the hand tools aren't .

You can save Seth and Peter having to scold me if you'd provide some info, as I think I've been more than patient waiting a month for an answer.

 

[Coen]

What smaller gauge? 14g is bigger than both 16g and 18g, or am I missing something here?

 

[yetihunter]

This may not make the cord easier to fit in a systainer, but it will make it easier to uncoil.

The last method he showed is "correct" method to wrap a cord.
Alas, I failed at this method, aggravating recording engineers
and musicians for a good decade.

 

[semenza]

This may not make the cord easier to fit in a systainer, but it will make it easier to uncoil.

The last method he showed is "correct" method to wrap a cord.
Alas, I failed at this method, aggravating recording engineers
and musicians for a good decade.

I used to work in a television studio. Same method,    we called over / under because of the way you can do it by flipping your hand to get the right "twist" / layering effect.

Seth