Dust Deputy + Systainer(s) + a little work?

[ccweems]

I can imagine that the Oneida Dust Deputy for Fesstool vac's high selling price must accommodate a hefty tooling cost (assuming it's not roto molded) and the expected sales volume (low) which consequently is reflected in the selling cost.  A part from the expense I hate to loose the Systainer top surface to accommodate other containers.   My thought is to place Dust Deputy in a SYS 5 container and have it set on top of a SYS 4 or another SYS 5.  I might start out with just a SYS 5 and a cyclone to see how it works.  I can imagine that the walls may need a little reinforcing from the stress of the vacuum.  Realistically Festool ought to make something similar and offer it as an option.  If it works as well as the video does it would be a no brainer.  To integrate it into the vac wouldn't take that much room with clever design.  Perhaps 3" added to the hose housing would give enough room as I'm sure they could steal some room from the vac housing.  I'm sure the folks in the marketing / finance departments would hate the loss of the recurring revenue.

Lastly, has anyone found a cheaper source for the permanent vacuum bags?  There are other sources in Europe but not in the US.  It looks like I could take a 5 micron bag made for another vac but similar in diameter and length and take it to a shoe repair place (they have sewing machines that can easily sew the bag to the plastic flange).  There I would have them use the flange I salvaged from a paper bag and attach it and then sew the top of the bag shut.  As it is it comes with a flanged bottom and clip like other vacs use.  To empty you just slide the clip which leaves the whole bottom open.  I expect the HEPA filters (for those that have them) will get dirty quicker but they are easy to clean.  

 

[HowardH]

There was a thread about this back in April I believe.  The DD guy said the dust bin was 5/16 thick to withstand the negative pressure. 

 

[grobin]

I use the $100 dust deputy and it works just fine for shop use.  I can't think of many (any) uses for it on a site; so I really don't see the need for the fancy one.  I just connect the CT and Dust deputy with 50mm hoses and they work just fine with my band saw and router table.  I don't have a power planer or drum sander.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I'm sure the folks in the marketing / finance departments would hate the loss of the recurring revenue.

You betcha! That's why they want you to buy bags over and over again. MUCH more money in that.

Btw, mini cyclones like the DD are totally not used over here in Europe. I wouldn't know where to get one.

 

[nickao]

If you ever want to try I will send you one. We just have to figure the best shipping.   I have two all metal that I have never even used.

Looks like this, except 1.5 instead of 2" on the outlet(I think), it made no difference compared to my other with the larger 2":

 

[Uffe Kaagaard]

I'm sure the folks in the marketing / finance departments would hate the loss of the recurring revenue.

You betcha! That's why they want you to buy bags over and over again. MUCH more money in that.

Btw, mini cyclones like the DD are totally not used over here in Europe. I wouldn't know where to get one.

I purchased mine here: http://www.oneida-air.co.uk/

 

[Uffe Kaagaard]

I'm sure the folks in the marketing / finance departments would hate the loss of the recurring revenue.

You betcha! That's why they want you to buy bags over and over again. MUCH more money in that.

Btw, mini cyclones like the DD are totally not used over here in Europe. I wouldn't know where to get one.

I purchased mine here: http://www.oneida-air.co.uk/

Contact name Mr Steven Peters
Office number 01473 827518
 
Email steve@oneida-air.co.uk
Web www.oneida-air.co.uk
 

 

[Corwin]

I can imagine that the Oneida Dust Deputy for Fesstool vac's high selling price must accommodate a hefty tooling cost (assuming it's not roto molded) and the expected sales volume (low) which consequently is reflected in the selling cost.  A part from the expense I hate to loose the Systainer top surface to accommodate other containers.   My thought is to place Dust Deputy in a SYS 5 container and have it set on top of a SYS 4 or another SYS 5.  I might start out with just a SYS 5 and a cyclone to see how it works.  I can imagine that the walls may need a little reinforcing from the stress of the vacuum.  Realistically Festool ought to make something similar and offer it as an option.  If it works as well as the video does it would be a no brainer.  To integrate it into the vac wouldn't take that much room with clever design.  Perhaps 3" added to the hose housing would give enough room as I'm sure they could steal some room from the vac housing.  I'm sure the folks in the marketing / finance departments would hate the loss of the recurring revenue.

Lastly, has anyone found a cheaper source for the permanent vacuum bags?  There are other sources in Europe but not in the US.  It looks like I could take a 5 micron bag made for another vac but similar in diameter and length and take it to a shoe repair place (they have sewing machines that can easily sew the bag to the plastic flange).  There I would have them use the flange I salvaged from a paper bag and attach it and then sew the top of the bag shut.  As it is it comes with a flanged bottom and clip like other vacs use.  To empty you just slide the clip which leaves the whole bottom open.  I expect the HEPA filters (for those that have them) will get dirty quicker but they are easy to clean.  

First off, welcome to the forum.  The idea of using a Systainer for the collection box has been done before, and Oneida most likely got the idea for their newer Systainer-like bucket here.  Here's one of the threads here that addresses using a Systainer:  Dust Deputy On Systainer.  I understand your desire to enclose a cyclone within a Systainer such that you can add additional Systainer to the top, but I think the container and cyclone setup ends up a little too tall to then add much on top.  I usually have a Sortainer with the large drawer placed directly on top of my CT and then have a Systainer IV on top of that to hold a 5-gallon bucket with my Cearvue cyclone on top (see photos in my area of the Gallery here).  If you do choose to pursue the direction that you have described, then you may want to consider removing the lid from a Systainer I and use the bottom portion below and attach the lid to a  Systainer Extension Frame to use for the top and make your own end pieces to join the two.  Just a thought.

If you do get a cyclone setup for your CT, I don't see that you will need to worry any about the longlife filter bag.  The standard (disposable) filter bags will be what you want.

If you do decide to make your own setup for a cyclone on your CT, please post about it.  Good luck.

 

[JSands]

I installed the dust deputy atop the Festool Vac.  Yes, it is costly... you must go through lots of bags to pay for it.  However, other than economics,  there is a few other advantages.  First, the Festool vac works much more efficiently when there is less dust in the paper bag...this was part of the driving force of the new Festool vacs.  Next, for me at least, I like the added height of the input hose.  This makes it much easier to negotiate the hose when working on table tops.  So if you have considered a boom arm, well, this is a mini boom arm   

I also like the fact the larger chips do not enter the vac....  Overall, a clever designed product.... execution is good, not great, but as mentioned above, its a low volume item, so can't really complain.  I see it on sale for $199.    As mentioned, they tooled up for a low volume product, ya can't expect it to cost $59.... which if it was a Borg item, it prob. wood. 

 

[MichaelTurri]

The thing I don't like about Oneida's Festool Specific Solution is the size. So big. No need, really. I'm thinking of retrofitting a systainer as done in this thread, but smaller. To determine the right size of systainer to repurpose, I did some rough calculations to compare systainer volumes with the CT bags. Here's what I found:

SYS1 (11.7L or 3.1Gal)    :    CT MINI (10L or 2.6 Gal) 
SYS2 (17.6L or 4.6 Gal)    :    CT MIDI (15L or 4.0 Gal)
SYS3 (23.5L or 6.4 Gal)    :    CT 26 (26L or 6.9 Gal)
SYS4 (38.1L or 10.1 Gal)  :    CT 36 (36L or 9.5 Gal)
SYS5 (46.9L or 12.4 Gal)  :    CT 48 (48L or 12.7 Gal)

Basically, a SYS2 comes close to the 5 Gal pail version of the Dust Deputy! That's really slim. While you obviously won't be able to take advantage of the Systainer's entire volume once you build an interior receptacle, the overall volumes are surprisingly close! So a SYS3 with an interior receptacle would probably replicate or expand upon a cumerson 5 Gal pale. This affords people the choice of developing a more low profile chip container, albeit with less capacity.

I checked with Oneida, who confirmed that one can use a smaller size receptacle. The example I used was a shoe box. Now the other interesting thing to note here is that the smaller the size receptacle, the thinner the wall thickness would need to be before crushing would occur. I'm going to start looking around for premade solutions, although I bet a 0.25" finnish plywood would be more than enough to withstand the crushing forces.  I'll also work on ways to use an interior bag to simplify cleanup.

I'll keep updating as I progress down the road with this project. In the meantime, feel free to contact me with any ideas.