Dust Extractor Recommendations

[thraxst]

I do not currently own any Festool tools, but I am moving into a new house and I will have a work shop in the basement. Since my new shop will be inside the house, I am more concerned with dust collection. I plan on purchasing a Kapex for redoing all the trim in the new house and then for woodworking in general. I am a hobbyist woodworker so all this equipment will spend the majority of it's life in my basement. I also plan on purchasing a track saw and domino in the future and possibly others.

Festool has an upcoming sale on their dust extractors and I want to purchase one when I get my Kapex, but am having trouble determining which of the dust extractors would be best for my needs. The dust extractor would rarely ever leave my work shop.

Any recommendations/input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ear3]

All the dust extractors from the 26 to the 48 have the same CFM, so it's just a question of capacity.  Two ways of looking at it I suppose.  One is to go for maximum capacity, given that you will not have to move it around the shop that often, except perhaps to connect it to the different hand tools, and so you save time and trouble on emptying the bag.  If you are just setting up your shop, though, you might also consider a more robust, centralized dust collection system that could be used for whatever larger stationary tools you do get, as well as the mitre saw.  Then on the mobile dust extractor, you could step down to the 26 or 36 in case you wanted to take it around the house and do site installation or cleanup.  You could still do this with the 48, but with a full bag it will be more of a bear to carry up and down stairs.

EDIT: Further thought.  If you have a shop setup sketched out in your mind, you might want to get the respective heights of the 26, 36 and 48, and see which one might most conveniently slide out of the way underneath a cabinet, tool, etc.  It's best to plan out a home base for the DE so that you're not sacrificing too much floor/wall space.

I do not currently own any Festool tools, but I am moving into a new house and I will have a work shop in the basement. Since my new shop will be inside the house, I am more concerned with dust collection. I plan on purchasing a Kapex for redoing all the trim in the new house and then for woodworking in general. I am a hobbyist woodworker so all this equipment will spend the majority of it's life in my basement. I also plan on purchasing a track saw and domino in the future and possibly others.

Festool has an upcoming sale on their dust extractors and I want to purchase one when I get my Kapex, but am having trouble determining which of the dust extractors would be best for my needs. The dust extractor would rarely ever leave my work shop.

Any recommendations/input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AlexThePalex]

If you mainly want to use it for hobby work in the shop then I'd think a CT36 might be your best choice. Comes with a 36 liter bag capacity so you don't have to change bags too often. If the vac is almost empty you can still haul it around the house if the need arises occasionally.

CT26 would offer almost the same, but then you need to change bag a bit more often, and gain some mobility.

The CT48 is just too big I think, if you're not a professional.

 

[leakyroof]

I own both the 26 and the Auto 36. I second the other two posters on either one working well, but the 36 is my main vac since it has that extra capacity.
I also own a Midi, but that's my 'travel' vac to job sites, so it's not in the realm of your question.. [smile]
The 48's are great for a stationary shop set-up, but you can measure or look up the height specs for it to see if it's really all that you want. Some people like to tuck their vacs under a bench or table top, so the lower, smaller vacs are easier to do that with in a shop.

 

[thraxst]

The shop is completed unplanned at the moment and in the future I would like to add a central dust collection for table saw, band saw and other large machines.

Sounds like either the 26 or 36 would be good option for me. I will have to stop by a dealer and see if I can compare the sizes in person.