Extension cords

[ryansmythe]

Anyone use their festools with an extension cord, if so what gauge and amp rating? one other thing can you get longer plug it cords?

 

[brandon.nickel]

You can use the CT with an extension cord, bbut you have to be mindful of your amperage draw and cord length.  I use mine with a 12/3 40' cord reel on a 20A circuit using the 15A-20A adapter with no trouble.  I'm sure that you could calculate the voltage drop from a longer or smaller guage cord, but if you're going to be pulling nearly 20A, you'd better make sure that you use a very heavy wire.  When I'm not in my shop I haul around a 50' 12/3 20A/15A cord that I made.  I've yet to pop a 15A circuit breaker with it, but I think that may just be because of the soft start feature of most of the tools.

 

[bill-e]

I've run my CT with a sander and a router off a 50' 12/3 extension cord....worked fine.  12 gauge should be all you ever need.

 

[ryansmythe]

thanks i was going to use a 25 ft 12/3 15a with my ct33 and ets 150/5 so by the sounds of things that should work fine. thanks for the help.

 

[Tinker]

When i was contracting, i had a couple of 10ga x 100 ft cables made up so i could run my circular saws from long distances or run a couple of tools from same cable.  Because nobody else had them (10ga cables) mine soon grew wings.  after about the third flight, i decided to take my chances with off the shelf 12 ga.  those things wore out before they got lost.  I went with 12 ga for years with no problems, even running tools over 150 feet from source to tool. The only saw that ever burned up was an old 30 yr old 8-1/4 Milwaukee that i had used exclusively for cutting masonry, metal and woods impregnated with same.  I wrote a tongue in cheek letter to a Milwaukee rep about how the saw was barely broken in when it burned. it only had a little dust packed into the windings.  A little play in the bearings.  only used blades (carbide) and diamond tooth blades that had no more than a dozen or so teeth missing (broken off) and so on.  I don't know if he accepted the humor of a faulty 30 year old saw barely standing up to just a LITTLE bit of abuse.  I did forget to mention that for many applications i was using vastly inferior wiring in running undersized extension cords over such lonf distances. 
Tinker

 

[Norm St.Onge]

A 12/3, 25ft or 50ft cord is about all I ever run and no problems. I sold all my cheapo 14/3 cords at our last garage sale.

-Norm