Festool - CTL Midi and Oneida Dust Deputy

[Aidex]

Hi Everyone

Hope you're all having a good Christmas.

With advice and a voucher from this forums members I bought a Rotex ro125 and a CTL Midi earlier this year.

First thing as a bit of a side...the Midi doesn't "suck" as much as I thought it would. We have a very old beat up Henry and it sucks a hell of a lot more than the Midi ever has. I sent the midi back the day I got it out of the box as I called festool immediately but it came back with no notes and sucking as before (plus a few scuffs and scratches on the midi and hose). 

Please note it was totally new so new bag, new filter, etc. also I'm a lazyish DIYer so it's not like I have or ever will come close to thrashing any of my tools.

I was told by festool guys at an exhibition in November that it should suck hard enough to hold a piece of wood on the rotex when on manual (ie not auto with rotex running!). It's never had a hope in hell of doing this not even with a minuscule scrap of 6mm mdf. Am I expecting too much in terms of suction power or do you guys think something's up? It's made me think of buying another extractor but I don't want to just be spending more money on essentially the same product again. Please note that when hooked up to the rotex and running on max it does suck dust up pretty well although not in 90%s even on flat surfaces eg flooring. What it doesn't do at max is "stick" or scratch the wood in any way like I ve read some guys who advise to turn it down a little say.

Now, sorry about that long and slightly off topic intro!...but in my quest to see if I could improve its performance I came across the dust deputy. After doing a lot of reading on them I read about the static build up and potential for damaging the midi. So, the main reason for this post is to see whether it's now "safe" to run the DD with the midi (the DD that sits on top of the midi) as I read that Oneida had recently addressed the static issue.  I would have called festool tech who have been very helpful with things like sanding paper for different tasks but I thought they'd probably advise against such 3rd party accessories in any event.

Thanks again for any and all your help.

Aidex!

 

[Benjamin]

oneida supposedly makes everything anti static now so it should be ok but don't blame me if any problems occur after using it ( IE burning out the vacuum )

I've been using the dust deputy with the midi for a year and I've had zero problems and it works great!
especially for drywall. very impressive.

you might want to double check a MIDI at a dealer ship and make sure yours is not a dud as my MIDI is very strong?

but don't forget the dust deputy will take away a little of the suction as well eh,

theres a post on this forum where some one measures the difference in suction .

search ultimate dust deputy and CFMs probably something will come up.

 

[Aidex]

Hi Benjamin

Thanks for your reply.  We're having a lot of building work done at home but when it's done I spoke with one of the festool guys who said he'd come over to demo a few different tools I'm thinking of buying - mainly kapex, router 700/1400, CMS router table and different sanding/polishing pads and papers for the rotex. I'll see what he thinks.  He might also have a midi we can compare.

Given that the work will take a few more months he also suggested we can pop to a local retailer. If not I can do as you suggested and see if any local suppliers can demo me a midi just to compare.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the Dust Deputy?  It's a lot of money for something that could fry the Midi!

Thanks again!

 

[Wood Hog]

Hi
It sounds as if your just outside you 30 day return period, but your within your 1 year part of the warranty, where they offer free shipping, you have nothing to lose by sending it back, you might what speak to Festool and explain the issue. It sounds like you got a lemon,ask them to replace it. As there fix did nothing. Adding a dust separator of any brand will lose you CFM. Until the vacuum is fixed your wasting money on buying a dust separator.
I have an Onedia dust separator on my CT 26 and the first time I used it,  it tipped the contraption over as it sucked the connector hose so tight, I had to put some bricks in the bottom of the dust separator to keep it up right.

 

[Mahomo59]

Where are you? I'm in Bristol if you'd like to compare my Midi, mine sucks awesome and imploded a dust collection devise as it was too powerful with no pressure release valve. Now have DD and it's brilliant. Recent bought NVD750 that stays in the workshop, also very powerful

 

[Aidex]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the replies. I am worried I've gotten a dud. My wife has always said it was pretty crap (and she only uses things like Henry which she swears is 100 times better). It is a bit annoying though that I sent it back to them the day after I got it out of the box (having called them on the day I opened it) and that they just scuffed it up and sent it back to me seemingly unimproved...it's not quite what I've read one should expect from Festool service.  I'm not a pro, I don't use my tools regularly and have never owned any dust extractor before so I had nothing to compare it against and trusted Festool to sort out the problem. 

It was the festool rep's comments re holding onto a piece of wood through the Rotex back in November that I tried out last week (hadn't used either in over 3 months!) and again it was obvious that my midi is nowhere near the suction level you guys describe.

I am within the year so I will ask that they take this back.  At this stage I am pretty annoyed and disappointed with it all and I would really like a replacement. Interestingly earlier this year I bought a Hitachi nail gun which I didn't use for over 2 months. When I opened it and first used it the nails weren't sinking fully into 18mm ply (I was practicing). I called up their tech to see if I was doing something wrong. After explaining on the phone how I was using it the tech guy called the dealer up, arranged for a brand new gun to be couriered out that day and for a pickup of mine. Now, the Hitachi gun is the cheapest paslode copy on the market and that's better service than what I've had from festool who are far removed from cheap copies of anything (Hitachi also threw in another gas canister as I'd used part of mine trying to get the gun to work).

Anyway, enough moaning. I guess it shows that all companies however much we expect them to be good sometimes fail their customers.  Here's hoping they put this right.

Mahomo I'm in Uxbridge in London. Thanks for your kind offer but unfortunately it's a little far. I will definitely buy the Dust Deputy but I will wait until the Midi is resolved. I tried calling Festool but I think they must be closed until next week.

Thanks again.

 

[Simon O]

Hi Aidex, I'm interested to know what the end result was here? Did you replace your midi, get a dust deputy?