Festool Dust Extractor: Midi vs CT 26

[Steven Owen]

I have to make a decision on the appropriate dust extractor for my home shop. I’ve narrowed it down to 3 possible options.

- Festool Midi
- Festool CT 26
- Bosch VAC090A

Here’s a rundown of the tools I will be connecting to the dust extractor in my home shop.  Aka the garage.

- Festool DF 700 Domino
- Track Saw (TS 75 or Makita SP6000)
- Bosch Jig Saw 572 with dust port
- Mirka Sander/Festool Sanders
- Dewalt Table Saw
- Incra Router Table with Milwaukee 3.5 HP router, Clean sweep and Dust Deputy (50 M hose attached to extractor to connect dust Deputy)
- OF 1400 Festool router for tack mount and freehand work
- King 7 Inch Jointer
- Dewalt 12 Inch Planner
- Dewalt 12 Inch Miter Saw

I have to figure out what dust extractor will be the best fit.  There’s a big question mark about the Bosch unit made by Karcher.  I wonder how easy it will be to fit their hose adaptors over Festool 27 mm dust ports.

What do you feel will be the best fit for my needs based on a medium duty home workshop.  Am I asking too much of the Midi?  Will the Bosch vacuum play nice with Festool gear?

 

[rst]

I use a Midi with an Oneida Festool version sitting on top at my large cutting table.  Works great

 

[SonOfMI]

I've heard good things about the Bosch, but never used it.  The dust deputy is a good add on that would greatly reduce the cost of bags, but depending on the setup (is it attached to the vac, where is it, how often do you have to move it, etc.) it could be a bigger hassle.  If the vac is going to be stationary and you work near it, the Midi with some kind of separator might be the best and most cost effective solution for you. 

I went with the CT26 over the midi after running some numbers based on capacity and the cost of bags.  I use the disposable bags and include the cost in a consumables line item on bills to customers.  A medium duty home shop could produce enough to justify the long life bag if you're not going with a separator of some kind.  This would result in a lower long term cost compared to the CT26 even with a long life bag in the CT26.  It's been awhile since I looked at the Midi so I can't remember for sure, but I think the hose comes out of the top of the unit compared to the CT26 which is on the front.  The CT26 has larger wheels I think, which allows it to roll over stuff on the floor easier.  The midi would work, there isn't that much of a difference in performance, these other things are just additional factors to consider. 

I have a friend who does woodworking as a hobby in his free time.  His tools are all pretty stationary, he's not moving them around much even within his shop, but will pull out certain things to install stuff around his house.  He uses the Midi and long life bag.  It keeps his vac system pretty mobile if he needs it, its a small footprint, and he's not dropping cash on disposable bags.  He's satisfied with the performance. 

 

[Michael Kellough]

I use a Midi with an Oneida Festool version sitting on top at my large cutting table.  Works great

Ditto that.

 

[Steven Owen]

I've heard good things about the Bosch, but never used it.  The dust deputy is a good add on that would greatly reduce the cost of bags, but depending on the setup (is it attached to the vac, where is it, how often do you have to move it, etc.) it could be a bigger hassle.  If the vac is going to be stationary and you work near it, the Midi with some kind of separator might be the best and most cost effective solution for you. 

I went with the CT26 over the midi after running some numbers based on capacity and the cost of bags.  I use the disposable bags and include the cost in a consumables line item on bills to customers.  A medium duty home shop could produce enough to justify the long life bag if you're not going with a separator of some kind.  This would result in a lower long term cost compared to the CT26 even with a long life bag in the CT26.  It's been awhile since I looked at the Midi so I can't remember for sure, but I think the hose comes out of the top of the unit compared to the CT26 which is on the front.  The CT26 has larger wheels I think, which allows it to roll over stuff on the floor easier.  The midi would work, there isn't that much of a difference in performance, these other things are just additional factors to consider. 

I have a friend who does woodworking as a hobby in his free time.  His tools are all pretty stationary, he's not moving them around much even within his shop, but will pull out certain things to install stuff around his house.  He uses the Midi and long life bag.  It keeps his vac system pretty mobile if he needs it, its a small footprint, and he's not dropping cash on disposable bags.  He's satisfied with the performance.

It doesn’t help the price on the Bosch is a little deceiving.  It doesn’t come with a Hepa Filter and it’s comes with an plastic hose.  The 9 gallon Bosch ends-up costing your more than a CT26 once you start to accessorize it at the same standard as Festool.  The added 13 CFM works out to be an extra 8% more suction. 

That’s if the motor is performing at it’s peak.  The only task I can see
the extra 13 CFM making a difference is in cement finishing. 

 

[pettyconstruction]

Ct 26 especially if it is not leaving your shop.
Ditto on the dust deputy
Charlie

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Steven Owen]

Ct 26 especially if it is not leaving your shop.
Ditto on the dust deputy
Charlie

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I’ll probably buy a dust deputy; but not the Festool version.  I don’t need the deputy to sit on top of of the vacuum.  The Incra router table requires a 4 inch dust collection hose.  I can’t imagine trying to adapt a 4 inch down to the 27 mm connector on the Festool dust deputy would work very well.

My biggest concern with the Midi is the elbow.  I wonder how often the elbow would get jammed from debris from the Dewalt Planer, table saw and the Router Table.

 

[Brice Burrell]

My biggest concern with the Midi is the elbow.  I wonder how often the elbow would get jammed from debris from the Dewalt Planer, table saw and the Router Table.

You don't want to run any of these tools with the 27mm hose that Festool vacs come with.

Also, my experience with the smaller mini and midi vacs tend to clog the pores of the vac bag long before the bag is full.  When you have a lot of fine dust, that is what does it.  Generally, wood saw dust from cutting doesn't seem to clog the pores on the bags too bad. 

 

[Steven Owen]

My biggest concern with the Midi is the elbow.  I wonder how often the elbow would get jammed from debris from the Dewalt Planer, table saw and the Router Table.

You don't want to run any of these tools with the 27mm hose that Festool vacs come with.

Also, my experience with the smaller mini and midi vacs tend to clog the pores of the vac bag long before the bag is full.  When you have a lot of fine dust, that is what does it.  Generally, wood saw dust from cutting doesn't seem to clog the pores on the bags too bad.

Are you able to attach other vendors’ hoses to the CT 26?  (Bosch and Ridgid) for the 50 mm or are you stuck buying the Festool 50 mm to attach it to the standalone dust deputy?

 

[Brice Burrell]

My biggest concern with the Midi is the elbow.  I wonder how often the elbow would get jammed from debris from the Dewalt Planer, table saw and the Router Table.

You don't want to run any of these tools with the 27mm hose that Festool vacs come with.

Also, my experience with the smaller mini and midi vacs tend to clog the pores of the vac bag long before the bag is full.  When you have a lot of fine dust, that is what does it.  Generally, wood saw dust from cutting doesn't seem to clog the pores on the bags too bad.

Are you able to attach other vendors’ hoses to the CT 26?  (Bosch and Ridgid) for the 50 mm or are you stuck buying the Festool 50 mm to attach it to the standalone dust deputy?

Yes, standard hose size, so Bosch, Ridgid and other brands do fit Festool vacs.

 

[Steven Owen]

My biggest concern with the Midi is the elbow.  I wonder how often the elbow would get jammed from debris from the Dewalt Planer, table saw and the Router Table.

You don't want to run any of these tools with the 27mm hose that Festool vacs come with.

Also, my experience with the smaller mini and midi vacs tend to clog the pores of the vac bag long before the bag is full.  When you have a lot of fine dust, that is what does it.  Generally, wood saw dust from cutting doesn't seem to clog the pores on the bags too bad.

Are you able to attach other vendors’ hoses to the CT 26?  (Bosch and Ridgid) for the 50 mm or are you stuck buying the Festool 50 mm to attach it to the standalone dust deputy?

Yes, standard hose size, so Bosch, Ridgid and other brands do fit Festool vacs.

That’s great.  That solves the problem of hooking up the Bosch 572 to the Festool Extractor.  I work out in the driveway during the summers months, I’m thinking the bigger wheels on the CT 26 will work better outside.  I’m thinking it will be easier to attach the third party hoses without the elbow.

 

[rvieceli]

You have to watch out on the Bosch hoses. Some of the newer ones have a locking adapter on the vac end that fits their newer vacs. I'm not sure that these fit the CT series. The Bosch hoses without the locking adapter do work fine in my CT22

 

[Steven Owen]

You have to watch out on the Bosch hoses. Some of the newer ones have a locking adapter on the vac end that fits their newer vacs. I'm not sure that these fit the CT series. The Bosch hoses without the locking adapter do work fine in my CT22

I’ll probably buy a Festool 36 MM hose.  It should work woth the 572 just fine via a Festool adaptor.  I’m happy that’ll I’ll be able to use my Ridgid anti static hose with the Festool CT for attaching it to the standard dust deputy for the router table, table saw, jointer and planer.

The Festool dust deputy is really only useful for Festool products.

 

[serge0n]

My biggest concern with the Midi is the elbow.  I wonder how often the elbow would get jammed from debris from the Dewalt Planer, table saw and the Router Table.

It would never be jammed with these tools unless a tiny offcut or a splinter gets sucked in. Even if it does, clearing up a jam is easy.

I'm a hobbyist woodworker and was using CT Midi for the past 2 years, it would work great with all tools on your list with the exception of planer and jointer - those beasts will fill up CT Midi's bag in no time.

I use CT Midi with my custom built router table that has below and above table dust collection with a Y fitting and a 2" opening at the end. I use an adapter to fit the 27mm hose, it works great, no dust escapes.

You will be fine using the Midi with your table saw as Dewalt's saws have a dust shroud around the blade, so you don't need to move a lot of air to capture a lot of dust, especially if you are using a blade guard dust collector as well. If you don't have dust collection attachment on your blade guard or choose not to use it, prepare for tons of dust on every surface. Using the rear dust port alone just doesn't cut it.

As for your planer, if you have DW735, you can use Dust Deputy Deluxe to capture all the shavings as this planer has built-in fan that ejects all the sawdust through the port which greatly assists with CT Midi + Dust Deputy combo. If you have DW734, forget it, it will be horrible. I tried it with CT Midi + Dust Deputy Deluxe, suction drop was too significant, approximately 40% of shavings were left in the planer/on the floor. I returned DW734 and got a Ridgid planer, which has built in fan and works perfectly with CT Midi + DD. You can use CT Midi alone with DW734 and get acceptable results, but prepare to spend a fortune on bags.

If you don't plan to use the dust extractor outside of your shop, I'd get CT 26 instead. Performance is pretty much the same, but you get higher capacity (suction doesn't drop due to clogged bag for a longer period of time) and ability to use accessories such as boom arm and remote control. I really want to have a boom arm for my midi and will most likely DIY it, but I'd buy it in a heartbeat if it was available from Festool.

As you mentioned, Bosch vac ends up being more expensive once you accessorize it to match Festool out of the box configuration. I also heard that Bosch is much louder.

You can use a variety of hoses with Festool vacs - Bosch, Mirka, Ridgid, etc. I'm using Festool's 27 mm hose for general tasks, switch to a dedicated 50 mm Bosch hose when I use Kapex and switch to a no-name 2" hose for Dewalt's table saw. I even use it with my Delta contractor style table saw where I have to adapt 27 mm hose to a 4" dust port, so dust collection is not very good, but it's better than nothing.

 

[pettyconstruction]

I also have a Bosch hose , works well and a little cheaper
Charlie

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Steven Owen]

My biggest concern with the Midi is the elbow.  I wonder how often the elbow would get jammed from debris from the Dewalt Planer, table saw and the Router Table.

It would never be jammed with these tools unless a tiny offcut or a splinter gets sucked in. Even if it does, clearing up a jam is easy.

I'm a hobbyist woodworker and was using CT Midi for the past 2 years, it would work great with all tools on your list with the exception of planer and jointer - those beasts will fill up CT Midi's bag in no time.

I use CT Midi with my custom built router table that has below and above table dust collection with a Y fitting and a 2" opening at the end. I use an adapter to fit the 27mm hose, it works great, no dust escapes.

You will be fine using the Midi with your table saw as Dewalt's saws have a dust shroud around the blade, so you don't need to move a lot of air to capture a lot of dust, especially if you are using a blade guard dust collector as well. If you don't have dust collection attachment on your blade guard or choose not to use it, prepare for tons of dust on every surface. Using the rear dust port alone just doesn't cut it.

As for your planer, if you have DW735, you can use Dust Deputy Deluxe to capture all the shavings as this planer has built-in fan that ejects all the sawdust through the port which greatly assists with CT Midi + Dust Deputy combo. If you have DW734, forget it, it will be horrible. I tried it with CT Midi + Dust Deputy Deluxe, suction drop was too significant, approximately 40% of shavings were left in the planer/on the floor. I returned DW734 and got a Ridgid planer, which has built in fan and works perfectly with CT Midi + DD. You can use CT Midi alone with DW734 and get acceptable results, but prepare to spend a fortune on bags.

If you don't plan to use the dust extractor outside of your shop, I'd get CT 26 instead. Performance is pretty much the same, but you get higher capacity (suction doesn't drop due to clogged bag for a longer period of time) and ability to use accessories such as boom arm and remote control. I really want to have a boom arm for my midi and will most likely DIY it, but I'd buy it in a heartbeat if it was available from Festool.

As you mentioned, Bosch vac ends up being more expensive once you accessorize it to match Festool out of the box configuration. I also heard that Bosch is much louder.

You can use a variety of hoses with Festool vacs - Bosch, Mirka, Ridgid, etc. I'm using Festool's 27 mm hose for general tasks, switch to a dedicated 50 mm Bosch hose when I use Kapex and switch to a no-name 2" hose for Dewalt's table saw. I even use it with my Delta contractor style table saw where I have to adapt 27 mm hose to a 4" dust port, so dust collection is not very good, but it's better than nothing.

I have the DW 735.  The 734 was never worth looking at.  The Table Saw is the DW7491. Dewalt doesn’t offer any port on the blade guard. I added a zero clearance insert to improve dust collection from the bottom port. 

The Incra router table will be the hardest one to deal with. I’m trying to decide how much suction I’ll loose by using a Y off the dust deputy.  The 4 inch port coming off the Incra Clean sweep will be lowered to 50 mm or 2 inches before at the y connector.  I’ll keep the 4 inch as short as possible. 

Plan B: Use the Festool and Dust Deputy for the Incra Clean Sweep table collection.  Use the Ridgid for the Incra wonderfence collection.  That’s a last option.  I’ll try using a Y-connector off the Dust Deputy to see if the Festool Extractor and the Dust Deputy have enough suction to be effectively collect the dust from the wonderfence and the Incra Clean sweep bucket at the same time.

 

[Steven Owen]

My biggest concern with the Midi is the elbow.  I wonder how often the elbow would get jammed from debris from the Dewalt Planer, table saw and the Router Table.

It would never be jammed with these tools unless a tiny offcut or a splinter gets sucked in. Even if it does, clearing up a jam is easy.

I'm a hobbyist woodworker and was using CT Midi for the past 2 years, it would work great with all tools on your list with the exception of planer and jointer - those beasts will fill up CT Midi's bag in no time.

I use CT Midi with my custom built router table that has below and above table dust collection with a Y fitting and a 2" opening at the end. I use an adapter to fit the 27mm hose, it works great, no dust escapes.

You will be fine using the Midi with your table saw as Dewalt's saws have a dust shroud around the blade, so you don't need to move a lot of air to capture a lot of dust, especially if you are using a blade guard dust collector as well. If you don't have dust collection attachment on your blade guard or choose not to use it, prepare for tons of dust on every surface. Using the rear dust port alone just doesn't cut it.

As for your planer, if you have DW735, you can use Dust Deputy Deluxe to capture all the shavings as this planer has built-in fan that ejects all the sawdust through the port which greatly assists with CT Midi + Dust Deputy combo. If you have DW734, forget it, it will be horrible. I tried it with CT Midi + Dust Deputy Deluxe, suction drop was too significant, approximately 40% of shavings were left in the planer/on the floor. I returned DW734 and got a Ridgid planer, which has built in fan and works perfectly with CT Midi + DD. You can use CT Midi alone with DW734 and get acceptable results, but prepare to spend a fortune on bags.

If you don't plan to use the dust extractor outside of your shop, I'd get CT 26 instead. Performance is pretty much the same, but you get higher capacity (suction doesn't drop due to clogged bag for a longer period of time) and ability to use accessories such as boom arm and remote control. I really want to have a boom arm for my midi and will most likely DIY it, but I'd buy it in a heartbeat if it was available from Festool.

As you mentioned, Bosch vac ends up being more expensive once you accessorize it to match Festool out of the box configuration. I also heard that Bosch is much louder.

You can use a variety of hoses with Festool vacs - Bosch, Mirka, Ridgid, etc. I'm using Festool's 27 mm hose for general tasks, switch to a dedicated 50 mm Bosch hose when I use Kapex and switch to a no-name 2" hose for Dewalt's table saw. I even use it with my Delta contractor style table saw where I have to adapt 27 mm hose to a 4" dust port, so dust collection is not very good, but it's better than nothing.

This might be a dumb question.  Festool doesn’t provide any specs on the Midi’s elbow.  Is the Elbow on the Midi 50 mm (2 inches) standard or is the elbow on the Midi 27 mm?

 

[Brice Burrell]

This might be a dumb question.  Festool doesn’t provide any specs on the Midi’s elbow.  Is the Elbow on the Midi 50 mm (2 inches) standard or is the elbow on the Midi 27 mm?

The elbow is ~50mm, the hose tapers along the length to 27mm.

 

[antss]

I'm going from a hazy memory here , but I think it's a 50mm to 32mm elbow.

The hose tapers from 32mm down to 27mm.

 

[Steven Owen]

I'm going from a hazy memory here , but I think it's a 50mm to 32mm elbow.

The hose tapers from 32mm down to 27mm.

I plan to use a dust deputy for the Big tools.  A lot reviewers on FOG say the Midi is not really stable with a DD on top.  In a home shop, I have the space restrictions.  I don’t it’s necessary to have the DD mounted on the Midi.

I’ll build my own boom.  I’m not going to drop $500 on a Festool boom. 

I’ll have to think hard about the Incra CleanSweep.  The Festool’s are not designed for 4 Inch dust extraction.  I’m not sure what the impact will be if I downgrade the Incra CleanSweep from 4 - inches to 2 inches (50 mm) with an 4 - 2 Inch adapter.