Festool Longlife Filter Bag for sanding wood?

[xedos]

I don't think the equipment's purchase price is necessarily a factor in how a user goes about buying consumables.

Perhaps not directly. But there sure is a lot of discussion (or questions) by festool buyers about expensive or proprietary consumables and alternatives.

My point is that someone buying the most expensive tool in a category probably need some introspection if they then complain about consumables also being expensive. 

 

[Steve1]

I'm with [member=57948]ChuckS[/member] --- add a cyclone.

I got a Dust Deputy just last week.  The port sizes fit my CT36 and my two sizes of Festool hoses (27 and 50?) without adapters.  The amount of dust it collects is amazing.  If you are doing a lot of sanding, the dust might be very fine, so maybe your results will not be as significant as mine, but I am quite happy with how it will reduce my bag usage.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

While I don't necessarily disagree with this I do question the underlying reason for it in the first place. Why even concern yourself over a few dollars a vac bag ?

Clearly you aren't worried about costs since you're using festool in the first place.  A much bigger savings would be realized if you had a Karcher vac, grizzly track saw, ryobi drill, and bauer mitersaw.  Besides , the customer pays for it all; and these days contractors aren't falling all over themselves to be the cheapest like the were in the go go days around '08.

A hobbyist's perspective may be different, but I'll still question buying an expensive German tool in the first place - only to complain about operating costs.

By that extension, you should also buy the cheapest car available, because the price of fuel is the same, no matter what car you drive?

Being aware of (and using) lower cost alternative consumables is not dismissing the point of more expensive tools. In some cases, they do not offer the same (or at least close) performance, so you don't do it again. I, for one, will not use cheap sandpaper, but there is a reason for it. The better tools are better though. Of course that is relative and varies per user. For me, I see the value, others may not and that is their choice.
Vac bags, however? I have never seen a performance issue with them and the cost about 1/3 of the branded ones. I use about a dozen bags a year, so saving $25 per 5 pack is simply not being wasteful.
In my particular instance, the shop where I work buys consumables, which again by extension means the customer, but why throw away that money?

I guess the real test would be to put some of the Festool equipment into the hands of guys who have never used them because of the price barrier. Would they (not knowing) have a preference?
If they were shown the benefit of the "system approach", would this matter?

This is effectively what I have done over the last decade or so. I do not have "everything" Festool and it's not a monetary issue. With the exception of the CXS, my drills and impact drivers are Makita, miter saw DeWalt, and multiple routers of several brands. These choices are based on my experience and for my needs and the Festool equipment that I do have was chosen for it's particular benefits.

 

[Coen]

I'm with [member=5277]Alex[/member] on this, but I predicted the outcome before buying  [tongue]

I did recently get my first non-bag vac (a Bosch GAS 18V 10L) and emptying the bin is ugly work. Also the filter clogs very fast. Yuk. But emptying a bag would be even worse than emptying a bin.

The cyclone also makes it kinda redundant with the cyclone being a superior solution in my view. The cyclone even takes bags, hehe.

 

[AlexThePalex]

My point is that someone buying the most expensive tool in a category probably need some introspection if they then complain about consumables also being expensive.

After a full day of introspection I came this this conclusion: the initial cost of the tools itself is negligible compared to the cost of consumables.

I bought my Rotex 150 back in 2008 for 275 euros from a painter who used it for 3 days on a floor and decided it wasn't up to that task.

In the 13 years I used my Rotex I have put thousands of euros worth of sanding paper on it. I don't know how much. 4000? 5000? 6000? Your guess is as good as mine. But it is a lot.

I spend a lot of that money on Festool paper, especially the first years, but later on more and more 3rd party papers became available and if I can sand the same amount of surface for only half the cost, then my money goes somewhere else because it is bloody important to be economical.

 

[petar73]

A zipper cost extra couple of euros and let me reuse the bag many times before it gets replaced. I have been doing it since my first festool extractor as sometimes I need to empty it a few times a day. Dealing with felder rl140 is a lot messier than empty festool bag. 

 

[ChuckM]

I cut a small opening, and use duct tape for my CT 15. I 've cleared the bag once (outdoors in the summer), and I plan to reuse the bag 2 to 3 more times before replacing it. The zipper idea sounds very promising.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

But doesn't that dust get back into the air when you dump it out? I was always under the impression that this is why Festool put the sliding closer/door on the bags? You disconnect it from the inlet and slide it closed before removing the bag from the CT itself. Clean and easy.
This and the fact that the CT-VA is greater than the cost of all of the bags I would ever use. Then if you use bags in the CT-VA, you have consumables again.

 

[ChuckM]

But doesn't that dust get back into the air when you dump it out?
Snip.

Any dust that escapes into the atmosphere (lawn) will be minimal as long as you take a little care. More fine dust is found to be leaking into the air when I deal with (also outdoors) the dust collector bag.

 

[petar73]

I usually empty the bags into already full 200l felder bags I keep In a separate storage room and always use a dust mask.