Andywoj said:
Hi every one. This is my first post.
I am planning on purchasing two of the Festool sanders and two of the routers in the near future and was planning on purchasing a CT36 vacuum as well. But I was wandering if I could hook up these new sanders and routers to my central dust extraction system. I am not sure if this will work or should I purchase the CT36.
Your input is appreciated.
Thanks,
Andy
Hi Andy,
First of all, [welcome] to The FOG!
Now let me try to answer your questions. Although my custom cabinet business uses virtually every tool made by Festool, including CT22 and CT36 dust extractors, my shop is also equipped with a selection of large fixed woodworking machines. To deal with the volume of dust/chips generated by the CNC and other fixed machines, I have a sophisticated plant dust collection system, with the stacks outside, per local building safety laws.
There is a difference in purpose and approach between Festool-style portable dust extractors and big dust collection systems. Plant DC systems often use very large ducts to handle heavy volume and long runs. In my case the CNC nested router that generates the most dust when in use is over 160 feet from the outside DC blowers and stacks. So that duct is 24" in dia. The building is 70' wide, so there is an angled branch 20" in dia leading to the other side of the building. All of those fixed machines are designed for vast volume of suction, which moves are relatively low velocity. There are 4 separate blowers, each with cyclones depositing the separated dust and chips into individual bags for easy collection. A computer system detects which machines are in use, so the appropriate dampers are opened. That computer then decides how many blowers to use. It keeps track of each blower use, to equalize that. With the 4 available, one can be out of service for maintenance without a need to shut down my shop. Local law requires that the exterior blowers and stack be protected by automatic sprinklers.
Inside my shop there are spark detectors within the ducts which not only sound alarms should a fire start, they activate a mist spark suppression system. When the alarm sounds we can safely and effectively bring machines to a halt, so as to do the least damage to work in production.
My first thought was to use the plant DC system to collect from at least the 2 Kapex which are in fixed locations, as well as my 550mm dia radial arm saw. All of those saws do use typical miter saw dust shrouds behind them.
The Kapex was designed to use the same high velocity, relatively low volume extraction as the other Festools. Simply using a reducer from a 100mm dia hose from a DC duct to a Festool 36mm AS hose does not result in enough extraction velocity to be effective with a Kapex. So for months my fixed Kapex each had a dedicated CT22. Once we had some spare time I assigned an engineering team to invent a solution. We call these prototypes "Accelerators" which have a blower duplicating the function of a CT26. These Accelerator motors are controlled by the Kapex, like the CT auto start. The Accelerator discharge is into a 100mm hose from the DC system. The volume of the Accelerators can be adjusted like the Festool CTs. Will there ever be a market for these Accelerators? The parts for the prototypes cost more than buying CT26 at retail brand new. Maybe if they go into production the cost of parts will be lower. Meanwhile I could have purchased several lifetimes of Festool disposable bags for the cost of this project. Of course it is wonderful to use those Kapex 8-12 hours a day without any concern about filling bags.
The Festool OF 1400 and OF2200 really need 36mm AS hoses connected to CTs which only require a 3.5 or 5m long hose. Generally when using those routers or the TS55/TS75 the CT works best on full blast. However, with some router operations you will need to turn down the suction.
The OF1010 and the MFK700 routers only work with 27mm AS hose and rarely benefit from turning the suction to full blast.
All of the Festool sanders, as well as the Domino and jig saws also require the 27mm AS hose. While it is no problem to run the extraction on the Domino full blast, while sanding adjustment of the CT suction is vital to excellent results. For this reason it is most efficient for every sander in use to have a dedicated CT, close enough that it is convenient to reach the volume control on the CT. The special version of the CT36 designed for use with the dry wall Planex sander system has a remote volume control on the handle.
Trust me, I have suggested that Festool make remote volume controls available for the CT with HEPA filters to make sanding more effective. Who knows, someday that might happen.
Bottom line about sanding is that the Festool CT is a vital part of that system. Trying to connect hand sanders to a plant DC system has not yet ever been proven to work well, especially when many people are working in the same shop. Start a CNC nested router and even with a sophisticated computer control there will be a sudden reduction in collection volume. Not such a big deal to the CNC beam saws, but would spoil a fine sanding job. So will the following addition of DC blowers. With Festool sanders too much suction is a bigger problem than too little.
