Hose Boom Instructions=Suck!!

[putttn]

Man, just spent two frustrating hours trying to figure out the boom instructions.  Typical German effort to try and explain something.  That's about the worst effort I've ever seen.  With all the good things why not finish the job and explain exactly what goes where.  The final straw is the large hose is supposed to fit into a clamp according to what I could figure on the instruction sheet.  Only problem is the jaws of the clamp are too small to go around the hose so now what?  The screws in the clamp are barely long enough to get a bite on the little bolts that slide in their seperate grooves.  If I could have got ahold of that stupid Kraut engineer who tried to write the instructions you know where the vacuum would have ended up!

 

[Corwin]

Sorry you are so frustrated.  I know what you mean about the screws being too short for assembly of the bracket around the D36 hose.

I didn't have a problem with the somewhat limited manual, but I see many have.  In the end, I hope you will find that any little issues you may have with the Boom Arm will be just that -- little issues, and that the larger picture here is an accessory that you will treasure. 

I somehow am always finding some kind of little thing that could be improved here or there in things -- just a flaw in my nature.

Corwin

Oh, do follow up with any questions you may have -- someone usually has an answer.

 

[sroxberg]

I guess this is proof the instructions are bad, I just put mine together and have to ask What Clamp?

 

[Barry]

I agree 100%.  Not only does it show the clamp securing the 50mm hose, but also somehow there is supposed to be a clamp for the extension cord.  I love the product, hate the directions.

 

[Corwin]

I think he was referring to the brackets that fix the hose (and cord) to the Boom Arm.  These brackets are sized to readily accept the D27 hose, but must be loosened (to the point where the screws disengage from their nuts) to install around the larger D36 hose.

Corwin

There is a hose clamp that gets installed around the Boom Arm's vertical tube just below the upper bracket for the handle that prevents this tube from lifting up off the lower bracket.  The placement of this clamp may not have been described very well in the manual.  But I don't think that this is the clamp in question.

Oops, someone posted some more...

Hmmm, well there is also a retainer clip that is described as "approx. 50mm" in figure 4.  This is not for the suction, but rather to keep the vertical support tube in place.

In figure 7 of the instructions that came with my Boom Arm, the process is simply to connect the power cord and suction hose that came with the accessory to the vac and lead them to the point where the upper tube and vertical tube connect.  Here you can connect to your vac's hose and tool's cord.  There was no clamp to connect either the power cords or the suction hoses together.  The instructions at this point are referring to simply the attachment of your other cord and hose to the Boom Arm's hose brackets.

 

[Barry]

Corwin: Quit raining on my bi!$#!@$# fest!!!

I'll look at the directions later and respond intelligently, this was more fun for now.

 

[putttn]

According the the "destructions" the final clamp which on my instructions is "7.6" is showing the end of the vacuum power cord in the clamps, but it's too small to fit in there.  It's too small and the big hose is too big but the little hose fits.  I think where I got confused was in woodshopdemos.com site where Andrea is putting the, ("She attaches the other end of the large hose to the start of the boom arm") large hose into one of the clamps.  But in the next picture the clamp is not attached to the boom at all.  Maybe John got as frustrated and I did trying to fit a size 10 into a size 6!  However, some of his assistants might be accused of that ;D  So I'm blaming it on the goofy Krauts and John and Andrea!  Once I got it all done it really works slick.  I think I'll wrap a bunch of duct tape around it and send it to Festool.  It's more precise than their nonfunctioning clamp and short screws.

 

[Corwin]

According the the "destructions" the final clamp which on my instructions is "7.6" is showing the end of the vacuum power cord in the clamps, but it's too small to fit in there.

Ya know, I had cataract surgery in both eyes years ago -- not the best excuse, but the one I'm sticking with.  Anyway, looking a little closer thru my bifocals I see that they do in fact show the supplied power cord attached to the hose bracket as you describe.  No big deal.  Just don't follow the instructions.  My dad always said, "If all else fails, follow instructions" -- maybe that's why I didn't have so much trouble with this manual.  Most companies' product manuals are less than ideal.  At least this company has products that one could call ideal.

One of the power-cord clips was damaged when I received my BA, hee hee, and broke at even a gentle attempt to straighten it.  Glad they come on either side!  I can -- gently, mind you -- slip the power cord (supplied w/BA) into the lowest bracket --- BUT, I really would not recommend it given the nature of the material used for the bracket.  I simply leave the hose and cord loose when the upper portion of the (sorry to refer to it again like this, but) BA is removed.

My take on this BADocumentation thing is that one of the few redeeming features is that with the diagrams on the back page they are easily accessable from page 3.  

Sorry for having a little fun at the expense of others.  But, it can be kind of fun at times.  ;D

Again,
Corwin

 

[Les]

Have you looked at Dan Clark's review? http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=324.msg2747#msg2747

 

[Tinker]

Calm down, Putttn. (NOTE:let's try to refrain from name calling here)  Just take a quick trip to local auto parts or hardware and get a couple of hose clamps large enough to do the job.  I ended up using two of them at various points.  As a result, i now have a spare hose clamp measured in mm's.  No big deal.  As far as hose/cord containment, I got a role of Velcro tape and cut it into pieces and wrapped around hose/cords/boom.  Everything holds together just fine. and i have an extra hook left along each of the clips along the boom to mount the cord for my ATF 55, OF 1000 and HL 800.  I keep a couple of extra pieces of the velcro in each Sortainer so when i use those older toys, i just slap on the velcro to hold even the temporary hookups in place.  As Corwin mentioned, i also, essentially did not read the directions.  I looked them over once and looked over what i had to do and went to work.  since my application was somewhat different from the directions (I set mine lower by 10" than the boom was meant to be), i did run into some problems.  i only had to strip down and restart about 3 times before i got it right.  Hey, that was half the fun.
Tinker