Midi for drywall

[wetndry]

I need a more aggressive sander in the shop and will get either the 150 or 125 rotex.  I would like to use these sanders on my rental property when not in the shop so the Midi vac would be my first choice. Can the midi handle drywall sanding. Will the dust get by its filters and just fill the room? Does it loose its suction before filling the bag?  I have a shop vac now that works well for filtering but it does build up static and it would not hook up easily to the festools or have the variable speed.

Thanks

 

[ericbuggeln]

I have used ct 22 and RO 150 on many drywall repair or wallpaper removal skim coat type jobs and it has worked great.  I have found that any "worn out" sandpaper is good for drywall.  I still question why the Planex (which seems to have fallen off the earth) has it's own vac.  Doesn't the MIDI have different filters or something.  I trekked my ct 22 all over the place and feel that it is a reasonable size for transport.  Haven't tried new set up with Dust Deputy cyclone on anything but wood yet.  Eric 

 

[Warrior]

Im not real sure about the midi but the CT 22 should deffinately handle the drywall. it also has alot of power to be an all around great performer.

Eiji

 

[Brice Burrell]

The CT Mini and Midi have 1 micro filters and CT 22 and 33 have HEPA's. From what I understand the CT vacs are not meant to be used for everyday drywall sanding, over time the continuous use shorten the life of the vac. The vacs seem to hold up to occasional drywall sanding use just fine.

 

[Eli]

well that's good to know. I've been avoiding drywall sanding with my 22.

 

[wetndry]

I would be using the Midi mainly for repairs on the walls not hole room sanding. My main concern is the 1 micron size of the mini/midi and the loss of suction as the bag fills.

 

[Brice Burrell]

My personal opinion is that HEPA is greatly over rated for woodworking purposes and in your for drywall sanding. Each person has to make this decision based on their own idea as to the level of safety a non-HEPA will provide them. What I'm saying is, don't use my opinion to influence your's, do the research and form to an educated opinion in this matter.

Yes, the vac will lose some suction as the bag fills, my experience is that reduction isn't much. It really doesn't have a noticeable effect on the tool's dust collection. Most people find out their filter bag is full, not when the section is reduced but when the tool stops collecting dust because the bag and hose are stuffed.

 

[Michael Kellough]

My personal opinion is that HEPA is greatly over rated for woodworking purposes and in your for drywall sanding. Each person has to make this decision based on their own idea as to the level of safety a non-HEPA will provide them. What I'm saying is, don't use my opinion to influence your's, do the research and form to an educated opinion in this matter.

Yes, the vac will lose some suction as the bag fills, my experience is that reduction isn't much. It really doesn't have a noticeable effect on the tool's dust collection. Most people find out their filter bag is full, not when the section is reduced but when the tool stops collecting dust because the bag and hose are stuffed.

Or when they notice the vac is a lot heavier than when I brought it.

 

[Bob Marino]

  The MINI or MIDI will work just fine, but my prefernce would be the CT 22 - larger capacity, more suction and better filtration.

Bob

 

[Forrest Anderson]

The CT Mini and Midi have 1 micro filters and CT 22 and 33 have HEPA's. From what I understand the CT vacs are meant to be used for everyday drywall sanding, over time the continuous use shorten the life of the vac. The vacs seem to hold up to occasional drywall sanding use just fine.

Brice

In view of your comment "over time the continuous use [of the CT Vac on drywall will] shorten the life of the vac. The vacs seem to hold up to occasional drywall sanding use just fine", could you confirm that you meant to say "the CT vacs are meant to be used for everyday drywall sanding"?

Your comments about shortening the life of the Vac and that is OK for occasional use makes me wonder if you really intended to say "the CT vacs are not meant to be used for everyday drywall sanding"?

Regards

Forrest

 

[honeydoman]

i use the midi  (the 2nd size up i think not the smallest vac)  alot for sanding drywall patching and it works great.  saves time, dust and breathing better and does a great finish job.  have had no problems.

if you wear it out in a year or 2 or when ever, just get another,  think of all the time you have saved dust clean up cost of plastic barriers etc.  so it is well worth it.

and when it is worn out...... just put on your CD that has the song........."Another one bits the dust"!

 

[Brice Burrell]

The CT Mini and Midi have 1 micro filters and CT 22 and 33 have HEPA's. From what I understand the CT vacs are meant to be used for everyday drywall sanding, over time the continuous use shorten the life of the vac. The vacs seem to hold up to occasional drywall sanding use just fine.

Brice

In view of your comment "over time the continuous use [of the CT Vac on drywall will] shorten the life of the vac. The vacs seem to hold up to occasional drywall sanding use just fine", could you confirm that you meant to say "the CT vacs are meant to be used for everyday drywall sanding"?

Your comments about shortening the life of the Vac and that is OK for occasional use makes me wonder if you really intended to say "the CT vacs are not meant to be used for everyday drywall sanding"?

Regards

Forrest

Yes, you are right, I meant to say the CT vacs are not meant to be used for everyday drywall sanding. Thanks for pointing this out. I edited my earlier post.

 

[wetndry]

To my experience the Festools are doing a great job when it comes to construction
work with maybe one exception - Dry wall!

I've been taking down walls using my TRION equipped with a l-o-n-g blade and it
works perfectly nice BUT connecting my CT Mini make this poor vacuum cleaner to
completely choke due to the dust from drywall. The, otherwise so helpful, suction
device quite rapidly looses its ability to suck efficiently despite that the the dust
container bag is not even filled to one third. Sad

The plaster dust seems to clog the micro filter structure of the dust collection bag
and hence render it useless.

So anyone experienced the same thing  (or similar)
or rather - any good tips what to do about it Huh

anyone have a similar experience with a mini or midi vac.  Honeydokreg, does your filter plug up prematurely when drywall sanding. 

 

[honeydoman]

To my experience the Festools are doing a great job when it comes to construction
work with maybe one exception - Dry wall!

I've been taking down walls using my TRION equipped with a l-o-n-g blade and it
works perfectly nice BUT connecting my CT Mini make this poor vacuum cleaner to
completely choke due to the dust from drywall. The, otherwise so helpful, suction
device quite rapidly looses its ability to suck efficiently despite that the the dust
container bag is not even filled to one third. Sad

The plaster dust seems to clog the micro filter structure of the dust collection bag
and hence render it useless.

So anyone experienced the same thing  (or similar)
or rather - any good tips what to do about it Huh

anyone have a similar experience with a mini or midi vac.   Honeydokreg, does your filter plug up prematurely when drywall sanding. 

no I have not had a problem, it works very well and for long time.

 

[Frank-Jan]

I have sanded drywall before with my bosch sander and CT22, it worked very well, but I didn't have to sand much. (I only recently got my rotex, and I haven't tried it on drywall yet.)
Drywall dust does tend to clog  the filterbags way before they're filled up. It's similar to the dust from grinding bricks, mortar or concrete (but grinding throws the dust way faster, so you notice it quicker when suction decreases) . When you have the collect that sort of dust, it is better to use a vac with automatic filter-cleaning. (like the vac that's meant for the planex) Festool makes an accessory for the CT that holds the planex, but they recommend it only for smaller jobs.

I have a wallsaw with both watercooling and dustcollection possibilities, when it wasn't possible to use the watercooling (risk of waterdamage) I would use my CT22 with it, and it would get most of the dust in the beginning of the cut, but suction would soon lower dramatically. And because we also have a wallchaser and a dusthood for a 230 mm angle grinder I went looking for a vac with electromagnetic filtercleaning.

When I was collecting information on those vacuums to see which one would be the best choice for me, I noticed that the vacs of the different brands showed significant similarities. I think the vacs with automatic filtercleaning sold by Bosch, Spit, Milwaukee, Hitachi, Metabo,... (there might be others) are made for them by Starmix And those vacs sold  under the Makita, Protool (->festool) and similar are made for them by Nilfisk-Alto

I was seriously leaning towards getting the protool, because it uses the same hoses as festool (only in orange), but I had a few questions that my dealer couldn't answer (like the difference between the push to clean version that was just over 300? and another version that was about 600 ?. They also had a Makita, similar to the expensive protool, but it costed only slightly less, and uses different hoses; and a Spit which was 500?, but they had a spit-paslode-rep in the shop at the time who could explain the benefits of the vac (polyester vs paper filters and some others), and when he lowered the price to 375 I got that one.

It works well, I just have to remember to turn the tool I'm running from it off every once in a while, because the filtercleaning only works when the vac isn't running, and when the filter does get clogged in the meantime, the vac shuts itself off, without cutting the power to the tool. The spit came with a very long 36mm antistatic hose, which lockt onto vac, but the festool hose fit perfectly too. The spit works without bags and the fine but heavy dust from grinding and plasterdust is easily shaken from the filter, but I have to be careful it isn't hooked up to a saw or planer, because it doesn't work with wood chips and dust. I'm thinkin of getting bags for it so I have an extra vac for the kapex.

Sorry for the long reply, I'm tired and tend to get lengthy, I hope it is coherent enough.