New CTs and the 4 Hour Ground Effects Lighting Sander!

[onocoffee]

This video just dropped from a tool show in Germany. New and updated CT vacs and the upcoming ETSC EC sanders.
=24s

 

[HighlandMarine]

The man bun guy from the initial photos is working the booth in this video.

 

[usernumber1]

thanks for sharing very cool

all the vacuums have a built in BT module looks like. ct26 lost the mechanical controls but is also AC now? the ct36 still has mechanical dials

metabo/hikoki got a lighter framing nailer and a roofing nailer as well. i wonder if they still use regular air and not nitrogen like milwauekee

 

[mino]

...
all the vacuums have a built in BT module looks like. ct26 lost the mechanical controls but is also AC now? the ct36 still has mechanical dials
...

Only the CT 26 ones on display were the "new" version, the FT employee actually used the "old" 36 and 48 for comparisons.

IMO this new CT 26/36/48 series version is a downgrade on almost all fronts.
- no manual controls
- no more upgrade option => no native air-control option, no native second socket option
- the "bolted-on" 2-socket contraption is extremely exposed hence unusable in practice, a clear band aid when test group screamed about the loss of the 2-socket option ..
+ beefed up front panel plate (was notorious for being broken by rough use)
+ no change in the form factor and the bins/bags/accessories system

The only real "positive" I see is the marketing checkbox that BT is now included by default. But skipping the "upgrade" slot is a far bigger issue that cannot be compensated by that. Worst, there was zero (technical) reason for that removal!

Overall, I rank this one as the second biggest botch-up by the "new gen" FT products team. Right after the Systainer heights desaster.
---

Thankfully, I landed myself a Protool CTL 48 AC HD recently to go along my CTM 36 AC. So probably set for life on the big vacs side. Just need to grab a 26 bin set to go along as I plan to keep the 48 bin dedicated to AC work.

 

[jronman]

As a United States Festool user all we get is the Bluetooth module. We don't have the DL Air module, the SD and SD E/A power plug modules, or the EAA energy box module. Not having multiple module options doesn't bother me as I don't know any different. I think Festool is trying to be realistic as the most popular module moving forward is the bluetooth as things move more towards cordless. Sounds to some degree like a much improved offering just to have bluetooth be built in. The suction power dial will be missed though. Hopefully the suction power will be improved over the current model. Having at least 150 CFM should be a thing. 6 inch grinders aren't uncommon here and 150 cfm would meet the 25 CFM per inch OSHA requirements. I couldn't understand the guy so maybe he mentioned the new specs.

 

[jronman]

IMO this new CT 26/36/48 series version is a downgrade on almost all fronts.
- no manual controls
- no more upgrade option => no native air-control option, no native second socket option
- the "bolted-on" 2-socket contraption is extremely exposed hence unusable in practice, a clear band aid when test group screamed about the loss of the 2-socket option ..
+ beefed up front panel plate (was notorious for being broken by rough use)
+ no change in the form factor and the bins/bags/accessories system

The only real "positive" I see is the marketing checkbox that BT is now included by default. But skipping the "upgrade" slot is a far bigger issue that cannot be compensated by that. Worst, there was zero (technical) reason for that removal!

Overall, I rank this one as the second biggest botch-up by the "new gen" FT products team. Right after the Systainer heights desaster.

Most of the cons are things us North American users haven't experienced. I agree the dials will be missed but everything else has been exclusive to Europe. I'm not saying they are catering to North American market, but of the people who operate their CT vac with a module, what percent is something other than the Bluetooth module? Is 10% or less a safe estimate?

Yeah the Systainer heights change was not great. Festool could have easily done a gen 3 without the height change. I would have liked to have seen them add more heights without changing the existing ones. There were two spots that the height difference was not consistent. Adding a T-Loc III.5 and a IV.5 would have made the height difference consistent at 52 mm or 53 mm height difference per box. I will say the new height difference is easier to remember as the height difference is multiples of 25 mm instead of 52 or 53. I think the Bott rail integration is a flop too as there is no full/over extension functionality like the AZ trays.

 

[mino]

As a United States Festool user all we get is the Bluetooth module. We don't have the DL Air module, the SD and SD E/A power plug modules, or the EAA energy box module.
...

Well, there is/was nothing preventing FUSA to just ship all vacs with the BT modules and be done with it. No need to "update" the vacs worldwide for that.

I did not realise the other modules are NAINA, but that is probably more to do with the low-voltage situation you got ref. sockets and the Festool air kit being mostly NAINA too. Either way, the main Festool market is the EU, then the non-EU 230V world, US being the smallest of these three groups. So, not sure this is a "US-focused design" problem.

Seems a case of "marketing checkboxers" winning over "engineers/techies" once again. An engineer would never remove a mostly "free" flexibility option from a product update without a good reason - lack of space is not a reason in this case - and then go design a clunky fragile contraption to re-add it. Nope. This is marketing fools at play.
[sad]

 

[jronman]

Years ago North America had the air sander then it was discontinued. I’m not sure why. It is possible we had more modules back then. Festool doesn’t seem to have a pattern for releasing things.

 

[Cheese]

Festool doesn’t seem to have a pattern for releasing things.

Ahhhh...that would certainly be an understatement.