Not happy about Boom Arm Documentation!

D

Dan Clark

Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Messages
540
Christian,

Tomorrow morning I'll post a more indepth review of the Depth Stop Chuck, the Hose Garage, and the Boom Arm.   The good news is that Bob Marino came through with flying colors and got my order shipped ASAP.  I ordered Saturday night and it arrived this evening.   A+ for customer support.

And I tried the Depth Stop Chuck.  It worked great!  But...

The bad news is that Festool's nemisis struck again - documentation...   

The Hose Garage came with installation instructions, but there are some odd slots in it and there is NOTHING to indicate what they are for!  Product looks solid.   Documentation = C.

But the really bad news is the Boom Arm it came with NO documentation!  Not one tiny page.  The box was intact and looks like it had never been opened since it left the factory.   I tried the Festool USA web site.   Result: zip!    I used John Lucas' web pages to figure out how to put it together.  That is, except for the hose clamp which has no known purpose!  The product fit and finish is great.  I've only have a few minutes to use it, but it seems to work well.  But the Documentation?  F  Flunked! 

Christian, you MUST do something about the documentation!   That new abrasives manual is GREAT (I just printed it out).   But the rest...   You have a lot of work to do!

Regards,

Dan.

 
Dan,

Yes indeed, we have a lot of work to do, and we know it. And step by step we will become better.

I will forward your post to the product management in Germany. We have a constant discussion with
them about the appropriate level of documentation. The current documentation seems to work well
in the rest of the world. We are the only Festool subsidiary complaining constantly about it. And we
are the only subsidiary that has started to write own manuals.

Thanks for your comments!

Regards,

Christian
 
Christian,

Thanks.    Can you arrange for a set of Boom Arm documentation to be sent to me?

Regards,

Dan.

p.s., my concern about the boom arm documentation is NOT related to their quality.  It's just that they were not included with the Boom Arm.
 
Dan,

That hose clamp goes on the vertical portion of the Boom Arm just below the vac's cord holder -- just tighten her up tight to the underside of the cord holder.  I guess that this clamp is to assure that the vertical tube stays put.  Place the clamp such that once tightened the loose end will not be a place to cut your finger when wrapping the power cord.

I love this Boom Arm!  Mine came with the documentation.  On mine you can feed the D27 hose through the hose brackets, but the D36 will not -- instead, the hose brackets have to be disassembled and reassembled around the larger hose.  For my use, I will keep the D36 mounted on the Boom and simply hang the D27 from the second set of power-cord hooks when I am going to do some sanding.

Corwin
 
Corwin,

Thanks.  I'm not clear on this, but I'll take a look tomorrow morning. 
Regards, 

Dan.
 
The Boom Arm's vertical tube mounts to the handle's mounting brackets -- the lower end of the tube fits into one of the half-circle grooves in the handle's lower bracket, and the tube then snaps into the cuttout in the upper bracket.  To prevent the Boom Arm's tube from possibly pulling up and out of the lower bracket, a hose clamp is secured around the tube directly below the upper bracket.

I suggest that you install this hose clamp with its head facing the vac such that you can access it with a screwdriver from the right (assuming you are installing the tube on the right).  Start it off with the head facing the vac, but a little towards the right side (maybe at 1:00 from the back) as the head will move towards the left (12:00) as it is tightened.  This will leave the excess length of the hose clamp away from where your hands will be when you go to store the power cord.

Since my Boom Arm did include the manual, maybe you just were the victim of human error.  For me, the manual was clear and the unit quick and simple to install -- I did, however, already have the handle installed on the vac.  The most time spent on the whole ordeal was the time spent admiring the Boom Arm after it was all done!

Enjoy!
Corwin
 
Corwin,

Got it now!    Many thanks.  It turns out that I had this very problem - Boom arm pulled out.  I'll go install it now.

Also, I installed my Boom Arm on the left (as shown in several pics), but it looks like it makes more sense to mount it on the right. 

Regards,

Dan.
 
Corwin,

Thanks again for your help.  I reinstalled the boom arm to the right and it seems better than way.    And the clamp should elminate the pull-out issue.

Regards,

Dan.
 
You are more than welcome, Dan.  And now that you have successfully finished your new Boom Arm assembly we can all go back to composing our acceptance speeches for winning the last of the Dominos in tomorrow's raffle.   :P
 
You know, "we," as in 'we are all hoping to win tomorrow's raffle.'  "Weeee," on the other hand, is the sound that is sure to emit from the winner of said raffle!

I know that I will be thinking about this ALL day, and I am sure that I will not be the only "we"...  But, sadly, there will be herd only a single "Weeee" tomorrow.  So, Good Luck to all the "we" people out there hoping to win!

Corwin
 
My wife informs me that my boom arm arrived today, I ordered it from Bob on Monday.  I hope to have time this weekend to install it.
 
Bill,

If you have the setup instructions, it should take about 30 minutes max.  The only thing that wasn't obvious was the hose clamp (Corwin helped me with that one.)  Pretty simple.  Two things though...

Most pics show the arm on the left.  I tried that, didn't like it, and moved mine to the right because that's where the hose entry is.  My CT22 is in a tight space now.    The stabilizer arms seem to get in the way.  Since I have the Host Garage (with hose) and a systainer on top, it seem prety stable; I'm considering taking them off. 

Good luck.

Dan.
 
Christian O. said:
Dan,

Yes indeed, we have a lot of work to do, and we know it. And step by step we will become better.

I will forward your post to the product management in Germany. We have a constant discussion with
them about the appropriate level of documentation. The current documentation seems to work well
in the rest of the world. We are the only Festool subsidiary complaining constantly about it. And we
are the only subsidiary that has started to write own manuals.

Thanks for your comments!

Regards,

Christian
Click to expand...

Well I would like to challenge that.  I have a workshop full of festools, but were in not for information gleaned from this forum I would still be in the dark about far too many features/best practices.  I think that the multi-language documentation I receive each time I buy a new Festool is, to be polite, a disappointment.  Maybe in Europe we don't complain because there is no forum by which we can air our grievances?  Maybe professional woodworkers in Europe don't bother reading instructions at all?  In Festool's "defence" I would say that it could be a European trend - they are put to shame by another great European tool manufacturer - Felder.  Their equipment is very good - their instructions are COMPLETE RUBBISH.
 
I posted elsewhere my complaint about documentation for the MFT. Today I got the 1400 router and the multilingual documentation is pretty worthless at best. Ran into a problem right away with a stuck bit and nothing whatsoever in documentation was helpful. Only help on the forum and downloading the USA manual were helpful.
I realize you aim for the professional/trade market, but still...
How about some "troubleshooting" documentation for what must be common errors such as mine?
 
Starting with the Domino, Festool USA will be including the new manuals in the Systainer...at least that's what I heard.

As for the older tools, for those like the Saws, Router and MFT, The ISA should at a minimum be including the link to those manuals in their confirmation emails as it is unreasonable to expect the average purchaser to be familiar with the Web resources.

Personally I thought the Boom Arm was sufficient and since Dan had already done a review I didn't bother when I installed mine.  While I'm pretty busy, if there was a desire for one I could take mine apart and do a step by step pictorial installation writeup.

As for anything I've reviewed, my write-ups should be sufficient to familiarize you with the tools.  I haven't done one on the OF1400 yet though Ricks manual is outstanding (better than anything I would do) and should be more than sufficient.
 
bill-e said:
I haven't done one on the OF1400 yet though Ricks manual is outstanding (better than anything I would do) and should be more than sufficient.
Click to expand...

Where is Rick's manual on the 1400?

Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

K
Boom Arm MFT - Photography Boom Arm
Replies
5
Views
1K
Packard
P
K
Boom Arm for CT26 - need anti-static hose extension and longer cord
Replies
7
Views
2K
Woody Knotsensplintahs
W
W
Wobble in Depth Stop Chuck DC UNI FF
Replies
1
Views
756
Ultimate Tools Marketing
Ultimate Tools Marketing
F
CT 26 E Dust Extractor & Boom Arm Set - Lowered Price
Replies
1
Views
304
FutureArtisan
F
A
Static Shock - Cordless table saw CSC SYS 50
Replies
17
Views
47K
aWanderer
A
Back
Top