G'Day Justmcf and Hi David!
Last December I spent a delightful couple of days on the Gold Coast on my way back to Los Angeles after filming a documentary about numbats in WA south of Perth. Had I but known I would have rung you up!
Seriously David, it was seeing the CT collectors in action in 2006 that brought me back into woodworking. I had no space for a conventional shop once I moved to a condo. I did have a spare bedroom with excellent north light. There being no space for a table saw, I got the Festool guide rail religion! Big Time. Even without a ts my TS55 EQ filled its share of CT22 bags. I selected the CT22 because it would fit on the back seat of my Grand Am and the CT33 would not!
I fully understand using a CT instead of installing a traditional DC system, especially when using your tools once in a while and on site.
I do have 2 CT22 currently, one with an official boom arm and one that often works with a boom arm I built. That is the CT22 which we also use on-sites. In the shop when I am using most Festools I find they run best with the CT22 instead of the installed DC system. The exception being the Kapex which works fine with the big DC.
Besides the Industrial SawStop I have on order, I am buying a SawStop portable contractor's model. For use in the field, David, I will use your suggestion and hook it to a CT22. However, since we now have a truck, as soon as they are available I will buy a CT36. That self-cleaning bag feature is marvelous. In many ways I feel the engineering of SawStop is similar to Festool principles in that dust collection is there from the beginning.