This is a very simple and easy fix to something that has been annoying me for a little while. You see the whole point to the "Plug-it" cable is that you only need one cable to use any of your tools.
This is a great idea and still one of Festools best, however I found this happening to me.
Well now if I have to take the cable out anyway every time I want to use the tool I might as well use that cable. Kind of making that aspect of plug-it redundant.
So I set about fixing the problem. "Where could I put the cable without it interfering with me taking the Festool out and somewhere that is not fully utilised?" is what I thought. I then proceeded to open the Systainer and hit me like a brick to the head "The lid!"
This was the challenge.
This is what it looked like after the extras were taken off.
Then I noticed these:
And I thought that is the perfect place to start.
Next up was how to hold the cable without messing with the lid too much. I tried a couple of bent screws but they didn't work too well.
So I grabbed one of these:
Screwed it in and it seemed to fit perfectly.
Note: be careful when screwing in, I found that the plastic was stressing/going white with the size of cup hook I was using and I would guess that it wouldn't take a much bigger one. I used a 30mm (1.18 inch) cup hook.
Also don't screw it in too far. On my test run with a spare systainer I found the original screw I used could poke through the top of the systainer.
It ended up looking like this.
The test run seemed to go well.
At this point I was worried that either the cup hooks or the cable were going to catch on my TS55 or on the edge of the body of the systainer. To my relief there was no problem at all.
As you can see the latches are open and the lid is just resting on the body and with the gap as small as that there surely couldn't be any catching.
I'm proud to say this has to be easiest fix I've ever done. To be brutally honest I have no idea why Festool haven't done something similar or at least make a designated place for the cable to go. I mean it really can't cost that much to adjust the plastic mould of the lid to have rod like protrusions to hold the body of the cable and two plastic clips (Like those on vacuum cleaners) for the two ends. Oh well.
Oh, if you want to get really fancy I thought about adding these to hold the two ends properly:
**UPDATE
After trying this with all my systainers and tools I found it works for all of mine (see below for a list) with some fiddling. The exception was my Trion jigsaw, since it came in a Sytainer 1 it was going to be tough from the start. I could close it with the cable wrapped around the cup hooks but the pressure I had to apply I felt was too much and I scrapped it for the trion.
This is what I mean by "fiddling"
I cut it down a bit. This is great because it could then be screwed all the way into the systainer without worry that it would poke a hole in the top.
The tools that worked for me:
OF1010 Router
TS55 Saw
RO125 Sander
DF500 Domino
This is a great idea and still one of Festools best, however I found this happening to me.
Well now if I have to take the cable out anyway every time I want to use the tool I might as well use that cable. Kind of making that aspect of plug-it redundant.
So I set about fixing the problem. "Where could I put the cable without it interfering with me taking the Festool out and somewhere that is not fully utilised?" is what I thought. I then proceeded to open the Systainer and hit me like a brick to the head "The lid!"
This was the challenge.
This is what it looked like after the extras were taken off.
Then I noticed these:
And I thought that is the perfect place to start.
Next up was how to hold the cable without messing with the lid too much. I tried a couple of bent screws but they didn't work too well.
So I grabbed one of these:
Screwed it in and it seemed to fit perfectly.
Note: be careful when screwing in, I found that the plastic was stressing/going white with the size of cup hook I was using and I would guess that it wouldn't take a much bigger one. I used a 30mm (1.18 inch) cup hook.
Also don't screw it in too far. On my test run with a spare systainer I found the original screw I used could poke through the top of the systainer.
It ended up looking like this.
The test run seemed to go well.
At this point I was worried that either the cup hooks or the cable were going to catch on my TS55 or on the edge of the body of the systainer. To my relief there was no problem at all.
As you can see the latches are open and the lid is just resting on the body and with the gap as small as that there surely couldn't be any catching.
I'm proud to say this has to be easiest fix I've ever done. To be brutally honest I have no idea why Festool haven't done something similar or at least make a designated place for the cable to go. I mean it really can't cost that much to adjust the plastic mould of the lid to have rod like protrusions to hold the body of the cable and two plastic clips (Like those on vacuum cleaners) for the two ends. Oh well.
Oh, if you want to get really fancy I thought about adding these to hold the two ends properly:
**UPDATE
After trying this with all my systainers and tools I found it works for all of mine (see below for a list) with some fiddling. The exception was my Trion jigsaw, since it came in a Sytainer 1 it was going to be tough from the start. I could close it with the cable wrapped around the cup hooks but the pressure I had to apply I felt was too much and I scrapped it for the trion.
This is what I mean by "fiddling"
I cut it down a bit. This is great because it could then be screwed all the way into the systainer without worry that it would poke a hole in the top.
The tools that worked for me:
OF1010 Router
TS55 Saw
RO125 Sander
DF500 Domino
On the flip side it also the standard (although from my last cheap black & decker buy it seems to be changing) that the drill doesn't come with bits.
