R
Rob Z
Guest
I'd like to offer up our praise for the new CT26, and also pass along our thanks to both my dealer Tom Bellemare and to Christian at Festool.
The CT26 has proven itself to be an incredible machine, and I'll have a few observations to share in a moment. But first, allow me to tell you how we ended up with two new CT26's.
I bought two RTS 400 sanders from Tom, specifically for my men to use to sand plaster and drywall on our jobs. We have ended up using these sanders on other surfaces, but they were originally bought for drywall and plaster, and that is where they get the most use. There are a few other drywall sanders on the market, but I liked what Tom had to say about using the RTS 400, I liked the fact that they were compatible with our existing stable of vacs (CT 22 and Midi's), and I liked the wide variety of abrasives. That's how we ended up with sanders being used as a plaster and drywall tool. We eventually ended up having the problems that some others were having-namely the bags blowing apart and making a mess inside the vac. We had a couple of blowouts, and assumed we had done something wrong. I then called Tom for advice, and he and I discussed the issue and he ended up sending me some bags and a new HEPA filter to help ease the pain of having to spend so much time cleaning the machines after a bag blew apart.
At some point, I read on this and similar forums that others that were having problems, as well. We were facing a large remodel job, which was going to have a huge amount of drywall and plaster work to deal with, and I called Tom to see if there was any way I could buy a Planex (the answer was "no"). I wasn't sure what to do, and I really didn't want to go and buy a competitor's sander/vac unit, but I knew I couldn't keep using the existing bags in our Midi's and CT22. It was at this point that Tom went to bat for me and called Christian at Festool.
Christian generously offered to send to me a supply of the new "pliable fleece filter bags" for my CT Mini, which were supposed to be able to avoid the problems with fine dust,--but these bags were in Germany and couldn't be obtained fast enough to help on our project. Christian then shipped two CT 26's to us to use on our projects, and asked only that we use the tools as much as possible for several months, and to provide feedback to him and his staff in Indiana.
We have had the CT 26's for more than three months now. From Day One, I told my men to use these vacs for everything and to give them a good workout. I even told my crew to try and get a bag to explode, because that is exactly the kind of information that Christian and Festool would like to know. For a vac that I had paid for, of course I wouldn't want this to happen, but if we were testing something--I didn't feel so bad about it.
The result is that, even though we have sanded acres of drywall and miles of trim, and cut a lot of cement board, concrete block, bricks and other hard materials.....and haven't had a single problem with a filter bag failing/blowing out/ripping/etc. I've used these vacs with the TS 55 and 75, with the router, with the Rotex and the RAS. I've ground and cut on Corian, stone, tile, and cast iron (with the spark trap). It's been used with the Rotex to strip paint and adhesive off of floors. We've used these CT's as shop vacs, even when the messes were really too much for what the machine should be used for and a broom and dust pan would have been better.
The simple observation is that we haven't been able to get the bags to fail and haven't been able to clog the vac or bog it down.
We recently did a bathroom job in a condo, and there was no room anywhere on site to mix mortar, thinset or grout other than in the bathroom itself. We mixed all the drypack mortar and the fat mud for the walls in buckets with a large drill and mortar paddle. We mixed all the thinset in the room as well. To control the mess, we used the CT26, running continuously, to suck up all the sand and cement dust while we poured material out of the bags and into buckets and while we mixed. I thought that surely we would overheat the machine, or at least kill the filter and have to ask for another one. The result of all of this was that the fleece bags absorbed all the dust and the HEPA filter looked nearly new.
I could note the various features of the new CT26 which are an improvement over those of the CT22, but that really wasn't the purpose of posting this. I instead wanted to let anyone know who might be on the fence about buying this vac, that this in one tough machine and you will not regret having bought it.
I of course don't know the conditions under which the members of the FOG use their CT's, but I am pretty certain that in the past three months, we have put these vacs through what many would consider to be a real endurance test, and under conditions which are more extreme than are found in most shops. If these CT's can handle the rough service on our remodel job sites, they will do well for you, also.
One final example.
We were behind schedule a bit around New Year's. I borrowed an employee of a contractor friend of mine and put him to work with our crew. He started using the CT with the RTS 400. He didn't pay attention to what he was doing, and the CT 26 went tumbling down a flight of steps. The impact at the bottom broke off a corner of the hose garage. The guys pulled the vac back upstairs, reattached the sander, and continued to use it for the rest of the day. It turned out that when the vac went down the stairs, the bag was somehow disengaged from the connection inside the machine. No one thought to check inside, and so they used the vac for the rest of the day, sanding drywall and plaster. We figured this out the next day when one of the guys looked inside to check the bag, and the machine was .......well. you can just imagine what it looked like in there.
One of my guys spent about 30 minutes cleaning it, and then put it back together and started using again. It's been running fine ever since.
edited to fix typos.....
The CT26 has proven itself to be an incredible machine, and I'll have a few observations to share in a moment. But first, allow me to tell you how we ended up with two new CT26's.
I bought two RTS 400 sanders from Tom, specifically for my men to use to sand plaster and drywall on our jobs. We have ended up using these sanders on other surfaces, but they were originally bought for drywall and plaster, and that is where they get the most use. There are a few other drywall sanders on the market, but I liked what Tom had to say about using the RTS 400, I liked the fact that they were compatible with our existing stable of vacs (CT 22 and Midi's), and I liked the wide variety of abrasives. That's how we ended up with sanders being used as a plaster and drywall tool. We eventually ended up having the problems that some others were having-namely the bags blowing apart and making a mess inside the vac. We had a couple of blowouts, and assumed we had done something wrong. I then called Tom for advice, and he and I discussed the issue and he ended up sending me some bags and a new HEPA filter to help ease the pain of having to spend so much time cleaning the machines after a bag blew apart.
At some point, I read on this and similar forums that others that were having problems, as well. We were facing a large remodel job, which was going to have a huge amount of drywall and plaster work to deal with, and I called Tom to see if there was any way I could buy a Planex (the answer was "no"). I wasn't sure what to do, and I really didn't want to go and buy a competitor's sander/vac unit, but I knew I couldn't keep using the existing bags in our Midi's and CT22. It was at this point that Tom went to bat for me and called Christian at Festool.
Christian generously offered to send to me a supply of the new "pliable fleece filter bags" for my CT Mini, which were supposed to be able to avoid the problems with fine dust,--but these bags were in Germany and couldn't be obtained fast enough to help on our project. Christian then shipped two CT 26's to us to use on our projects, and asked only that we use the tools as much as possible for several months, and to provide feedback to him and his staff in Indiana.
We have had the CT 26's for more than three months now. From Day One, I told my men to use these vacs for everything and to give them a good workout. I even told my crew to try and get a bag to explode, because that is exactly the kind of information that Christian and Festool would like to know. For a vac that I had paid for, of course I wouldn't want this to happen, but if we were testing something--I didn't feel so bad about it.
The result is that, even though we have sanded acres of drywall and miles of trim, and cut a lot of cement board, concrete block, bricks and other hard materials.....and haven't had a single problem with a filter bag failing/blowing out/ripping/etc. I've used these vacs with the TS 55 and 75, with the router, with the Rotex and the RAS. I've ground and cut on Corian, stone, tile, and cast iron (with the spark trap). It's been used with the Rotex to strip paint and adhesive off of floors. We've used these CT's as shop vacs, even when the messes were really too much for what the machine should be used for and a broom and dust pan would have been better.
The simple observation is that we haven't been able to get the bags to fail and haven't been able to clog the vac or bog it down.
We recently did a bathroom job in a condo, and there was no room anywhere on site to mix mortar, thinset or grout other than in the bathroom itself. We mixed all the drypack mortar and the fat mud for the walls in buckets with a large drill and mortar paddle. We mixed all the thinset in the room as well. To control the mess, we used the CT26, running continuously, to suck up all the sand and cement dust while we poured material out of the bags and into buckets and while we mixed. I thought that surely we would overheat the machine, or at least kill the filter and have to ask for another one. The result of all of this was that the fleece bags absorbed all the dust and the HEPA filter looked nearly new.
I could note the various features of the new CT26 which are an improvement over those of the CT22, but that really wasn't the purpose of posting this. I instead wanted to let anyone know who might be on the fence about buying this vac, that this in one tough machine and you will not regret having bought it.
I of course don't know the conditions under which the members of the FOG use their CT's, but I am pretty certain that in the past three months, we have put these vacs through what many would consider to be a real endurance test, and under conditions which are more extreme than are found in most shops. If these CT's can handle the rough service on our remodel job sites, they will do well for you, also.
One final example.
We were behind schedule a bit around New Year's. I borrowed an employee of a contractor friend of mine and put him to work with our crew. He started using the CT with the RTS 400. He didn't pay attention to what he was doing, and the CT 26 went tumbling down a flight of steps. The impact at the bottom broke off a corner of the hose garage. The guys pulled the vac back upstairs, reattached the sander, and continued to use it for the rest of the day. It turned out that when the vac went down the stairs, the bag was somehow disengaged from the connection inside the machine. No one thought to check inside, and so they used the vac for the rest of the day, sanding drywall and plaster. We figured this out the next day when one of the guys looked inside to check the bag, and the machine was .......well. you can just imagine what it looked like in there.
One of my guys spent about 30 minutes cleaning it, and then put it back together and started using again. It's been running fine ever since.
edited to fix typos.....
