Scott,
I'll say your welcome on behalf of the others here who are the persons who really helped you: Forrest and Steve. I am not the person who actually helped you. I had no idea what problem you were describing until they jumped in with their information.
Jigsaws... I don't own a Festool jigsaw. Mine is a Makita with top handle, purchased a few years ago when I needed to do a lot of repair and rebuilding of sections of the large deck on the back of my home. I chose it because of a combination of features: relatively small size which fit my small hands, satisfaction with other Makita products (drill) that I earlier owned and professional contractors working at my house used (tortured would be a more accurate description) (circular saws and mitre saw), an LED light that shines on the cutting point, and a price about 1/2 that of a Festool jigsaw and at the time of my purchase less than the price of the Bosch jigsaw. I still like that machine, but its blade guide is a hardened roller whose non-adjustable groove allows a lot of blade wonder when making small radius cuts. The Bosch and Festool jigsaws are far superior in that regard. Top handle v. barrel grip, I prefer the barrel grip for precision control, but that is also a matter of individual user preference. You can find other FOG threads in which jigsaws are discussed by users with much more experience than I have with jigsaws.
Vacuum machine... I strongly recommend getting a Festool CT 22 E or CT 33 E vacuum machine. It will become the heart of your system for working as clean as possible, and when you add sanders, having the variable suction function will help achieve the best results possible. An alternative is a Fein Turbo II vacuum, especially the newest models that have variable speed (vacuum), too. Both of these vacuum machines offer tool-triggered operation. But you will need a Festool 27mm hose that has the elastomeric tool end fitting to be able to conveniently connect to many Festool products including their sanders and OF 1010 router. The hard plastic tool end fitting on the Fein hose won't work with the Deltex 93 sander or OF 1010 router; it can be made to work conveniently with Festools having ~1 inch diameter round DC ports, eg. RO 125, ETS 125 and ETS 150 sanders among others, by installing a rubber O-ring onto the DC nipplie of the Festool and then pushing the larger ID fitting of the Fein hose over the O-ring. This works great and provides some additional angular "swivel joint" movement to the hose-to-Festool connection. The O-rings can be purchased at HD or Lowe's or a hardware or automotive parts store.
Dave R.
