Another Dust Collection Quandary For the Experts

[dgreen810]

Upate:

While the little box works OK as long as you are using a bit partially embedded in the fence, it does not work very well when the bit is fully exposed. I made this approach cutting a dovetail to fit the dovetail slot in the top of the fence. It works pretty well for everything above the table but I still have chips from below the table but not nearly what I had before. Maybe more modifications to follow.

Don G

[Dccarpenter]

I have been thinking of getting a ct26 for use in my temp, shop. I am rebuilding the main barn and currently using the 16x16 addition as a temporary shop so no room for a dust collector and I have a big one for the main shop.

Will I see a noticeable difference in suction quality between it and a regular shop vac? I will be using it mainly hooked to the lower saw guard on my mark v as well as with the radial arm saw.

To a lesser extent it will see use with routers and a random orbit sander.

Will it do anything with a mark v mounted shopsmith planer or am I better up sweeping up the shavings?

[reible]

I'm rather new to festool but I think unless you plan to add festool tools to your shop I don't think you need to spend the money for their vacuum. For one thing the bags are expensive as are all the attachments. The standard hose is small, fine for a lot of the hand tools but I think if you were cutting say dados on the shopsmith you will need the next larger hose, a $166 option if you stick with festool.

Some of the features of the festool is the anti-static system that protects your tools and vacumm. The coating adds cost but less function when connecting to things like a shopsmith. The auto start function works well with smaller tools but I'm not sure it would supply the current you need for a shopsmith. The variable suction function which is importation for some tools again would have no purpose when attached to a shopsmith.

Don't get me wrong the festool vacuums are great tools but..... they work best with festool tools. Keep in mind the ct26 is $700, a pack of filters $40 and even if you go with the non-antistatic hose it is $126. There are a lot cheaper systems out there.

Ed

[mbcabinetmaker]

The Festool vacuum works very well with the Shopsmith 2 1/4" inch hose. It will plug right into the vacuum without an adapter. The self start works just fine. I used it for years on my 520 and now and use on the Mark 7. Yes the bags are a little pricey but you paying for convenience.

Funny thing is on the Mark 7 at 250 RPMs it doesn't even pull enough electricity to trigger the vacuum to suck. The machine will still come on but you have to apply some load to whatever tool you're using lets say the sanding discs and then the vacuum will start to pull.

[reible]

No doubt the festool people are designing their units with some wiggle room but the table they provide says 1200W. This is in the 10A range which is lower then the maximum draw of the shopsmith. If it works it works but from the paper work it looks a might close.

ScreenHunter_80 Jun. 22 08.23.jpg (102.99 KiB) Viewed 10879 times

Some of that might be due to the maximum current draw of the vacuum being 1200W also, ie reaching the limit of 20A combined. If you are on a 15A circuit of course the numbers would have to be lower.

Again I have no practical experience just reading the manual.

I did not see a limit to have the auto start work, of course there has to be one so perhaps I missed it. The information is from this pdf:

https://service.festoolusa.com/media/pdf/CT-Vac.pdf

Ed

[dusty]

Continuous run currents or start up currents.

This makes a big difference. I run my Shopsmith and Dust Collector on the same 15amp line when working away from the shop. I must avoid simultaneous start up when configured that way but otherwise I have no problem on a 15amp line.

I have posted a thread on this subject. There has been a lot of "fake news" (todays lingo) about line loads. The Shopsmith, if properly maintained and aligned, can be run quite successfully and more importantly safely on a 15amp circuit.