Griff
(Well crap, my hypometric precursor device is blown…)
21
I stepped into the Festool world about a year or so ago, following multiple references here and in woodworking forums and driven by a desire to clean up the air I breath and the noise I hear. Now that I spend much more time in my shop.
I have a MIDI vac and a 400 sander. My favorite part of the combination is the dust free/quiet I can achieve with the vac at about 50% and the sander at 70%. I’ve also accomplished a few inside my home sanding projects that I never would have considered doing in the past.
Never heard of the Domino joiner ‘til this thread…mine arrives tomorrow😊.
Need to check out the mitre saw too. I use mine frequently, hate the mess even with the huge hood I built behind it with 6” extractor.
IMO the Domino joiners are quite reasonably priced for the very usefully and unique(?) capability they provide. You definitely need to use a shop vac or dust collector with it, but it doesn’t have to be a Festool. Rockler sells a nice flexible hose with all the adapters you need to connect to it and other small tools. In my experience, you don’t need to go the Festool route to get a high performance/quality random orbital sander with effective dust collection. Makita and Dewalt both offer good alternatives I never tried Harbor Freight’s nor have I tried their trim router, and I probably won’t after trying one of their compound miter saws.
But, this forum is about CNC routers. Do shop vacs offer good dust collection for them, or are dust collectors necessary? If so, which dust shoes are best?
I’m using a CT36 (plus static-conductive dust deputy and bin, under the “anything worth doing is worth overdoing” theory of operation) for the miter saw, sanders and Shapeoko and I’m very happy with it. As Griff mentioned, one of the really nice aspects of the CT series is the built-in speed control - as in “quiet, when that’s all you need.”
I regard that as a serious plus for CNC use where it will be running for a long time while not tearing my ears off (I’ve put a fair amount of effort into making everything else quiet as well). Other folks have come up with clever shop-vac noise reductions strategies (Winston built an enclosure and added a speed control, for instance) so again - not strictly necessary to go with Festool. But if you want a “take it out of the box and start using it” solution, it works well.
I am using a Festool CT Midi with a one-off Reality 3DP dust shoe (it uses a smaller hose (matches the stock Festool hose and a small transparent tube), has the hose off on a diagonal, and fully encloses the endmill)
It works well, but I wish the skirt were more easily removed (it’s some bolts — I need to work up thumbscrews) and in long cuts with weird features some debris will get stuck — if I’m feeling fussy I pause and clean things up, but it doesn’t seem to be necessary.
It’s my understanding that with sufficient suction that the opening under the vacuum connection isn’t an issue — since I cheaped out with the CT Midi, I asked for fully enclosed. At some point I’ll order the current model and try it with a larger hose.
You’re missing money if you ask me. Not to say that Festool doesn’t make nice tools. They do. I’ve owned some. If you have all Festool then you certainly benefit from everything fitting together and storing neatly. Tools like the domino are unique and certainly offer some advantages. When I first got a circular saw from them with a track, nobody else was really doing like that yet and it was indeed very cool and had great dust collection for a handheld circular saw. Proprietary parts and high cost keeps me away now though. Having to run to a woodcraft or rockler, etc. instead of the big box store for a vacuum filter or some sand paper is a real bummer when you are in teh middle of a project. I will say that I also own a saw-stop table saw, which if I’m not mistaken is from the same parent company. I’m willing to pay for that safety feature and it’s really a nice tool.
