Official Luthiers Forum!

There have been several threads about the sanders over the last week or so, so I suppose I’ll add another…
For those of you that have used the 125 I have a question about it…

So the sander is 200$. For a nice tool that’s reasonable. But the dust extractor as another $370!

So, what’s wrong w using my small shop vac as a dust extractor?? Is it just the size of the hookup?

Insight is appreciated….
Thanks.
B


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I just use my regular shop vac without a problem. I ordered the adapter for the Festool and it fits my smaller shop vac hose fine.

Dave

I use mine on a downdraft table with the extraction port hooked to the dust collection system. Just have to get an appropriate hose and adapter. It's a nice sander - I like it better than my Mirka 5".

I also have a Festool CT26 Dust Extractor that lives by my work bench. It is an awesome vacuum but ridiculously expensive. I have no doubt that it would do a better job of catching dust from the extraction port than my DC system (Works great for dust extraction on a 2" x 20" belt sander) but I am working over a downdraft table with the ETS 125 which is why I don't bother to drag the CT26 over.

The difference between a Festool DC system (or shop vac) is that the Festool and other shop vacs use high-pressure high flow and dust collectors are low-pressure high flow. Dust collectors require large diameter hoses for adequate flow (cfm) and don't work that well with small hoses. If I didn't have a good downdraft table I would use the CT26 with ETS125.

Shop vac should be fine.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I used my regular shop vac with my Festool ETS 125 for a while. It worked, but I didn't like it as much as I felt I should. I just recently bought a Festool CT SYS, and I think I am going to like it a lot more. If I had known then what I know now, and if I were committed to using a regular shop vac with the 125, here are the things I would have done differently:

1. I would have bought a Festool hose (the nice one with the green cloth exterior) and then hooked up the adapters at the shop vac end, instead of using my regular shop vac hose with an adapter at the sander end. The Festool hose is smaller, more flexible, and less likely to snag on things. It's just a lot easier to deal with than a regular shop vac hose.

2. I would have figured out a way to have the shop vac automatically turn on and off when I flip the switch on the sander.

3. I would have figured out a way to have a bleeder valve somewhere along the hose line, whether at the shop vac end or the sander end, to control the suction. Too much suction makes the sander harder to use.

The Festool dust extractor I bought is quieter than my shop vac, it has the nice Festool hose, it is capable of being wall-mounted (something I really wanted), it has the auto on/off feature, and with the addition of a little Home Depot doodad, I have a bleeder valve at the dust extractor end. So, while I could have lived with the shop vac a bit longer if I had done what I outlined above, I like this setup better.

I can't find it but I did an experiment here of the OLF around 2008ish and put black construction paper on several horizontal surfaces in my shop. Then I proceeded to use the 125 ROS and Festool dust extractor with special hose and sanded a body (guitar.... ) in the white (sounds kinky no... ) getting it ready for final finishing. When I was done there was virtually no dust anywhere in my shop which was a spare bedroom in my condo nor was there any dust on the black construction paper.

Benefits of the Festool "system" meaning dust extractor and ROS is the extractor is HEPA, at least mine is and it's the very fine particles that give woodworkers the most health problems so a GOOD HEPA vac is an investment in your health Snow. That's how I saw it.

Also you can plug your ROS into the dust extractor and simply tuning on the ROS also turns on the dust extractor. When I'm done with the ROS when I turn it off the dust extractor automatically runs for around 5 seconds or so to clean the remaining dust from the ROS and hose. It works great.

Wanted to mention too that I also ran the 131 CFM Festool dust extractor with my Performax 10 - 20 and the pair did great together. I could thickness sand in my home in that bedroom and the dust extractor did a good enough job of gobbling up all the dust. I later bought a big ass floor standing dust collector but the Festool did so well, was quieter, easier, etc. that I really did not need any more horsepower for the amount of building and production that one person can do.

Great stuff and all my Festool stuff is still going strong. One more thing. When my Festool drill battery finally would not charge anymore about a year ago (it was 15 years old......) I bought a new kind of Festool battery and Festool told me that they had made my original charger forward compatible for future battery chemistry. Wow, imagine that a company easing my way into new technology not prematurely sunsetting their own technology to force me to buy more.

If I was building I would own everything Festool makes that I would use to build, simply very good stuff well thought out and really not any more expensive. My drill cost around $275 17 years ago. Since then my business partner Dave Collins has gone through 5 $100 drills.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I read on a Facebook group (so it’s 100% true) that the Festool collector is designed to work with the sander in that it doesn’t whisk away all the dust immediately the way a powerful shop vac or dust collector would. This results in the sanding results not being as good as they could be when using a shop vac / dust collector. The rationale was that the dust still on the surface let the disc slide around in a way that lessens swirl marks.

I’m usually trying to figure out how to move more air not less. What say ye?


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My Festool vac has great suction and it has no idea what's on the end of the hose so I'm not buying that one. I use it vacuuming the floor, cleaning the bench/guitars, and for dust collection on some of my small stationary sanders - it works great. Stupid expensive, I thought when I bought it but worth it I think now.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Hmmm. Here are the things that roll around in my head in response to the eternal wisdom of herd mentality on Facebook (let's pretend there is a great emogi conveying sarcasm right here): Most Festool dust extractors (but not mine) have a variable suction control, which is meant to address the need for less suction during sanding with a random orbital sander like the ETS 125. Having great suction is, well, great for a lot of things, but some folks feel that too much of it during sanding can mess with the rotation of the pad on a random orbital sander. So, being able to dial down the suction is a desirable feature. Inherently weak suction is not the desirable feature; rather, the ability to make it weaker, as needed, is the desirable feature.

On mine, which I just bought and need to experiment with (a CT SYS), it sucks plenty, but if I wind up needing to dial it back, I have an attachment from Home Depot that has a bleeder valve. We'll see how much I need it, but it only cost $12.00 USD.

Well this happened today
Happy post Christmas gift ha



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I've had my ETS-125 and MIDI vacuum for about 15 years now, and can't say enough about them. The vacuum's bad ass. It's quiet. Powerful. Has convenient features. And like a few have mentioned, you can dial it down when sanding to avoid swirls. I run the vacuum around 30% when sanding, or else the suction is so strong that the sander doesn't want to move freely. I usually don't have much in the way of dust left on the surface when I sand, and the finish quality is incredible.

That said, I actually got the vacuum due to noise constraints. I was working on our condo's patio and didn't want complaints. I bested the rest of the complex's population by at least 40 years, and they were all too happy to pick up that phone. I remember paying half of what I'm seeing online now, though, and wouldn't be comfortable doing it again if I needed to spend $600+ dollars. It's a great vacuum, but not $600 great.

I really appreciate the low db's and good performance of the Festool vacs. I use a 2" hose to my disc sander with a hood and drill press in the clean room. It has a HEPA filter and I also have a room HEPA filter.

Pat

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Pat

Very cool drill press too Pat, nice!

I think mine is a CT 22 too. They sure can be quiet you're right and that's a plus.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I use a fein vac with my sanders. It is quieter than the festool vacs I have tried, but I still have to use hearing protection because the combined sound of the sander, vac, and airflow.

It'd be helpful to be more specific, because there is more than one ETS 125.

I think most here are referring to the ETS 125 REQ(-plus), which is the less expensive version with a 2mm stroke. There is also the ETS 125/3 EQ-Plus, at twice the price and with a 3mm stroke.

I just bought the latter, along with a CT 26 E extractor, because it was available locally (which is important to me), and I had immediate need beyond the world of guitars (let's just say I have six months to rebuild a totally gutted house that my daughter intends to move into this summer

So far, I'm quite impressed, and have ordered the Oneida systainer cyclone to go with it.

I have had the same Festool extractor for a number of years. Shop vacuum, extractor, etc. It's been a great machine.

The ability to adjust airflow and well matched tool hookup for Festool's line of power tools is the main reason to still with Festool for the vac. But there are similar options (fairly comparable in price) that will work similarly. I'm well down the Festool rabbit hole and the juice has been worth the squeeze all around for me. YMMV.

Also, if you haven't bought the sander yet, I highly recommend rolling with the 150mm ETS EQ rather than the 125. Despite what Festool says (because they want to sell you one of everything), you can put the 125mm pads on the 150mm units. The reverse is not true (you cannot put 150mm pads on the 125mm unit). Two birds, one stone.

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Aaron Craig