Oneida Dust Deputy for Festool Vacuums

[Callan Campbell]

Oneida has made a Dust Deputy to work with Festool Vacuum units. Looks like a fairly large "systainer" type box sits on top of your Festool unit, with the Small Cyclone unit on top of that. Hose from the cyclone runs down to your Festool Vacuum. And your regular Festool hoses work with the intake side of the cyclone. Current introductory price is $229, shipping seems to be a flat rate of $10.50. They ship out 3rd week of this month[Feb.], and I'll post a review of it when my unit shows up . Part Number is AXD000009

[Brian Kincaid]

Grrr... another think I now cannot live without.
-Brian

[John Myers]

What size hose do you use for the connection between the DD and the Festoon vac? Length/diameter?

[Charles Davis]

At $230 it seems they've adopted Festool's pricing. Guess plastic is getting real expensive these days.

I have a dust deputy and love it. I'll pass on getting one for my Festool stuff though at that price...

[Matt Meiser]

Just this evening I mounted the regular style dust deputy on my Festool vac. I got the standard kit from Woodcraft on the weekend sale for $80. I used a scrap of 1/4" melamine coated MDF from my cutoff rack and cut it to fit on top of the vac, cutting notches here and there so it would lock into the Systainer tabs. Then I bolted the bucket to that. The only other thing I needed was an elbow so the hose would reach. However no one sells an elbow that I could find--until I went to Lowes looking for something to adapt. I found a "Right Angle Brush" which turns out IS a 90 degree elbow with a brush pushed on the end. Snapped that right off and voila.

Works great by the way. Can't detect any loss of suction in the highly scientific "holding my hand over the end of the hose" test.

[Bob Luciano]

At $230 it seems they've adopted Festool's pricing. Guess plastic is getting real expensive these days.

I have a dust deputy and love it. I'll pass on getting one for my Festool stuff though at that price...

Honestly I was thinking the deputy Systaner was a had to have item for me until I saw the price. Way too much when they sell the other deputy that will work and costs much less.

I have a friend that makes electronics that work with Apple products. Apple gets a piece of every sale. Festool may take a similiar bite.

[Eric DeSilva]

Wow. If I use a CT22 bag every, say, 2 months at $6 apiece, and I buy this thing at $229 and use only--say--1/6th the number of bags, it would take me about eight years to pay this off.

What am I missing?

[Frank Martin]

Eric,

This makes sense for someone who works professionally and needs a new bag very often. I am ashamed to say in over 5 years I had my CT22, I probably used only 6 bags so far. I use it mostly hooked up to tools, not much for general shop cleanup. So, this certainly does not make sense for people like me and perhaps you.

I never realized people go through so many bags to justify this or the re-usable Festool filter bag. Or, perhaps some people don't do the calculation to figure out it if makes "economic" sense.

Wow. If I use a CT22 bag every, say, 2 months at $6 apiece, and I buy this thing at $229 and use only--say--1/6th the number of bags, it would take me about eight years to pay this off.

What am I missing?

[Rob Steffeck]

There are some of us that don't have a true dust collection system (yet). I rely on my CT33 for dust collection as well as general shop cleanup. I still have an old shop-vac, but I prefer the Festool because of the lower noise level and how easy it moves. Therefore, I can go through a bag over a weekend. It gets old trying to reuse the non-reusable bags.

For me, this makes more sense than for others. I can either go the original dust deputy route and mount a 5 gallon bucket. Or I can go the original dust deputy route and modify a large systainer (and only save about $50 from the price of the Festool Dust Deputy). Or I can buy the $200 reusable bag from Festool, which I think is the real crime here.

As with anything priced for Festool, I have to think long and hard about it. I'm still on the fence.

[Van Huskey]

The other potential buyer is the pro going into homes etc, the "Festool Deputy" not only looks more professional but is more mobile and less awkward than strapping on a 5 gallon bucket. I imagine some work and some sort of Rubbermaid container and you could get much closer than the bucket though.

[Tri Hoang]

$20 for actual work done (fine dust separation - 6G US-made metal bucket costs $14 at my local borg) and $209 for the professional look.

One way to reduce the cost of Festool bags is to use someone else bags. One could build a box (systainer-size) on top of the CT vac for a shop vac (generic) 15G medium dust bag (3/$10 at WM). The air path would pass through the cheap bag first, then to the Festool bag, and finally through the HEPA filter.

It works out to about $1/5G of dust or 16% of the normal Festool bags. Of course, some suction loss is expected but probably not as much as a having a mini-cyclone.

[David Hostetler]

Don't get me wrong, Festool is nice, and the dust deputy is great, for I would much rather keep running my Ridgid vac / HEPA filter / Thien separator and keep the cash in my wallet...

[joe milana]

Here's my version of the dust deputy add-on used for general cleanup. Pulling the unit around by the hose causes the lid to come off the bucket. The lid/cyclone assembly is pretty flimsy as well. Pulling this thing around the shop and garage, I expect it will fail soon. I would expect the same from the festool unit if used for floor cleaning, but OK for stationary use for dust collection. Performance is excellent though, I have emptied the bucket maybe 5 times, and there is nothing in the vacuum. I will be replacing this unit with the metal one soon.

[Tom Henderson2]

Here's a link for those interested...

http://store.oneida-air.com/dust-deputy-festool.aspx

[Callan Campbell]

I created this post to announce the introductory price in the deal and discount section, not sure why it's in the workshop section now. Seems more like a General Woodworking and Power Tool kind of thing. Anyway, the Festool/Deputy unit hasn't shipped yet, but I got an e-mail asking if I owned a Mini or Midi , as I guess there are different size models that Oneida is making. Once I clarified that I own a CT-22, it's back to waiting for my unit. Once it arrives, and I get it sorted out, I'll add a review.
As for the posts about cost, it's all about trying out new things and new ways of doing things for me. I'm been wanting to move up to a cyclone type dust collection from my single stage unit, and playing around with a smaller version of a cyclone allows me to study this before plunking down a lot of money for a full sized version.
Since I use my CT-22 primarily with my sanders, having a cyclone to catch the fine dust should save my filters and vacuum bags from filling up as easily. The only chip type dust collection my CT-22 sees is larger chips from my Domino since I don't really use it for general clean-up that much. I'm also going to try working with the Dust Deputy with some floor sanders that I bought used, to see how well it can handle floor sanding around the house. I'll post results about that later this year. Since I have a regular shop vac too, I'll be able to try both vacuum units with that type of work.