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Thread: Fire! Festool CT22 vac

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Milwaukee
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    907

    Fire! Festool CT22 vac

    I just had a most unpleasant thing happen. I was routing a mortise with my Festool OF2200 router connected to my Festool CT22 vac and during the process of making the mortise, the bag in the vac started on fire. Billowing smoke coming from it. Well, quick, out the door with that! The wood is new clean hard maple. No hidden metal, the bit is intact and it's tungsten carbide. What happened? I don't understand why it'd start on fire. I don't see anything to generate a spark. Yeah, I can see the fine dust in the bag being ready to go, but where's the source of ignition? And scratch one CT22 vac. That one has had it.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Edmonton, Canada
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    2,479
    that's scary. Did you notice any burning in your mortises? Maple is prone to burning quickly especially if the router bit isn't very sharp or if you go too slow. Very hot saw dust with a good flow of air could start it but they must have been super hot already...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
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    6,393
    Inspect the maple where your router was in the last minute of your extractor's life.

    Maple is notorious for burning - whether with a TS, a DP, or a router - even a green kool-aid router. Especially when the cutting tool has moved to the downslope of the "sharp curve".

    Do you see any scorch marks in the routed section?

    My hypothesis is that some dust or chips got very very hot from the router bit contact with the wood. Hot enough to combust the fines, when they met up in the flex hose or the bag. I would first have guessed some inadvertent contact with metal that created spark[s], but you seem to have that ruled out.

    Either that, or it is some hidden Machavellian Green feature that enforces planned obsolescence, and replacement with a newer model.

    EDIT: Sorry - Mreza types faster than me - his post was not there when I started. Apologize for the duplication.
    When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
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    Wapakoneta,Ohio
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    427
    what about static, could that cause it?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
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    New England
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    Was this a plunge cut? Some router bits are not made for plunging, only coming at the cut from the side, and I have experienced burning until the depth is reached and the router is moving sideways. The result could be a tiny ember in your vac and no visible burn marks on the mortise after it is done.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Hayes, Virginia
    Posts
    14,760
    I would suspect the motor as the ignition source. I've never heard of a fire starting from chips from a hand held router, at least there has never been one reported here in almost eleven years. There have been incidents of CNC Routers starting fires when the router bit gets dull or breaks from excessive routing speeds. There have been several fires reported that started in shop vacs that were being used for CNC work. Shop vacs are not designed to run for extended periods of time as they will eventually overheat and often catch on fire.

    Check your vac motor.
    .

  7. #7
    Post pictures on the Festool owners group site. They worry about these things. They will try their darndest to to make you forget your vacuum tried to burn your shop down.
    Last edited by Harvey Miller; 01-25-2015 at 7:56 PM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
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    The Hartland of Michigan
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    7,628
    Quote Originally Posted by Max Neu View Post
    what about static, could that cause it?
    Let's not drag that dead horse out of the sawdust.
    Never, under any circumstances, consume a laxative and sleeping pill, on the same night

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Milwaukee
    Posts
    907
    I doubt static, I use an anti- static hose. No Dust Deputy. The bit can plunge. It's a Whiteside 7/8" dia carbide spiral, the up/down one. I cut the large mortises for the Benchcrafted X. When I looked, the only place it burned was the bag area. The plastic holding the hepa filters melted and let them go. Hepa filters are burned. Bad technique? I don't know, I was working about the same as always. Maple does burn easy, easier than cherry even. My other favorite. The corners are burned, but that's where I have to slow down to change direction. It (the vac), was behind me, so I didn't see the trouble brewing. Another couple of minutes and I wouldn't have been able to pick it up and get it out of the house. In the end, it worked out o.k. except for losing an expensive vac.
    Last edited by John Piwaron; 01-25-2015 at 8:35 PM. Reason: grammar

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
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    907
    Oh yeah, I believe the bit is sharp. I had the speed dialed back to 3.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Yorktown, VA
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    2,754
    John, Maybe you can do a postmortem autopsy and see if you can spot an ignition source. Sorry to hear such a high end vac had a problem. I think Keith is probably right.

  12. #12
    Embedded metal maybe, have seen bullets, rocks, steel fragments, busted carbide etc. Doesn't take much under the right combustible conditions.

  13. #13
    Not enough info as yet but if I had to guess based on the bare bones so far....vac motor overheating and in the throws of its own death spiral tried to take you with it.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Milwaukee
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    907
    I really don't see buried anything in the wood. Plus, if I had hit something, an old nail, a rock or whatever, I'm sure it would have damaged the cutter. The cutter looks as good now as ever. No chips or missing anything. The cutter started out clean. When I finished, eventually, it still wasn't especially dirty. I made the cut in 4 passes, the cutter/router wasn't working especially hard.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Toronto Ontario
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    11,248
    Quote Originally Posted by John Piwaron View Post
    I really don't see buried anything in the wood. Plus, if I had hit something, an old nail, a rock or whatever, I'm sure it would have damaged the cutter. The cutter looks as good now as ever. No chips or missing anything. The cutter started out clean. When I finished, eventually, it still wasn't especially dirty. I made the cut in 4 passes, the cutter/router wasn't working especially hard.
    Is the motor on the vacuum OK?

    If so the issue is with a hot chip winding up in the vacuum......................Rod.

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