[OP]
Member
Thanks for the information on the Festool vs Fein vacuums. At some point in time I will probably upgrade, but for now I need to make due with my vac. I have a Rigid 16 gallon vac, but it has a rather short inflexible hose. Are there other hoses that I can attach that are a little longer and maybe a little more flexible that I can hook up to it to hook to hand tools such as my Domino and Track saw and a sander, etc? Reasonable price would be nice also.
Contributor
I've used industrial grade wet/dry vacs that had long (15' - 20') rubber or poly hoses that were much more pliable/flexible than what you get from the big box stores. You might check online or at a local vacuum supplier. The potential downside in using these types of hoses with small hand tools is that they're considerably heavier.
Last edited by Mike Ontko; 09-09-2015 at 3:03 PM.
I use a hose sourced from Peachtree several years ago. I believe it is item 369 here. I've been dragging it around for years and no problems. Flexible, good wear resistance, etc.
Ridgid Vac Mad v1 (16).jpg
Last edited by glenn bradley; 09-09-2015 at 5:02 PM.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
Member
I have two of these kits. I have found this hose to be a very good addition. This is Home Depot in Canada, but they probably have them in the US as well.
Member
I bought this earlier this year. Small learning curve for me as I could not pick up nearly as large pieces of scrap as I could previously. Once I got past that, it is a much better hose than the more rigid version that came with the vac...
Originally Posted by Mike Chalmers
Contributor
I have that orange one from Home Depot, and also a couple of the blue ones from Lowes. The blue ones are a little tougher and thus not as flexible, but not as long as the orange one if I'm remembering correctly. I think they both might be a smaller diameter, and maybe the orange one smallest. They haven't been used in years, so I'm going by old memory.
Member
Rockler has a new hose which comes with a rubber adapter that's suppose to fit pretty much any power hand tool.
Contributor
The orange hoses work well for what you are trying to do. The tool end of the hose is where you may run into some problems. Festool sells the connectors for the tool end individually. As I recall you'll need to wrap some electrical tape around the hose to get a good fit. The domino takes the smaller connector that's usually on the 27mm hose and this may require an additional adapter to fit on the Ridgid hose.
Member
Bosch 5 meter hose:
http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-VAC005-5.../dp/B0000AV78B
Less than $30 at Amazon. Nicely flexible, hooks to my DeWalt track saw without an adapter. Hooks to my DeWalt sander with the inexpensive adapter Amazon sells. I have the big end on my dust deputy, never hooked it directly to the vacuum but I'm sure it is possible. At worst you might have to make an adapter out of 2 inch PVC. Or you could get a dust deputy.
Member
The Bosch VAC005 at about $30 is one of the great deals out there for doing what you want to do. It is a 35mm hose but with a Festool 27mm compatible end. Will plug into any normal vac and most of the smaller items you wish including either Festool or Makita Tracksaws and all of the common Festool items. The tool end is NOT up to the Festool quality but will last quite some time and did I mention they are almost free? Seriously, they are $30 and would be a decent deal at almost double that. I bought several extra hoses years ago because I figured the vendor would figure out they were giving them away and they are still the same price.
I should mention that they don't actually match the picture in the Amazon link posted above, typical Amazon vendor incompetence. I think there is info in the reviews showing they are actually correct on the tool end in spite of the picture.
A typical Rigid Shop Vac will be fine for a tracksaw, routers, domino, or most other stuff EXCEPT sanders. Sanders need variable suction or you will go crazy trying to work.
Last edited by Greg R Bradley; 09-09-2015 at 8:32 PM.
[OP]
Member
The Bosch looks good, but I am not sure I want to sign up for Prime. The other choices appear to be the Rockler, the Rigid orange one and the blue one from Lowes. The Rockler is the most expensive, but has the attachments. Keep up the information.
Contributor
Woodcraft stocks 2.5" DC hose in ten foot lengths, plus the fittings to make them work with shop vac. I've used this set up for years, with only one problem. I have to put a zip tie around hose to keep from unthreading itself from the fitting.
Member
I have the ridgid orange hose and would not recommend it for hand held power tool use. It is great for a general purpose clean up hose.
Member
You don't need to sign up for Amazon Prime to buy the one from Amazon. They will just charge you freight if you don't. Prime just charges you a yearly fee for a variety of free services including free 2 day freight on certain items. Yes, Amazon is bad about trying to push Prime on you, it could be a good deal, BUT you don't have to have it.
For your use of connecting a tracksaw and domino to a normal shopvac, there are only a few good choices:
Bosch VAC005 - 35mm hose, fairly flexible 5 Meter hose (16.5'), tool end a bit stiff and will wear out in a couple years of daily use.
Festool 27mm non anti-static hose - very flexible with very nice tool end. 3 Meter will be 3 times price of VAC005 and not work as well with tracksaw, OK with Domino. Also available as 5 Meter for even more money.
Festool 36mm non anti-static hose - A little better than both above for tracksaw since it adds the larger tool end that fits over the dust port. 5 times the price of VAC005.
When I was buying lot of the Bosch VAC005 hoses, I couldn't find any deal that comes close to Amazon. There are a couple others like AceTool.com that are only about $12 more but they seem to mark up their freight compared to Amazon.
Last edited by Greg R Bradley; 09-10-2015 at 9:50 AM.
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