OK - I got my Festool sander - now what

[Rick Alexander]

I was one of the guys that jumped on the $100 Festool sander last year and I just now got mine in the last week. This is the first Festool for me because I've always been a little leery of the plunge into the bottomless money pit abyss that appears to surround these high dollar tools. My other sanders are the Porter Cable 394 that is attached to a 7810 vacuum and a Boxch 1250 DEVS that's attached to a second metal sided shop vac style vacuum using a general purpose hose from Peachtree WW supply (using duct tape I might add to keep it together). My question is just how are you suppose to hook the Festool sander to a vacuum system unless you buy their hoses and vac? Is there some sort of adapter or something? I'd love to have their collector - just not right now.

Ricky

[Ben Rivel]

No official adapter to third party vacs, youll have to rig something up yourself with whatever you can find. You were supposed to pick up a vac with that $99 sander! That was their plan all along! lol

[Jacob Barnhart]

I have one of the Bosch 35mm hoses. It should fit over the port on that sander. The other end will fit into a standard shop vac. Bosch also sells adapters that go from a 1.25" I think down to a metric size that fits. I've never bought them separately, they just came with my sander, jigsaw and routers.

[Chris Stephenson]

pick up the shop vac attachment kit from rockler. Works with festool

http://www.rockler.com/dust-right-un...-port-hose-kit

[Rick Alexander]

No official adapter to third party vacs, youll have to rig something up yourself with whatever you can find. You were supposed to pick up a vac with that $99 sander! That was their plan all along! lol

Yep - I know that and dang it it's probably going to work. Now to figure out how to sneak a new tool in the shop and disguise how new it is once it's in there. I'm absolutely screwed if she finds out how much this "little" vacuum cost me. It's all good - been kicking around a Domino for a good 3 years now and that might happen after all as well and I'm pretty much sure that won't work without the Festool collector. She's the one that wants the new bed and I've about convinced her that will absolutely require the purchase of a Domino. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Funny thing is when Festool started advertising over here I thought who in their right mind would EVER spend that kind of money on those kids of tools.

[Ben Rivel]

Yep - I know that and dang it it's probably going to work. Now to figure out how to sneak a new tool in the shop and disguise how new it is once it's in there. I'm absolutely screwed if she finds out how much this "little" vacuum cost me. It's all good - been kicking around a Domino for a good 3 years now and that might happen after all as well and I'm pretty much sure that won't work without the Festool collector. She's the one that wants the new bed and I've about convinced her that will absolutely require the purchase of a Domino. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Funny thing is when Festool started advertising over here I thought who in their right mind would EVER spend that kind of money on those kids of tools.

Oh me too man! No joke. That stupid $99 sander got me in over my head with their tools. I replaced almost all my hand power tools with their stuff right after I got it. So far Ive been pretty happy I did. Stuff is just nicer. Plain and simple. And tons of useful accessories! Plus the systainers feed my OCD nicely! lol

[Bruce Page]

Shuck out a few grand for a lathe and make your own adapters.

[Nick Decker]

One of the things about that Rockler small port kit that I really appreciate is that hose that comes with it. Much more flexible and less cumbersome than the usual 2-1/2" shop hose.

I remember when those sanders were (briefly) offered. I was considering one myself but they didn't last long enough for me to persuade myself. Sanding is just about the worst way to make sawdust, IMO, so I was a slow sell.

[Victor Robinson]

Sounds like that sander is working out to be the gateway drug they hoped it would, lol.

As others have said, you have to piece together hoses/adapters if you want to go the non-Festool route for dust collection. The Bosch hose is a really good option and fits many Festools perfectly. For adapters, Fein used to make a nifty $5 step adapter that you could cut to size. For some ridiculous reason (and possibly the same reason they decided to stop making vacs that were actual competition to Festool) they decided to stop making it.

[Van Huskey]

Sounds like that sander is working out to be the gateway drug they hoped it would, lol.

The real insidious thing is that $50 voucher that just must be used....

[Nick Decker]

Sounds like that sander is working out to be the gateway drug they hoped it would, lol.

As others have said, you have to piece together hoses/adapters if you want to go the non-Festool route for dust collection. The Bosch hose is a really good option and fits many Festools perfectly. For adapters, Fein used to make a nifty $5 step adapter that you could cut to size. For some ridiculous reason (and possibly the same reason they decided to stop making vacs that were actual competition to Festool) they decided to stop making it.

I'm not sure that's the case. I recently got the Fein Turbo I and am very happy with it. It's quiet, has excellent suction (it claims a greater CFM than Festool, but I don't know what conditions either are tested under) and doesn't cost nearly as much. The Festools may be better at meeting OSHA requirements, but OSHA doesn't come around my shop.

I've never used one of the older Feins, so I can't compare them, but to me, the new one is better in all respects than the big box vacs. At $265, I see it as a good option for someone who wants something in between Shop Vac/Ridgid and Festool.

[Van Huskey]

I've never used one of the older Feins, so I can't compare them, but to me, the new one is better in all respects than the big box vacs. At $265, I see it as a good option for someone who wants something in between Shop Vac/Ridgid and Festool.

The older Feins were indeed better, more feature rich vacuums but the newest ones are still very good and worlds better than a standard screamer you get at the big box.

[Rick Potter]

Still waiting for mine to show up from Tool Nut. Maybe soon??

[Nick Decker]

It's the "standard screamer" thing that moved me away from those vacs. It's obviously possible to make a powerful machine that's quiet, so why don't people seem to care? I read comments by folks that say they're wearing their ear muffs anyway, and that's fine. I wear them most of the time myself, but there are times (sucking up some chips from the drill press, cleaning up a little mess on the floor, etc.) that I don't have them on and flip on the vac anyway. Maybe I'm more sensitive to loud noise than most, but I'll do what I can to avoid it.

[Brian W Evans]

I have a newer model Fein and it works perfectly with my first foray into the Festool vortex (Domino XL) - no extra adapters other than what came with the tool. The Fein is quiet, it has a long hose, a long power cord, and I like the built-in auto-on / auto-off. I will be connecting it to a Dust Deputy one of these days. I believe the Fein plus a Dust Deputy will still be cheaper than any of the Festool vacs.