Testing the Festool Vacuum

Yes, I've been MIA. If you knew half of the work I've been doing, you would understand.

One of the projects on my plate right now is working with saltillo tile, which can be tricky. Its rustic quality and warm colors make it an attractive flooring choice. But damn! It's a lot of work. There are stacks of it everywhere in my studio.

You usually purchase this tile unfinished, which means you can stain it to match just about anything. You can use regular woodworking stains - like a Minwax, thinning it out with mineral spirits if the color is too dark. I usually mix up a small amount, like a half cup of thinner to a teaspoon of stain. And then paint a small section of the raw tile. Then add another teaspoon and paint another sample area. I repeat this a couple of times, and then the next day, when the stain is dry, I'll compare it to what I need to match. Once you know the right ratio formula, you can do the math and mix up gallons of the correct hue.

Well... that is the theory.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. After staining it with what I thought was the perfect recipe, I felt like it looked a little too light, so I gave it a second coat.

Remember that line in Pretty Woman?

Big Mistake. HUGE.

There was only one solution - and it wasn't a pretty one. Sanding all the pieces.

But I'll tell you this - if you had any doubts about Festool vacuums, this should prove their worth.

After sanding down all 250 square feet of tile, with virtually no airborne dust, I needed to change the vacuum bag on this unit. When I pulled off the hose, there was a trace of terra cotta dust in the port.

I grabbed the box of vacuum bags.

They're ridiculously expensive (close to $40 for 5 bags!) but - what about Festool isn't expensive?

When I opened the vacuum to change the bag, there wasn't a speck of dust inside.

Even the air filters are pristine. They look like they're brand new, and I've been using this vacuum for two years.

I pulled out the bag, it was filled with clay dust

and remembered that Festool includes this cool little plug for the filler port. How smart.

After all the staining and subsequent sanding, I am a little burnt on finishing this project. And my hands are simply raw from working with the dry clay. At the Sin City Woodworkers meeting last night, I asked everyone what they use for hand care, because my hands are in a world of hurt. By mutual agreement, Bag Balm seems to be the hand lotion of choice.

Let's just say I wish I had a 5 gallon bucket of it right now, to soak my hands in! This clay dust is extremely harsh on your hands, and mine are rough as 80 grit sandpaper. Oh well, my days of hand modeling are long behind me, so I guess it really doesn't matter. I just want them to feel normal again!

And I want this tile work to be finished!

Is a Festool vacuum worth the price?

There's a good reason why I bought the biggest vacuum that Festool makes.


It's all about the dust control!

As a woodworker with asthma, I'm constantly trying to minimize the dust I that make in the shop. That's not always easy. But - when I connect a sander to this vacuum, there simply isn't any airborne dust at all. Period.

That's the good news. Even better - when I recently had to empty the dust bag in this machine, I was shocked (in a great way!) to find not a single bit of dust inside the machine. Amazing. Not a speck.

Changing a bag is simple - pop the top


and disconnect the bag from it's port. Pull it up and out.


The fitting is a rubber hose that fits tightly into a port - but even cooler - there is a cap attached to the bag. When you disconnect a full bag, you can quickly pop on the cap, so that no dust can escape.


Pretty awesome, in my book.

What wasn't necessarily so awesome were the instructions for installing a new bag. I know, it should be pretty simple, but I wanted to make sure I was going it correctly. I looked in the vacuum manual, which was incredibly lame - no instructions. It basically said - read the instructions on the bag.

So here's what the bag said:



and this:



Ummm.... OK, I guess I can figure that out. I put the new bag in the vac, making sure the hose was in the correct position.


They press together quite nicely, forming a tight seal.



Festool really put some thought into this tool - I especially like the lid support.


It locks the lid up in place, so you have full access to the bag cavity. Sweet.

Ready to go back to work!


This is the first woodshop vac that I've ever owned that utilized bags. All the others have simply been open containers, and frankly, emptying them is way too messy. I could get very spoiled with this Festool system, despite the fact that the system is ridiculously expensive. I mean, this vac is over $500! Even the bags are pricey - over $7 a piece. Ouch.

So my opinion about the vac? Would I buy it again? Would I buy another one? One thing I haven't mentioned is how quiet this vacuum is - which is another amazing feature about this tool. There are times when I've actually walked over to the vac while I'm sanding, to make sure that it's running. That's sort of silly, since the first givaway would be airborne dust. But this machine is so quiet, you barely know it's there, unlike other shop vacs I own.

Next - an amazing feature is it's tool integration plug. Simply plug any tool into the vac - be it a router, sander, saw - whatever, and when you turn that tool on and use it, the vac automatically comes on. I know, you're probably thinking - big deal, for $500, it should give you a backrub at the end of the night.

But the plug feature, as well as it's delayed shut off (to clear the hose of dust when the tool is shutting down) is pretty awesome. I can't tell you how many times I'll turn on a sander for just ten or twenty seconds, just to touch something up. If I had to manually turn on my vac - well, I just know myself and know that I would neglect to turn the vac on for such a short time. But with them being connected, it happens without fail. This feature alone makes me swoon with tool appreciation.

Hell yes! I'd buy this machine again. In fact, I wish I could afford another one right now!