Festool Dust Extractor - Australian Amateur Boatbuilder Magazine

tool test
Festool Dust
Extractor
Model: Festool Mini CT Dust Extractor
RRP: $569
3 year warranty.
by ROBERT AYLIFFE
Warning! This tool SUCKS!
Dust kills. Dust makes you sick.
IT’S not just ‘chemicals’. You know, the sort that
are made by people in funny white coats in
spooky laboratories that we commonly
recognise as paints, epoxies and solvents.
‘Chemicals’ are also what trees are made from.
And they are mostly poisonous. The only reason
that bugs don’t eat trees is that trees contain toxins
that cause many bugs distress and often death. So
36 Australian Amateur Boatbuilder
when you
have a cloud
of saw,
sanding or
other wood
dust in your
workshop,
you are by
definition
s l o w l y
poisoning
yourself.
One of the
most common
and fatal
cancers in the
United States
was nasal. It
occurred
primarily in DUCK Flat’s senior builder, Dave
men who Campbell restores clinker dinghy using
worked in Festool Mini Ct Dust Extractor
non-dust
extracted wood working facilities.
It’s not just the poison we are talking about.
Workshop dust is also abrasive. It irritates the
nasal, lung, eyes and other ‘wet’ tissue.
When we started Duck Flat Wooden Boats
nearly 20 years ago, the first equipment we bought
was a Festo Dust Extractor unit and some Festo
random orbit sanders. After all this time, and so
many boats later, we still have that original dust
extractor and one of the sanders. Festo (now
Festool) tools are built to last.
We have, over time, bought a fleet of Festool
extractors for this workshop and most of them are
still with us. We have naturally tried other slightly
cheaper brands over the years; ALL of them failed
us.
Some had internal dust collection bags that
regularly fell apart during normal working
operations. The consequences were disastrous.
One, a well known Japanese brand, entertained us
as its power head body melted, slowly sinking
with squeaking, whirring sounds, and
accompanying nasty smells, into the dust canister
below.
Our core of workers who have been with us,
over this time, and about 30 others who have
spent a year and usually more with us, have never
had any absences with respiratory or other health
problems that were attributable to our workshop
dust.

We are proud of that, as we strive to provide a
safe place for our workers. Industrial hygiene is
deliberate culture here; it should be in all
professional and home workshops.
We believe this result is due to our almost
exclusive use of Festool dust extraction
equipment. Even where the actual sanding
equipment is some other brand, it is usually
simple to chuck away the hopeless ‘dust collector
bags’ that many cheaper sanders, saws and planes
come with. Then you just plug the Festool stretchy
rubber nozzle over the existing dust bag take off
port. The tool’s power cord is then plugged
directly into the plug on the fascia of the Festool
Dust Extractor. When the tool is turned on, the
Festool Dust Extractor starts immediately, drawing
air and dust through the hose to the disposable
storage filter bag in the machine. Switch your
work tool off, and the Festool Dust extractor
switches off after a second or so delay, to clear the
tool and the hose of any residual dust.
Brilliant!
Most of the Festool units that we already have
are bigger bodied units.
When John from our Festool Partner Dealer
‘Glenfords’, in South Australia brought a new Mini
CT dust extractor for us to trial six months ago, we
were initially sceptical. Sceptical because, well, it
seemed SMALL! We thought that its bag would fill
in a trice and that it would have no ‘grunt’
compared to the bigger units.
We were wrong on both counts. This wee
machine has a slightly smaller motor/vacuum unit
as the bigger ones in the range. This machine
REALLY sucks! So much so, that some operators
routinely use theirs for vacuum bagging
operations.
It is very handy. It can be easily lifted in and out
of boats. It fits into nooks and crannies much
more conveniently than its bigger volume
brothers. And it holds a surprising volume of dust.
It is also very tidy. With a couple of winds, the
hose and cord vanish into the body at the top of
the machine, making it still more transportable.
Some home builders resist purchasing the bigger
ones because there is not a lot of change out of
$900. At just a bit over $500, this Festool CT unit
has to be walking into workshops around
Australia.
Significantly, you can justify this purchase to the
significant other in your life by pointing out that it
comes with some nice vacuum cleaning tools. So
it is good for
cleaning the
car, the shed
and even a
really deep
dusting of the
household
carpets!
Boat building
is a wonderful
activity. The
Festool CT dust
extractor
should be the
first tool
purchase that
you make. The
dust extraction
makes your CLEAN sanding with CT Mini and antistatic
hose
abrasives last
up to twice as long, because they are being
continuously air cleaned. Your project will be
tidier at all times because you are cleaning as you
go.
Best of all, you will live longer, to better enjoy
the fruits of your work!
■
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The Coraki
Boat Shed
17 foot Recreational Rowing Boat
There’s something in a flying horse.
There’s something in a huge balloon.,
but through the clouds I’ll never float,
Until I have a little boat
Shaped like the crescent moon.
William Wordworth 1819
Available as a finished boat,
or a Cad-Cam Kitset in Okume ply
over solid New Guinea Rosewood
Mike Smith - Coraki Boatshed
East Coraki, NSW 2471
Ph: 02 6683 2536 • Fax: 02 6683 2056
Australian Amateur Boatbuilder 37