Trying to control dust. Looked into using Festools dustless sander but am a little leary at dropping 8 bills. has anyone used a dust muzzle? www.dustmuzzle.com I did notice that Festool has a new contour sander, has anyone used this for finishing rails? any experiance with these two products appreciated.
I’ve been using a Festool Rotex 150 for about two years, and I can confirm that it is about 95% dust free on flat surfaces. On rails with only partial pad contact, no dust pickup system works well. The dust collectors for the rotary sanders per your photos look interesting, but the big question is what vacuum system are you going to hook it to? Shop-vac’s and other canister types can’t handle the fine dust. They’ll load the filter in no time and also the motor is not really sealed away from the dust area like a Festool or Fein vacuum. The exhaust will also spit out a fair amount of dust even with a filter. You need a have a bag type so that you can just toss it when full. I too was a little put off by the Festool cost. If you bought or put together something that didn’t work as well and finally went with Festool, you just be out more money. $800 is a lot for a sander, but sell a couple of boards or do some repairs and let it pay for itself.
jeez- those do look good and they are certainly cheap enough, but looking at the size/part chart ( http://www.dustmuzzle.com/pages/cross_reference.shtml ) they don’t make one to fit the Milwaukee variable speed #6078 we have all come to know and love or the Harbor Freight 46507 that’s the low-priced spread in this category. Probably worth calling or emailing to ask further though.
While I agree with Pete that most shop vacs won’t get all the dust, the http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=9586 in-line, use-it-with-a-5-gallon-bucket setup will help some ( another one here that may be a little better - http://www.grizzly.com/products/item.aspx?itemnumber=G6102 ), as it’ll let the majority of the dust settle in a bucket midway to the system, similar to the http://www.grizzly.com/products/item.aspx?itemnumber=G3376 setup I have and use with a shop dust collector, a trash can and a custom made canvas liner bag ( those *&%$ trash cans are heavy ) - indeed my setup is just about identical to the rig in the picture on that page, just I don’t have the clear hose. And HEPA grade filters are available for a lot of shop-vacs… you can buy a lot of filters for $800.
Lastly, you could always use a very long hose and put the shop vac outside…
hope that’s of some use
doc…
Thanks Guy’s, They do recomend using a $200 drywall Vac.
I recently adapted an old craftsman shop vac on to a 55 gallon drum for my shop, I also use the thing to clean the ashes out of my BBQ, what I have noticed is that if I don’t clean the filter and use it to suck up ash nothing gets thru to the exaust, especially if you put one of those mufflers on the exaust, $15 or so at sears or Home Depot, even when the filter is really caked with fine sawdust I really get good suction, strong enough not to be overwhelmed by my big stationary planer. It would probably work just fine for foam.
Rolly
Meanshapes,
I tried the dust muzzle and its not going to be what you want for surfboard work. Its awkward and you cannot get a feel for what you are sanding. Doesn’t fit the Milwaukees we use either. I went to the Festool 150 and I love it. Like someone else said it does not cut aggressively enough to completly replace the Milwaukee for grinding laps etc. I use it with a shop vac and I go through about 1 filter a month and I do a lot of ding repair. I figure I’ll consider the Festool vacuum at some point. I plug the sander into an outlet that hooks to my Clark planer vacuum and I have a switch to run either the planer vacuum or the sander shop vac. I use the Festool antistatic hose which plugs right into the shop vac. I also made an adapter to use the shop vac filter on the exhaust like the Clark planer vac system. They are expensive but I don’t think you will be disappointed.
Dave_D
Have you seen the linear sander? Has a contour type pad. My first thought was to hit the rails with it. Has anyone tried this? Do you use the 150 through the whole sanding process? We will use it mostly to sand rr epoxy boards. Thanks for yor reply.