Festool Vacuum

Having purchased this vacuum, I needed to adapt it so it could be used with most of my portable power tools. To that end, I designed various wood blocks to interface with the respective tool. Below you see a list of those tools. You can click on the link and go directly to that effort. I hope these give you some idea of how you might adapt your shop vac to your tools.

I have used this vac for about one year how and I am very pleased with it's performance and functionality. I wrote a review of it's use. Click on Home, then Reviews to read it.

This series of pictures show my Bosh random orbital sander being modified to accept the vacuum hose. I removed the original filter and tore it apart. It turned out that there is small spacer that snaps into place just behind the input hole of the filter. I was able create a wood adapter and screw this spacer to it allowing me to "snap the adapter into place."

After creating the adapter block, I cut off the excess filter housing. This provided direct access to the hole.

Attaching the hose tot he biscuit cutter was simply a matter of attaching it to the dust collection bag adapter that came with the biscuit cutter. No more dust in my face, no more chips all over the floor!

My Circular Saw is a vintage Craftsman "commercial". It's very heavy and was designed to take 7 1/2" blades which are no longer available. I installed a Forrest 7 1/4" blade and the blade makes very clean cuts. Though it would be nice to have the Festool plunge saw, it's too expensive to justify replacing my current saw. I made an adapter block to interface the hose to the saw. The following pictures show the process.

Circular Saw	Adapter Mounted	Adapter Finished
	Final Connection

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One of my most recent tools, the Jet Oscillating Spindle Sander, has a 2" exhaust port. It doesn't fit any hoses that I currently use. I cut a hole to go over the exhaust port. I glued two more blocks together and drilled a hole to accept the hose. Finally I glued the two pieces together and cut off the corners to make the adapter round. The result was quite good.

Oscillating Spindle Sander	Exhaust Port	Adapter Parts
Adapter Assembled	Adapter Finished	Final Connection

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Adapting my Sanding Center to the Festool Vacuum Hose:

Collecting dust from my sanding center has been problematic prior to the acquisition of the Festool vac. The old vac was far too noisy and the hose was so stiff it was hard to work around it. To adapt the vac, I cut a hole to go over the exhaust port. I glued two more blocks together and drilled a hole to accept the hose. Finally I glued the two pieces together and cut off the corners to make the adapter round.

Sanding Center	Exhaust Port	Adapter Parts
Adapter Assembled	Adapter Finished	Final Connection

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With a little creative adaptation, I have been able to use my new vac with several of my here-to-fore problem dust-creating tools. Result? Cleaner, healthier shop!!

Original Sander	Filter taken apart	Filter bottom	Adapter Block
Final Glue-up	Adapter in place	Final Adapter	Final Connection