Festool CTL Midi – A Perfect Partner for Power Tools


According to the old song, some things were made to be together, notably, love and marriage, horses and carriages and more prosaically, fish and chips. I have spent the bulk of the last few weeks using the Festool Rotex sander I tested last month with the addition of the Festool Midi Vacuum extractor and they make perfect partners. In Fact, the CTL Midi is a perfect partner for all Festool machines. Because I have a lot of making work on at the moment, I have been mightily pleased to have the temporary use of these tools, and I have been made even more aware of the standard and quality of design that you get when you buy into the Festool brand. If anything, I have come to like and


respect all the features of the Rotex sander a great deal more, as it has saved me literally hours of sanding and finishing time as I have rushed to meet my deadlines. But as you know, the weather has


been very cold in the last weeks of March and the beginning of April, and sanding and some of the finishes I use do not really work very well below room temperature. With some reservations I have had to temporarily clear my spare room and move in a workmate, the Rotex sander and the Midi-vac in order to work in a temperature that doesn’t make my fingers numb. My partner did a great deal of


clucking and sharp intakes of breath about the amount of clearing up I would have to do, but being warm and getting the work done meant I just had to take a risk. The results have surprised both me


and her. Although I had reassured her that the cleaning up would be minimal because I was using the Midi-Vac, even I wasn’t expecting the clearing up of the remaining dust to be a ten-minute job. I am just blown away by how


efficiently this little vac has collected the dust engendered by hours of sanding and sucked it away into the 15 lt compact bag without bothering me much at all. Rated as an “L” class extractor, it clearly more than meets the targets for reducing ambient dust


levels in the workplace, I could barely find enough dust even on the floor after I had finished sanding. The development team at Festool


has clearly done a wonderful job of design once again, leaving me convinced that I should never really use a power tool, be it router, sander or circular saw, without the properly- designed vacuum extractor to go with it. No wonder we often see that Festool power tools are marketed as kits with a suitable Festool extractor – it just makes perfect safety and clean-up sense, especially as we are now acutely aware of the dangers of inhaling fine dust. There


are a number of features of the Festool CTL Midi that contribute to its success as a perfect partner to a power tool. Some of these are very simple, but some of them are far less obvious. The simple ones include the fact


that you get a healthy eight metre length of power cord attached to the vac. This means that you can get a long way from the power source without inconvenience. Add to that, the length of the cord to the power tool and you can easily work at least twelve or fourteen metres away from an electric plug. Very Useful. Secondly, all that cord can be neatly


coiled and stored in the tray around the carrying handle on the top of the vac body. I just hate the way that many


extractor vacs provide only a semi- useful way of storing the cord, because you know it is just going to come undone and trail all over the place as you are moving the machine. Another pet hate is that most


extractor hoses become a nuisance when you try to store them on the vac once you have finished work. The Festool solves the problem by having the whole three metres of hose able to be coiled and stored round the carry handle on top of the machine. It is so well designed that it is simple to do, so you won’t be tempted to simply let it all hang out. If you


want to, the extractor hose can also be used to pull the CTL Midi along on its wheels too. Because


it is part of the Festool system, even the extractor hose end is a good bit of design. It fits snugly over


the ribbed extractor vent of the Rotex sander (not once did it fall off as I spent hours sanding) but the outer diameter is also a standard 27mm diameter to fit into the sockets on power saws for example. With an adaptor, it is possible to use a 36mm mm hose as well. The important point, as the HSE notes in its guidance, is that the extraction hose and joints should not leak – and these joints don’t leak! The rubber spout is tough, grippy and flexible and so allows the best possible solution to staying in place when the tool is being used. Being so used to noisy dust


extractors, I really did notice just how


Independent Review by Peter Brett


quiet the motor of the Midi was. It purrs away so silently that my neighbours didn’t even notice that I was working indoors within ten metres of their kitchen windows. The extractor also stays on for five seconds after the power tool is stopped in order to clear the hose of dust already on its way into the extractor. Another nice little touch is the


brake on the base at the front. This will stop the vac rolling around if you are on a slope or whatever, since the rear wheels are big enough to roll easily and the front wheels will castor nicely to make steering the vac a doddle. Festool Systainers can be fitted


onto the flat top of the vac via the lime green catches, making it easy to transport several power tools on the vac wheels. Inside, the CTL Midi has been


designed for maximum ease of use and minimal exposure to dust. When it is full, the replaceable bag simply lifts out and a new one can be clicked into place. Without the dust collector bag, the


CTL Midi can also be used to suck up certain non-flammable liquids quite safely with the filter changed to a ‘wet filter’. The all-important dust filter that


prevents the electric motor from getting clogged, can be easily replaced by unclipping it and lifting it out with the aid of a foldable handle. Switchgear is simple, with an


auxiliary plug socket, an adjustable vac power switch and a manual/auto selector. The switches are placed in the best position on the front of the machine. Although I have used dust


extractors for years, especially as the dangers of dust have become more obvious, the Festool CTL Midi is the first machine that has really convinced me that it is designed as a perfect complement to the Festool range of dust-producing power tools. It is so easy to use and so efficient that it makes perfect sense to partner one of these with your power tools and save yourself a lot of cleaning as well as doing your lungs a big favour.


8 ToolBUSINESS+HIRE


www.toolbusiness.co.uk


Reply No. 211


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