Festool Cleantex Ct26 dust extraction unit
Neil Powell is a senior panel beating and spray painting teacher at Sydney TAFE, as well as a former panel shop owner. Here, he puts the Cleantex through its paces.
This is a very efficient and adaptive piece of equipment. When tested, the Cleantex CT26 removed 99 per cent of dust in all situations and conditions.
The Cleantex CT26 is lightweight and compact in size, making it easy to manoeuvre around the workshop and between vehicles. The unit, complete with its hose, sanders and abrasive storage boxes, can easily be stored under most benches when not in use. Its one quick-twist connection allows the operator to connect the air or power supply and dust extraction in one easy twist. This also makes changing between sanders fast and easy.
When testing the Cleantex CT26 I used a combination of two sanders – the LEX 2 150 (with 7mm orbit) and the LEX 2 150 (with 3mm orbit) random orbital sanders in conjunction with Festool abrasives. When connected to the Cleantex CT26, the sanders were easy to use, lightweight and well-balanced, with minimal vibration transmitted to the operator. No overheating to the panel or machine was evident after 20 minutes of continuous use. The sander’s variable speed switch was an advantage when sanding areas with finer detail.
When completing plastic fill repairs I first used the LEX 2 150 (7mm orbit) random orbital sander with P80 grit disc to complete the initial smoothing. I then changed to the LEX 2 150 (3mm orbit) random orbital sander using P180 grit disc to complete the final finish. The 7mm-wide orbit gave a more aggressive cut, which reduced the sanding time and allowed the use of a finer abrasive, while the 3mm orbit was more suited to finer sanding such as dry sanding, paint primers, paint edge feathering and final finishing of plastic fill repairs.
The multi-jetstream sanding technology that provided a positive air flow through the centre hole in the sanding pad helped to move the dust towards the extraction holes and had a cooling effect on the sanding pad which helped prevent clogging of the abrasives.
In summary, this system has excellent health and safety features which include a high rate of dust extraction, air-powered tools to minimise risk of electric shock, minimised vibration transmitted to the operator, and dedicated quick connection and auto-start which prevents the sander from being used without the dust extractor.
All in all, this system provides a safe and effective means of dust extraction, which saves time and uses less abrasives. This has to equal money saved.
