I made a proposal to get a cordless vacuum for the clean room, but have concluded after more research that the good ones are too expensive to justify and the cheap ones are not worth bothering with. So instead, I think we should agree on a spec for one really good and user-friendly industrial vacuum cleaner for the whole space and concetrate the budget on that.
So please chip in with your thoughts on the following questions about spec:
Level of filtration:
Do we want standard, M class (medium) or H class (hazardous)? The cleaning companies I have spoken to suggest that if we’re cutting MDF we should go for H class, but it’s up to us to do a risk assessment and decide if that’s necessary. We won’t be able to tell the difference between them in use but it will make a difference to the air quality long term.
Capacity vs size:
Is it more important for it to have a large capacity or be easy to manoeuvre? Is eg a 16 litre bag going to be annoyingly small and mean changing it too often?
Plusses are it’s relatively cheap for what it does, & is easy to change the bags, possible downside is it’s quite small, just a bit bigger than a normal Henry.
Thoughts? One of the Davids had some suggestions about it last night.
The trouble with baggless is then you have to clean filters more regularly.
If we decide that ultra-fine dust particles isn’t a big problem, then this one is probably a good option. http://www.greenandwhite.co.uk/Numatic-NVQ570-p/833282.htm It has a bigger capacity and is designed to be moved from place to place easily.
Cable management is going to be important if it’s going to move around the space. It’s one thing the Henry’s get right - just a big simple winder rather than flaky spring or just loose cable.
Not keen on shared space vacuum,
As each space has different requirements.
In the wood shop a class h with the option to use with dust extraction for hand power tools would be needed but would be possibly to big/heavy for use in the clean room,
A cordless would be perfect for the clean room but useless for the wood shop,
Unfortunately like all festool products it doesn’t work if the user is not wearing Festool Branded socks and undergarments, it would be expensive to provide all members and I am not sharing.
We get offered as a Makerspace the same deal as universities, colleges and schools, effectively we can buy the kit at half price after a year or trial usage.
Obviously we’re not meant to resell it etc…
@dermot pointed out when we last discussed this at Makerversity who bought a load of stuff, that Festool is no longer price fixed so retailers are competing with each other.
But yeah 1 year free and return it, or buy for 50% off.
