I just received an email from Oneida saying that their Ultimate Dust Deputy – the cyclone vacuum separator that attaches to Festool dust extractors – has been redesigned for 2014. New features for the model AXD000009 Dust Deputy include a new static-dissipating cyclone and static-dissipating hose.
The Ultimate Dust Deputy is designed to attach to Festool CT dust extractors and separates out a lot of dust, debris, and chips before they reach the vacuum. This means longer Festool bag life. The Dust Deputy will fill up many times before the Festool filter bag needs to be replaced or emptied.
Advertisement
I own an Ultimate Dust Deputy, and it SUCKS, and not in a good haha vacuum joke kind of way. It doesn’t actually fit onto my Festool CT 26 dust extractor, as some of the tabs are not quite where they’re supposed to be. When I first tried to assemble the product, the supplied gasket material tore apart. And then when I read up on it, I saw horror stories from other users about how the Ultimate Dust Deputy immolated their expensive Festool dust extractors with static shocks.
I recently went through some old mail and saw a letter from Lee Valley – the place I ordered my Ultimate Dust Deputy from – which said they learned of several incidents where customers’ Festool vacuums were damaged. Lee Valley advised that customers should immediately discontinue use of the Ultimate Dust Deputy and they offered the option of a full refund or free grounding kit.
Since I purchased it in September 2012, my Ultimate Dust Deputy has sat unused. First it was because I had to wait for replacement gasket material, and then because of potential grounding issues. I did purchase a roll of copper tape to help improve its grounding, and anti-static hoses, but I never really trusted it.
So when I saw that the Oneida Ultimate Dust Deputy is new and improved, I couldn’t help but feel a little bitter. The original had quality issues (such as how it could it not attach securely to my Festool vac’s Systainer dock) and was not well thought out in regard to static dissipation, as it proved to be potentially risky to use, making it a $199 waste of space. I’m just happy not to be among the unfortunate users who fried their Festool vacs’ control board circuits due to the Ultimate Dust Deputy’s poor static grounding.
Maybe the 2014 version will indeed be better, and hopefully Oneida will sell the anti-static cyclone separately so that those of us foolish enough to purchase the previous version won’t have to buy a complete new system.
Price: $249 + $22.50 shipping
Advertisement
Buy Now(via Oneida)
John S
This is great! Though it is frustrating they are charging more for it…
Perhaps they will come out with an l-boxx version to go on top of the new bosch vacs… I would definitely like that!
John Blair
Sadly this story makes me lose just a little faith in humanity. “We designed a product to work with the Festool system, luckily it didn’t fit so well. That meant that few people could actually use it. The good news is that protected them from blowing up their vacuum. Let’s try again and see how many people are suckers. Maybe this time it will work.”
Doesn’t really inspire faith. What would inspire faith is if they offered a free swap out to those of you who bought the prior system.
fred
Many years ago, when I did my home shop’s dust extraction system I was tempted to use PVC pipe until I talked to the professional (who worked with, vapor, metal and wood dust extraction systems) who had designed a system for one of my commercial shops. He advised that there was no good way to eliminate the static charges that were likely to build up on the PVC surfaces and that a interior copper tape or bare wire might help but not eliminate the problem. The downside for me has been the system I have is not flexible and there is virtually no ability to conveniently move my machinery.
Maybe there is a new solution to this problem – but I haven’t heard of any that seem convincing to me. Perhaps one of your Toolguyd readers has an answer. Anyone make plastic pipe with an interior metallic surface? Anyone using that flexible metal duct they sell for clothes dryers (it seems to collect lint – but would it work for short runs in a wood dust system?)
Randy Allen
fine combustible dust or fibers present continuously is a Class 3 Division 1 EXPLOSIVE ATMOSPHERE. it can be even MORE explosive than a gas leak.
textile mills are explosive atmospheres, so are graineries, and grain silos.
so is the inside of your woodworking shop vac.
now, you have particulates, and a spark, which is a source of ignition. the fine
particles have a huge amount of surface area, and a dust explosion is really
a dust implosion. the stuff flashes, and sucks in combustion air at a rate that
hypercompresses the air, heating it, and then it explodes outward.
sort of like GNAB, and than BANG!
this is why all those uber expensive festoolishness hoses cost what they do.
they are conductive, and prevent static build up either in the hose, or between
components of the system. not conductive like a wire, but more of a semiconductor.
PVC and ABS plastic both have characteristics electrically of mylar, and that
is used in capacitors, BECAUSE IT IS REALLY GOOD AT HOLDING A CHARGE.
then, lets add a PVC bag inside the deputy, so that can act like a thin film capacitor,
and build up an even bigger charge. consider yourself lucky you are dissipating the
charge by getting yourself shocked, instead of having a spark go off inside the sawdust tub.
i’d say that if the dust deputy is hooked to the festool unit with a festool hose,
that will help an awful lot, more than a ground wire. it sounds like the manufacturer
is using cheap “static free” hose, and it’s not static free enough.
i was planning on buying a dust deputy for my festool vac, but if i do, i will buy it off amazon, and use festool hoses with it. if it doesn’t work, jeff bezos can deal with it.
Tim Rowledge
Instead of plastic pipe, take a look for spiral wound ducting. I got twelve foot lengths of seven inch (biiig Oneida cyclone) for thirty or so bucks a piece from my local large plumbing/heating supply place. Solid, not too heavy, easy to cut with a jigsaw or recip, generally excellent. Four/five inch for a more normal DC is even cheaper.
Mr Michael L. Veach
I use a shop vac, a grease drum and a separator built from plans of Phil Thien’s design which he has graciously made public domain. It works exceptionantley well. The only thank that could be considered a down side is its not realy portable. Thats not a problem for me.
Aaron
Ill pass thanks
unknown
Haha. I felt the same way when I got my UDD. I was so pissed that it shocked me. I was so fumed I’ve been emailing them and they are sending me an antistatic cyclone for free…after a bit of rant about how it was false advertising and they should have recalled the unit. I didn’t push it for the new hose. I urge everyone with a UDD to flood them requests for upgraded parts.
SE
Thanks for this post, it is very helpful.
On 4/28/14 I purchased an Ultimate Dust Deputy from a Woodcraft store, intending to put it on my Festool CT 26. I was thinking of getting the standard bucket-style Dust Deputy, but the salesperson pointed out the benefits of having the dust chamber on the CT 26 rather than dragging a bucket around behind it. At the time, I didn’t know about the static issue, so after bringing it home and reading about the static issues, I was pretty disappointed.
Fortunately (I guess?), I did sort of receive one of the early 2014 version of the UDD. It has the black anti-static hose, metal pipe fitting near the elbow that goes into the CT 26, flexible wire, and metallic tape on all of the plastic parts–it looks exactly like the photo above, EXCEPT that my Dust Deputy vortex is the original translucent plastic–not the black plastic shown in the photo and mentioned on their web site. So my guess is that I got one of the retrofitted models before the black anti-static versions shipped. Mine also came with a metal “hose clamp”, apparently to tighten the black hose to the top of the vortex, which is not shown in the photo. The box does say AXD000009, so it seems that the model number on the box is not a reliable indicator that you will get the latest design.
It looks like they are trying, but I’m pretty disappointed. It looks like a cobbled together hack, one step up from duct tape and drywall screws. What I received looks and feels like a very unrefined product.
The vortex has metallic tape on it, along with all of the hose fittings. Overall, it looks like something I might have cobbled together from spare parts or a quick visit to the hardware store.
Reinforcing the confusing appearance of the fittings and hoses is that the instructions have not been updated to reflect the changes. Putting the thing together isn’t rocket science, but they provide no instructions on how to properly connect the new fittings to ensure that static is properly discharged. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with the braided wire hanging off the hose (apparently attach it somewhere on the vac), and am going to have to call them and ask that they walk me step by step through every part to make sure I’ve hooked up everything 100% properly to ensure static dissipation.
Fortunately, the UDD was on sale at the Woodcraft store for only $169, so I don’t feel like I got completely ripped off, but I’m not yet ready to offer any endorsements of the UDD at this point.
Based on reviews of their vortex, I don’t doubt that the product will collect dust very well, but it looks like they need to spend several more months, or perhaps a year or more, refining their UDD design. Unfortunately, I suspect if they were to do it right (some type of custom hose design), the cost would need to increase significantly.
My recommendation would be to avoid this Rev 2 UDD, and wait until they come up with a Rev 3. When Rev 3 arrives, makes sure to open the box and check the parts before you buy.
SE
After being shocked repeatedly with my TS55 hose while using the UDD, I called Oneida. The woman basically ignored me, saying that their brilliant product had been tested by a third party and was proven to be fully grounded. She sent me new instructions that had a few steps for connecting the various metallic tape hacks so that they would ground, but some of the instructions did not work for the CT26–I ended up just taping the braided wire to the side of the UDD box. That seemed to have stopped the shocks, but I was pretty disapppointed in the UDD, despite its great dust collection.
Today, 7/21/2014, I got a letter from Oneida saying that they are now offering a free set of updated components for the UDD. After their initial metallic tape hack, and then their “version 2” with anti-static hose and more metallic tape, they seem to finally acknowledge that they need to fix their product.
If you have a UDD with the translucent cyclone and all of the PVC parts with the metallic tape on them, you can order the newer parts at no charge.
http://www.oneida-air.com/udd-parts
or call 866-387-8822
Hopefully these “version 3” parts are better designed.