Fein Turbo II's hot deal

[rookie432]

Hey fellow botters, thought I'd let you know Woodcraft is clearing out their Fein turbo II's for $139. Thats down from $199. though that was a good deal.
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx...fcode=06IN11NL

These are great vacs for holdowns and cleanup.

Bill

[paco]

Humm... actually this look to be the "Mini" model (not the turbo II)... still, looking at the spec. it seem just as powerfull; anybody got this model and have feedback about it? This deal is VERY low, I tempted to upgrade my vacuum...

Thanks for the hint Bill!

[gerald_d]

Fein vacuum models

[jf_allie]

WOW! That's CAD$ 184.00 shipping included. It's listed at CAD$ 385.00 on Fein Canada website! Does anyone know if there would be other fees (such as broker fees, etc.)? They seem to be using FedEx.

I'm also very curious to know more about what people have been able to hold down with it.

cheers,

JF

[paco]

Hummm... disctontinued model...

[jf_allie]

Could this vacuum cleaner be used with pucks? In fact can any? The puck systems I have seen all used vacuum pumps if I remember correctly.

Paco, the only difference seems to be the lack of the autostart feature.

[billp]

Jean,
Usually vacuum cleaners don't work very well with pucks because they don't "pull"enough vacuum to hold very small parts. (This does NOT mean that it's impossible though because we're finding out that by using gasket tape ALL vacuums become much more efficient). One of the issues would be connecting the hose of a Fein to a puck since most pods/pucks are only about 1" thick. Perhaps some sort of manifold might be designed to get past this though.
Where they DO excel is in holding down larger items in dedicated jigs, especially if a gasket tape is used to minimize air /vacuum loss. The specs on the smaller units seem to be pretty similar to the larger ones in terms of CFM, and this means you could probably expect to get 30-40% more vacuum holding power than a comparable (or larger) "Shopvac" type of unit. I measure about 7-8" of mercury with a vacuum guage on my Turbo3.
And you have the added bonus(es) of having a double fan arrangement so it's very unlikely that you'd burn one of these units out, PLUS they really ARE very quiet when running under full load, and this in itself is worth quite a bit to me. I think this unit would work very well for sign blanks, and similar sized projects. of course as everyone has already pointed out, your material is a major factor in ANY vacuum rig, and porous materials would still demand a very large unit to have any possibility of holding something in place...Seems like a lot of suck for the buck.....

[paco]

Yeah... but I wonder about waranty and spare parts for a discontinued model... and since I'll be buying it from Canada... I already plan for the Turbo II... now I have my eyes on the III for a little more pull and CFM too. Man, I hate choices!?...

[billp]

Paco,
Considering the fact that it's hard to kill even a "Shopvac"in this application, I'd think you shouldn't have to worry about getting your money's worth with any of their units.
And just to make your life even MORE complicated; think about getting TWO of these little ones...They would cost less than a larger one, move MORE air, and you'd always have a backup unit, OR you could even do dedicated "zones".....

[Brady Watson]

Paco...the Turbo III is quite a bit more expensive than the II with a 'little' bit more suction (only 9" H2O difference). The TII is a no-brainer at that price. I think I paid $300 for my TIII after weeks of price hunting...

-Brady