Festool SYS-AIR: The Other 10%

Fitout By Festool USA

Air Scrubber, Festool, Festool Systainer, Systainer³ M 437, Dust Extractor, Health, Safety, System Partners

Hook a Festool sander to a Festool extractor and you catch most of the dust at the tool. Most, not all — and the part that gets away is the part that matters.

We get at least 90% over the whole line of tools. We’re known for it — and we want to capture that other 10%.
— Festool, demoing the SYS-AIR at the JLC show

That last 10% is the fine stuff, under a micron, and it does not settle politely when you pack up. Festool reckons it can stay airborne in a shop for hours. It is also the fraction no hose can reach, because some work has nowhere to attach one — hand sanding, planing, sweeping up.

The SYS-AIR is Festool’s answer, and the interesting part is its shape. It is a Systainer³ M 437 that happens to clean air — 22 lbs, two speeds, a cheap pre-filter in front of a pleated main filter, and a light that tells you when the pre-filter has had enough.

Being an M 437 is not a packaging detail. It means the air cleaner goes into the stack rather than beside it, at whatever height puts it nearest the dust: on the floor behind a mitre saw, at bench height next to an MFT, on a SYS-RB Cart if the job moves around. It carries Systainers, and Systainers carry it.

It’s really innovative that they put an air cleaner in a Systainer. This is a Systainer which is capable of carrying Systainers on top and on the bottom, so you can take this out to the job site and set it beside you.
— DCreation Woodworking

Where it can’t sit next to the work, the 200 mm hose reaches instead — useful on stairs and in the sort of confined space that has nowhere to put a machine.

The reason to care isn’t tidiness. It’s the thing that creeps up on you over years in a shop:

I have some bad health issues with my throat. I did some metering in my shop, and basically I’ve got a really bad working environment for my lungs. After a long day of woodworking I have a really sore throat, even though I work with a mask on.
— DCreation Woodworking

Two minutes of Festool showing where it actually goes on a job:

It also mounts overhead, which keeps the floor clear and puts it above the work rather than beside it.

For a hands-on take, Concord Carpenter ran it against a cabinet full of drywall dust at the JLC show.

One system. For everything. For everyone.
Systainer USA.

This fitout by:

Festool USA

Festool builds professional power tools for woodworking and construction, and has been shipping them in Systainers since the format existed. The two systems have grown up together: Festool tools arrive in Systainers.