Quote Originally Posted by burraboy View Post
I use one too, the only thing that annoys me is the dust port is low and the hose keeps geting caught on the edge of the job. Do you have any techniques to avoid this?
I know what you mean. Both cables & hoses can be an absolute PITA. I haven't yet run over one yet with the belt sander, nor severed a cable with the jackhammer, but I've been close quite a few times. I've had to replace cables on my planers before, & had to shorten the odd extension cord by a couple of feet from using electric chainsaws also.

When I'm moving around a fair bit, such as using an electric strimmer, floor sander or pruning with the electric chainsaw I often suspend the cable over my shoulder to keep it out of harm's way. It probably breaks every single OH&S rule there is, but it works for me.

The hard, stiff corrugated nature of modern vac hoses doesn't help either. The older style woven nylon covered hoses used by Electrolux and other vacs were much better. You could always sleeve the end of the hose I suppose: cloth "100 mph" tape might work, or if you or your better half are handy with a sewing machine you could always run up a simple slightly tapered sleeve from an old pair of jeans or moleskins I suppose.

Some tools just don't seem to be a particularly good marriage with stiff hoses in my opinion. Hand held routers & Jigsaws in particular seem to become much less useful with a big 27mm hose fitted. Aside from the regular stiff hoses used by all the German manufacturers, both Bosch & Metabo also offer a much lighter weight and flexible 25mm x 5m hose which has push fittings either end. I bought mine a few years back for about $50 approx. It has much better (i.e. easier & more secure) push fitting to my Bosch (Delta) & Metabo (80mm Random Orbit) sanders than the 27mm Festo hose ends. The vac end is fitted to a short (2.5m??) 36mm Festo hose fitting, forming a usefully airtight seal, and an even more useful 7.5m total length for all those ladder jobs.

Its main advantage is that its light weight, flexible nature & rounded corrugations effectively eliminate the problem of catching. The main disadvantage is that its light weight, flexible nature & rounded corrugations allow the hose to kink & squash much more easily than the stiffer & much more expensive Kraut alternatives.