2015 Kapex can't cut miters on angle.

[silverprl1]

Hi- I have a kapex I've been using consistently since I bought it in 2015. Its been a terrible experience since 2020 when one of my guys let it fall over while setting it up on the Festool stand. The entire trigger mechanism fell apart in the handle and had to be rebuilt. And - the saw didn't cut straight. Followed the supplemental manual and got it within 1 thousandth of square, but miters at 45 cut at 45.3 in both directions. I recently saw a post about moving the entire stop plate around to fix this, and I'm shocked this is the only solution. Anyone that has tried this knows its a painful experience. Get it square, and the miters are off. Get the miters set and its a bit out of square. Is moving the miter stop plate forward and back while also trying to square the saw the only way to solve this prooblem? It should not take an afternoon to set my saw up. Is the only other option packaging the entire saw up and sending it in for service?

 

[ChuckM]

Gary Katz has written about setting Kapex's square and miter angles. I didn't drop my Kapex but used his method to finetune the factory setting which was slightly off out of the box. Tomorrow, I'll see if I can find his link.

 

[GarryMartin]

https://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2010/07/23/miter-saw-tune-up/

 

[ChuckM]

GarryMartin's link is what I had in mind. The video on the Kapex miter adjustment shows what should be done. Maybe Festool's technicians use a different process, but such info. is nowhere to be found.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Moving the scale is the only way to get it right. Maybe the service center has jigs that make the adjustment process less tedious.

 

[silverprl1]

I've already put somewhere between 3 and 5 hours into this. I can easily get the saw to cut perfectly perpendicular cross cuts and micro tune that with the 4-sided cut test. And I can get 1 side to cut miters at 45 and still be perpendicular to the fence on a 0 degree cut. But, no matter how gentle, precise, and careful I am, I can't get all 3 in unison. I think I'm going to send it in for service, have the laser adjusted, etc.... The only other option is to sell the saw and buy a new one, and I would feel like a jerk for passing the problem to someone else.

I looked a BOSCH manual, and there is an adjustment set of screws for right and left miters, R-L bevels, 0 etc.... to have nothing like that on a saw that is $1500, and tell owners to mess around with a 0.06125 arched piece of sheet metal is not worth it.

This seems like a huge missed opportunity for a setup jig... I have it sketched out, and I'm kind of shocked none of the aftermarket companies have made something like this already.