Darren1972
Member
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2015
- Messages
- 289
i was thinking of buying a kapex 120 until i read this review now i am not so sure
" Now, the crappy stuff and it's very little really. This saw is waaaaaaay under powered. I run the 80T Tenyru blades on both my saws and even when they are first sharpened this saw struggles with some of the cuts we make. Example would be a 1x12 oak skirt board. This is a compound angle of roughly 38M/46B. This particular cut just bogs this saw way down. Not a deal breaker but you better learn to be patient when cutting. A saw of this level should at least turn 3800-4000 RPM in my opinion. Second annoyance is cutting small molding. Don't even try it unless you have a zero clearance fence clamped down. A simple 1x2 works fine. Not a big deal if you are on a job for several days and have tons of scrap. Pretty aggravating when you go to do a punch out and the place has been cleaned out and you have nothing in the truck. This saw will grab, break off, and throw shoe mold like an angry child. You can manage a safe cut, most of the time, by sliding the saw very gently into the molding if it's fairly soft. If it's hard like oak or hickory forget it. I keep a handful of 12-18" pcs of 1x2 behind the truck seat. This really annoys me since all of the other saws I own, have owned, which were less than 1/2 the cost of this saw, will cut any type of small molding you like. I've convinced myself it's a trade off for cutting capacity. Last thing, and it seriously p's me off. You must use the vacuum with this saw. Will it not function properly w/o it? NO. But unless you want a face full of dust every time you make a cut then unload the vacuum even if you are cutting outside. This is ridiculous. I'm set up in someones front yard running the vac? Yeah, that would be me. I've tried not using it and it makes for a miserable session on the Kapex. I've even retro-fitted a dust bag on the saw but it catches very little and is pretty worthless. Not to rip on Festool, but I feel like the design of the dust port is pretty mediocre. Put a 138CFM vac and that big rubber boot on just about any miter saw and you can attain pretty good dust collection.
So would I buy the saw again. Haha. I've bought this saw 3 times now. One was stolen along with my CT26 so I replaced with the Midi (smart move for a mobile unit). Then I replaced my shop saw with the other Kapex and it's connected to my giant Rigid shop vac with a tool switch on it. Yes, it works jut as well but not at all portable. When trying to justify purchasing or not purchasing this saw you can look at a few different ways I suppose. Weigh the features against the cost or the features against other saws. Does it do everything perfectly? No. Will it make the quality of your work better? Not likely anything that anyone will notice. It will, however, make things more accurate and easier which to me is worth the price of admission. This saw isn't perfect but it's leaps above anything else available. The other saws are either noisy, heavy, dusty, or inaccurate. These are all deal breakers to me so the $1300 didn't and still doesn't really bother me. If I see a tool that can make my job easier, faster, better, or more profitable, I really don't care what it costs (within reason). Hope this review helps with your decision and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
UPDATE: Just wanted to update my review for all of you considering a new Kapex. I have 2 of them and haven't been using either of them for many months. They have been in the shop while I carry my Hitachi C10FSH in the van. I took it in to have some service work done on it and grabbed the Kapex. I really do NOT like this saw. I'm probably going to repeat a few things so I'll make it short. The vacuum....use the saw all day with the vacuum and there is still a huge mess to clean up. Probably smaller than my Hitachi but really not worth noting. Oh, I didn't have to empty my dust bag. I cut a few treads, risers, some crown, scribe, etc the other day on a large job and by 5 pm I would have been as well off not to have even plugged in the vac. If you are making 90/90 cuts on the flat it works fairly well. Not criticizing the saw because all SCMS's suck at dust control. Handle position is horrible, especially when using it with your LH. It really puts me in an odd, uncomfortable position. Hate the lasers. Guess there's a learning curve to using them. Set them really close to the blade for accuracy and they dim. Move them away where they are bright and you now have a variance. With my other saw you put the laser on the line and the blade takes the mark to the left. Period. Still unable to cut small stuff without a sacrificial fence without material being launched. This is just ridiculous for a saw of this caliber. And the final gripe, it has NO power whatsoever. If you cut 4/4 stock on a 90/90 it seems to do ok. I'm cutting a casing that is 1 3/8 thick and this saw absolutely hates it. And yes I use new, sharp, quality blades. This is unsafe IMO and it makes for some ugly cuts even with a sharp blade. I have used the stock 60T as well as 80T blades and it makes no difference. Long story short, I am selling both of these saws. MUCH MUCH prefer using my Hitachi. 80T blade installed i can cut anything I want on the saw. No throwing, no breaking, no fences needed. Just cut it. Tons of power and the cuts are super clean. Love Festool but I had forgotten why I wasn't using this saw to begin with. Hate it."
" Now, the crappy stuff and it's very little really. This saw is waaaaaaay under powered. I run the 80T Tenyru blades on both my saws and even when they are first sharpened this saw struggles with some of the cuts we make. Example would be a 1x12 oak skirt board. This is a compound angle of roughly 38M/46B. This particular cut just bogs this saw way down. Not a deal breaker but you better learn to be patient when cutting. A saw of this level should at least turn 3800-4000 RPM in my opinion. Second annoyance is cutting small molding. Don't even try it unless you have a zero clearance fence clamped down. A simple 1x2 works fine. Not a big deal if you are on a job for several days and have tons of scrap. Pretty aggravating when you go to do a punch out and the place has been cleaned out and you have nothing in the truck. This saw will grab, break off, and throw shoe mold like an angry child. You can manage a safe cut, most of the time, by sliding the saw very gently into the molding if it's fairly soft. If it's hard like oak or hickory forget it. I keep a handful of 12-18" pcs of 1x2 behind the truck seat. This really annoys me since all of the other saws I own, have owned, which were less than 1/2 the cost of this saw, will cut any type of small molding you like. I've convinced myself it's a trade off for cutting capacity. Last thing, and it seriously p's me off. You must use the vacuum with this saw. Will it not function properly w/o it? NO. But unless you want a face full of dust every time you make a cut then unload the vacuum even if you are cutting outside. This is ridiculous. I'm set up in someones front yard running the vac? Yeah, that would be me. I've tried not using it and it makes for a miserable session on the Kapex. I've even retro-fitted a dust bag on the saw but it catches very little and is pretty worthless. Not to rip on Festool, but I feel like the design of the dust port is pretty mediocre. Put a 138CFM vac and that big rubber boot on just about any miter saw and you can attain pretty good dust collection.
So would I buy the saw again. Haha. I've bought this saw 3 times now. One was stolen along with my CT26 so I replaced with the Midi (smart move for a mobile unit). Then I replaced my shop saw with the other Kapex and it's connected to my giant Rigid shop vac with a tool switch on it. Yes, it works jut as well but not at all portable. When trying to justify purchasing or not purchasing this saw you can look at a few different ways I suppose. Weigh the features against the cost or the features against other saws. Does it do everything perfectly? No. Will it make the quality of your work better? Not likely anything that anyone will notice. It will, however, make things more accurate and easier which to me is worth the price of admission. This saw isn't perfect but it's leaps above anything else available. The other saws are either noisy, heavy, dusty, or inaccurate. These are all deal breakers to me so the $1300 didn't and still doesn't really bother me. If I see a tool that can make my job easier, faster, better, or more profitable, I really don't care what it costs (within reason). Hope this review helps with your decision and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
UPDATE: Just wanted to update my review for all of you considering a new Kapex. I have 2 of them and haven't been using either of them for many months. They have been in the shop while I carry my Hitachi C10FSH in the van. I took it in to have some service work done on it and grabbed the Kapex. I really do NOT like this saw. I'm probably going to repeat a few things so I'll make it short. The vacuum....use the saw all day with the vacuum and there is still a huge mess to clean up. Probably smaller than my Hitachi but really not worth noting. Oh, I didn't have to empty my dust bag. I cut a few treads, risers, some crown, scribe, etc the other day on a large job and by 5 pm I would have been as well off not to have even plugged in the vac. If you are making 90/90 cuts on the flat it works fairly well. Not criticizing the saw because all SCMS's suck at dust control. Handle position is horrible, especially when using it with your LH. It really puts me in an odd, uncomfortable position. Hate the lasers. Guess there's a learning curve to using them. Set them really close to the blade for accuracy and they dim. Move them away where they are bright and you now have a variance. With my other saw you put the laser on the line and the blade takes the mark to the left. Period. Still unable to cut small stuff without a sacrificial fence without material being launched. This is just ridiculous for a saw of this caliber. And the final gripe, it has NO power whatsoever. If you cut 4/4 stock on a 90/90 it seems to do ok. I'm cutting a casing that is 1 3/8 thick and this saw absolutely hates it. And yes I use new, sharp, quality blades. This is unsafe IMO and it makes for some ugly cuts even with a sharp blade. I have used the stock 60T as well as 80T blades and it makes no difference. Long story short, I am selling both of these saws. MUCH MUCH prefer using my Hitachi. 80T blade installed i can cut anything I want on the saw. No throwing, no breaking, no fences needed. Just cut it. Tons of power and the cuts are super clean. Love Festool but I had forgotten why I wasn't using this saw to begin with. Hate it."
but the following point comes to mind...
