Kapex blade guard stuck sometimes

[krm197]

My recently purchased Kapex (less than a week of use) starting exhibiting problems lowering the saw head.  I identified the problem as a pin near the top blade guard which gets stuck on a piece of the guard itself.

Image of the offending pin attached to this post.

I've stuck a piece of tape there for now to prevent the pin from returning to its default position all the way, which temporarily fixes the problem for now.

Does anyone else have any advice or experience with this?

Thank you!
View attachment 1

 

[Claimdude]

Mine does the same thing. I had not spent enough time to diagnose the offending part but did find that if I start the blade before lowering it lowers without a hitch. Thanks for posting and I am looking forward to seeing if anyone has a permanent fix.

Jack

 

[Birdhunter]

Looked at my Kapex. On the right side of the blade, there is a silver metal bar that acts to retract the blade guard IF both the trigger and the interlock buttons are depressed at the same time. This also allows the motor to start. If the two buttons are not both depressed, the silver metal bar doesn’t allow the blade guard to retract.

The pin appears to be part of the safety interlock system.

If the pin does not retract when both buttons are depressed, there is probably something broken in the interlock safety system or there may be debris clogging the mechanism.

I am not a Kapex e pert, just saying what I see on my Kapex.

 

[phestoolphanatic]

Hi, 
My guard doesn't so much get stuck, but it's annoying "clunky" during the initial retraction at the beginning of the cut. It tends to catch at the beginning of the stroke requiring increased down-force to start the retraction.  The rest of the stroke is normal.  I find this unacceptable, and totally unfestool-like.  After opening up the handle assembly, I decided the problem lies in the way the roller bearing on the end of the retract linkage registers in the acrylic guard channel pocket at the beginning of the down stroke.  The design doesn't apply enough torque at the start of the retraction.  My initial attempt at solving this problem was to fill the inner corner (closest to the arbor) with a small amount of epoxy putty (JB Weld, of course) to channel the engage point of the roller bearing farther out in the acrylic pocket of the guard (there's plenty of room in the pocket to allow for this without modifying the acrylic).  This effectively gives a small increase in the retract torque that is applied on the guard at the start of the stroke and also takes some of slop out of the linkage.  This seems to noticeably smooth out the guard retaction.  If this is difficult to visualize, I can post a few pics.
I may go farther with modifications, but I want to use the saw for a while to see how this slight modification works.