Kapex blade not centered

[vogel61]

Perhaps someone can tell me whether the state of my Kapex is normal.

I made a zero clearance insert and after I made the first cut into it, I noticed that the cut was made roughly 2mm to the left of the center of the insert. Therefore the plane of the mid section of the blade is not crossing the center of rotation for the miter angles.

I calibrated 0 and 45 degrees on both sides, accuracy is now very good.

I calibrated the scales of the left and right extension fences, but as the blade is not positioned in the center of the rotation platform, the scale calibration is rather useless for angled cuts.

Is  this normal? Am I expecting too much? Is it possible at all to use the scale with stops for angled cuts with satisfactory results? Or is everyone using pencil marks and laser lines for miter angles anyway?

For example, I  wanted to cut four pieces for a picture frame with an outside diameter of, say 20x30cm exactly and found no practical way doing so using the scale on the fence and stops.

I  hope nobody is bothered by my metric notation, I am not used to imperial.

Any comments appreciated!

Richard

 

[Slartibartfass]

Sounds like the blade is not installed correctly...? I assume the blades does not wobble? Maybe someone put a washer underneath if there is a sideways shift from the centerline... (just guessing....).

I would take off the blade and check and reinstall and see if this fixes the issue.

 

[vogel61]

The first thing I checked was removing and reinstalling the blade. I was also searching for a calibration option there to move the blade sideways. No luck. Blade does not wobble, cuts are fine, apart from the problem described above. I noticed it as I first tried to cut 45 degrees to a specific length using the scale. Anybody out there sharing a shifted blade? Is this by design or should I contact festool support?

 

[Slartibartfass]

Contact Festool support. Something must be fundamentally wrong with the saw (bad casting...?)

Mine is spot on. Only thing I had to do was calibrating the laser a tad....

 

[Slartibartfass]

Btw  [welcome].

It would be helpful if you could update your profile so it shows the country you reside in...

I assume its Germany...?

 

[vogel61]

Thank you. I will contact Festool support. I am from Austria.

 

[Cheese]

[member=50443]vogel61[/member]
This is what it should look like.

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[vogel61]

Cheese,

This is mine. Inseet is 49mm, the middle of the blade should be at 24.5mm if it is centered. Actually the right edge of the blade is at 24.5. Blade shifted 1.25mm to the left of the center. Perhaps this is intentional by Festool, I  don't know. Yours might be the same offset, perhaps you can check?

Therefore symmetry is broken between -45 and +45 degrees. Is your blade spot on?

Richard

 

[vogel61]

Sorry, my insert is 48.5mm, not 49mm. It is not easy to make a picture of it without perspective error.

 

[Slartibartfass]

I don't know if it's even possible but the slip nut holding the blade could be reversed? Something must be causing the side shift. Viel Glueck!

 

[Cheese]

[member=50443]vogel61[/member]
Check these out...look familiar?  My insert is 49mm so I should be 74.5mm

Added:So I've got about a .5mm offset. I've cut some long casing for windows (68") and the 45 degree miters were perfect.

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[vogel61]

@Cheese

Oh, so the offset seems to be per design? I am interested if I  receive a response from Festool if this is 'normal'. I will post here in case someone is interested. Thanks for crosschecking!

 

[Cheese]

[member=50443]vogel61[/member]
Ya I'm very interested in what Festool has to say.

FWIW...When I trimmed out the windows recently, I checked the miters with a Starrett C369 protractor just to make sure nothing had gotten out of adjustment, and they were still within 5 minutes (1/12 degree) of angle.

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