Kapex blade wobble

[Evergreen]

Hey Ya'll!

This has been on my mind for a while, so I figured I'd see if anyone else's kapex has blade wobble.  I've gone through four festool blades over the years that I've had the saw, so I know it's not the blade itself.  It spins even once up to speed, but as the blade slows down there's a very noticible wobble in the blade.  Maybe up to an 1/8" side to side.  Do others have this as well?  Also, any thoughts on what this could do to blade life, cut quality, etc...  I feel my material likes to "walk" much more than it should and I'm thinking it's partly due to the wobble.  Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[Tim Sproul]

Hey Ya'll!

This has been on my mind for a while, so I figured I'd see if anyone else's kapex has blade wobble.  I've gone through four festool blades over the years that I've had the saw, so I know it's not the blade itself.  It spins even once up to speed, but as the blade slows down there's a very noticible wobble in the blade.  Maybe up to an 1/8" side to side.  Do others have this as well?  Also, any thoughts on what this could do to blade life, cut quality, etc...  I feel my material likes to "walk" much more than it should and I'm thinking it's partly due to the wobble.  Thanks for any thoughts!

No wobble on mine.

I've used it to cut jatoba stair treads and had to do the cut in multiple passes.  After final pass I leave the head down and turn off the power.  No saw marks on my stair treads.  Not a single one.

Same goes for cutting trim.  I leave the head down and turn off the power.  Once the blade is stopped, I lift the head and remove the work.  Not a single blade mark.

 

[rxe]

Never seen a wobble in a Kapex blade.

I have a diesel powered saw bench with a 28" blade ..... if you get the feed wrong you can set up what looks like a standing wave in the blade.  You have to back off and let it spin out.

 

[adubeau]

Hey Ya'll!

This has been on my mind for a while, so I figured I'd see if anyone else's kapex has blade wobble.  I've gone through four festool blades over the years that I've had the saw, so I know it's not the blade itself.  It spins even once up to speed, but as the blade slows down there's a very noticible wobble in the blade.  Maybe up to an 1/8" side to side.  Do others have this as well?  Also, any thoughts on what this could do to blade life, cut quality, etc...  I feel my material likes to "walk" much more than it should and I'm thinking it's partly due to the wobble.  Thanks for any thoughts!

I would call Festool...  and see what they say.... This does not sound right at all

 

[semenza]

+1, Here is the number  800-554-8741

Seth

 

[Evergreen]

Thanks for the replies!  I'm guessing it's something in the arbor.  Unfortunately today my Kapex has started taking a turn for the worse.  It started by stalling out and restarting in the middle of a cut on 1x12 melamine.  It's not an overload issue, a cord issue, a vac issue, etc...  I've checked all the usual suspects.  If you hold down the trigger without cutting, it still dies and then restarts.  This started happening last friday.  Today I was using it and it started making an entirely different noise, like a car with a bad carb.  Kind of sputtering, with a slight bit of burning smell and more sparks than usual.  I removed the cover, checked the brushes and everything that I could think of to check and it all looked good, minus the excess of sparking around the brushes.  This is such a bummer as I'm in the middle of a large job with a tight schedule.  Has anyone experienced anything similar?  On a side note, I've had similar experiences with my Apple products and Festool.  They're undeniably irreplaceable, innovative, and hard to imagine being without,  but honestly I've had more issues with these two high end players than I've had with their lower priced competitors. 

 

[semenza]

I know it would be great to  be able to get the saw right back into action, but it seems to have real problems. I really think your best bet to avoid further delay is to call service.  Is it still under warranty?

Seth