Valleywood
Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2013
- Messages
- 24
Bought the Kapex last year from Bob Marino and chose him largely because he supplies a superior manual for Festool purchases. Am I allowed to plug for him? No? Oh well, too late. Great delivery execution and love the user's manual.
Since buying it the Kapex has behaved beautifully with everything working perfectly without any setup fine tuning. That said however the saw had never really been challenged until last week.
I have my Kapex mounted on a Makita stand that is rather heavy duty because the Festool stand has not impressed me with its strength. For three years I have gathered rough cut white oak for making raised garden beds for my wife. My inventory ranged from 2" x 6" in lengths from eight to twenty feet and some 2" x 8" about twelve feet long. All the oak ranged in age (my ownership from green rough cut) from six months to three years and it has been stored outside in the weather. I bought a three row ball in-feed stand from Rockler and used the marginal wings on the Makita stand on out-feed. I cut all the oak in either seven foot lengths or three foot lengths.
I made all the cuts on lower than optimum speed because green or rough-cut lumber that thick can react violently when those stresses are relieved. Lower speeds are harder on the saw, but a lot safer for me. I made roughly 1,000 - 1,200 cuts in the 2x6 or 2x8 rough cut white oak. I used the Festool blade. I now have all nicely polished board ends on all this lumber for my raised garden beds. The saw was magnificent. That's my review. Pretty dandy saw.
Complaints? The deck of the Kapex is powder coat aluminum. After dragging all that rough lumber including dirt particles and "stuff" associated with stacked lumber outside . . . . . after all that pushing and pulling, etc. I have no scratches down to metal. There are surface scratches in the "paint", but nothing down to bright metal. That means I will have to further endure family members remarks like, "Well, I see you still haven't actually used this saw! " , stuff like that. I'm thinking of going out to the shop with a file and scratching up the deck a bit.
Since buying it the Kapex has behaved beautifully with everything working perfectly without any setup fine tuning. That said however the saw had never really been challenged until last week.
I have my Kapex mounted on a Makita stand that is rather heavy duty because the Festool stand has not impressed me with its strength. For three years I have gathered rough cut white oak for making raised garden beds for my wife. My inventory ranged from 2" x 6" in lengths from eight to twenty feet and some 2" x 8" about twelve feet long. All the oak ranged in age (my ownership from green rough cut) from six months to three years and it has been stored outside in the weather. I bought a three row ball in-feed stand from Rockler and used the marginal wings on the Makita stand on out-feed. I cut all the oak in either seven foot lengths or three foot lengths.
I made all the cuts on lower than optimum speed because green or rough-cut lumber that thick can react violently when those stresses are relieved. Lower speeds are harder on the saw, but a lot safer for me. I made roughly 1,000 - 1,200 cuts in the 2x6 or 2x8 rough cut white oak. I used the Festool blade. I now have all nicely polished board ends on all this lumber for my raised garden beds. The saw was magnificent. That's my review. Pretty dandy saw.
Complaints? The deck of the Kapex is powder coat aluminum. After dragging all that rough lumber including dirt particles and "stuff" associated with stacked lumber outside . . . . . after all that pushing and pulling, etc. I have no scratches down to metal. There are surface scratches in the "paint", but nothing down to bright metal. That means I will have to further endure family members remarks like, "Well, I see you still haven't actually used this saw! " , stuff like that. I'm thinking of going out to the shop with a file and scratching up the deck a bit.
