So I bought a KS60 about four months ago to replace my Makita. I own a bunch of other Festool products and have been very happy with all of them. I've been wanting a Kapex for a while mainly due to the inaccuracies of the Makita and when I could finally afford and justify the Kapex I bought it. I went with the KS60 for portability and because the depth of cut is enough for most my needs.
So for the first few months I used it mainly for framing while building my new workshop. It worked great and I couldn't have been happier with it. Already a huge improvement over the Makita in terms of accuracy and ease of use. Then a few weeks ago a started a job for someone who wants a shoe rack for the entrance of their house. It's a sort of box frame design where the top, bottom and sides are all joined with 45 degree bevels. I started cutting the bevels and noticed that they weren't square across the width of the boards. I did a bunch of test cuts in scrap wood with repeat results. I set a square up against the fence and ran the blade along it front to back and when the blade touched the square at the fence by the time I had it pulled all the way back it was about 1.5mm away from the square. I did a bunch of test cuts on scrap timber and figured out that if I set the mitre to half a degree I would get square cuts.
I contacted Festool with the problem and they said to take it to my nearest retailer which I promptly did. I received it back today and with my saw there was the repair slip with a note at the bottom saying it's due to operator error and that it's caused by flex from force applied to the saw in a way that's not in line with the plunge of the blade when making bevel cuts. Somewhat disappointed I took the saw back to my workshop to have a look at what this meant. It seems that when making bevels cuts if I'm not plunging the blade with the force applied to do in just about exactly the same angle as the 45 degree bevel the saw flexes. The flex is the most when the blade is pulled all the way back obviously and least so when pushed all the back towards the fence. I've spent the afternoon cutting bevels to figure out how to get a square cut and the end result is that I have to nurse my bevel cuts just so in order to get it to cut square. Now I know SCMS's do flex in general and more so on bevels but I've had SCMS's that cost a third of the KS60 that required far less nursing to prevent it from flexing.
Has anyone out there experienced similar problems with the KS60? Any KS120 owners want to chip in on their experiences? I'm just trying to gauge where I'm at with this and how much is actually operator error, what is design flaw or perhaps just what might be a fault with my particular unit.
As it stands this is the first Festool product I own that I'm feeling disappointed with. It seems to fall a little short of the blurb on it's web page that says "It makes no compromises in terms of precision...". I feel that the degree to which I have to nurse my bevel cuts to get them square doesn't match up with the amount of money I paid for a saw that's advertised as a precision tool.
So for the first few months I used it mainly for framing while building my new workshop. It worked great and I couldn't have been happier with it. Already a huge improvement over the Makita in terms of accuracy and ease of use. Then a few weeks ago a started a job for someone who wants a shoe rack for the entrance of their house. It's a sort of box frame design where the top, bottom and sides are all joined with 45 degree bevels. I started cutting the bevels and noticed that they weren't square across the width of the boards. I did a bunch of test cuts in scrap wood with repeat results. I set a square up against the fence and ran the blade along it front to back and when the blade touched the square at the fence by the time I had it pulled all the way back it was about 1.5mm away from the square. I did a bunch of test cuts on scrap timber and figured out that if I set the mitre to half a degree I would get square cuts.
I contacted Festool with the problem and they said to take it to my nearest retailer which I promptly did. I received it back today and with my saw there was the repair slip with a note at the bottom saying it's due to operator error and that it's caused by flex from force applied to the saw in a way that's not in line with the plunge of the blade when making bevel cuts. Somewhat disappointed I took the saw back to my workshop to have a look at what this meant. It seems that when making bevels cuts if I'm not plunging the blade with the force applied to do in just about exactly the same angle as the 45 degree bevel the saw flexes. The flex is the most when the blade is pulled all the way back obviously and least so when pushed all the back towards the fence. I've spent the afternoon cutting bevels to figure out how to get a square cut and the end result is that I have to nurse my bevel cuts just so in order to get it to cut square. Now I know SCMS's do flex in general and more so on bevels but I've had SCMS's that cost a third of the KS60 that required far less nursing to prevent it from flexing.
Has anyone out there experienced similar problems with the KS60? Any KS120 owners want to chip in on their experiences? I'm just trying to gauge where I'm at with this and how much is actually operator error, what is design flaw or perhaps just what might be a fault with my particular unit.
As it stands this is the first Festool product I own that I'm feeling disappointed with. It seems to fall a little short of the blurb on it's web page that says "It makes no compromises in terms of precision...". I feel that the degree to which I have to nurse my bevel cuts to get them square doesn't match up with the amount of money I paid for a saw that's advertised as a precision tool.
