Kapex out of square ?

[Tony M]

Oh no! not another Kapex thread!  I hope I didn't miss something in the calibration thread, but here goes.

At 0 degrees miter and 0 degrees bevel, the saw cuts dead nuts on.

BUT, at 0 degrees miter and 45 bevel, I am hard pressed to get a square cut.  Wether it is thick, thin, hard, soft, wide, or narrow, it is giving me a hard time. The saw is under 30 days old and I am just starting to put it through the paces.

Yes, I am using a push cut. Yes, I am going slow and steady and using the clamp. Yes, I am trying not to torque up on the handle. I have tried everything humanly possible to make it come out right.

Am I missing something? Is it the blade, the machine, or me? 

 

[Brice Burrell]

Tony, there's an important piece of information you have left out, how out of square are your cuts? Are they a small amount or way off? It's hard to expect a miter saw to have no deflection on bevel cuts. The best advice is to call Festool it you are uncertain about your saw's performance.

 

[MiterMaster]

At 0 degrees miter and 0 degrees bevel, the saw cuts dead nuts on.  BUT, at 0 degrees miter and 45 bevel, I am hard pressed to get a square cut.    

I tend to think it's user error or the blade guard catching on the end of the stock that is throwing things off.  If it were an issue with the bevel not being properly aligned, this would skew all of your cuts somewhat.

Since you said your 0 miter / 0 bevel cuts are dead-on, the saw appears to be properly set-up.  Follow the advice of Brice, call Festool.

Mike

 

[Sean]

I had several problems with my kapex too, it do have some nice things on it though.  if you make square cuts on 0/0 then i say the machine is okay, it could be you are too firm on the handle you want to let the saw do the work, you guide it gently - sean

 

[Tony M]

Brice,  On 7" I'd say around a 1/16" . I e mailed festool, and I am waiting for a response.

MM and Sean,  I have a couple of things to try to find out if I am torquing the handle too much. I'll keep you posted. Thanks

 

[honeydoman]

Brice,  On 7" I'd say around a 1/16" . I e mailed festool, and I am waiting for a response.

MM and Sean,  I have a couple of things to try to find out if I am torquing the handle too much. I'll keep you posted. Thanks

my take on this is that it is the saw, my friend has gone through 4 kapex's and is done with them till they fix the problems.  his saw cuts skewed and was out of square.  check it out and I would take it back and get another one.

 

[MiterMaster]

Kreg - I think you said you're on Kapex #4?  Did you get all these at the same store?  Maybe try ordering online from a different dealer and see if you don't have better luck.  Plus, this way you won't have to keep driving to / from the store, wasting your time, just have it shipped. 

Mike

 

[Sean]

my friend has gone through 4 kapex's and is done with them till they fix the problems.  his saw cuts skewed and was out of square.  check it out and I would take it back and get another one.

did you and your friend get saw at same store?  i wonder if store got bad batch of the saws that had the issues, if so get your next one at different vendor, maybe you will get a good one - sean

 

[Tony M]

Update:
            This is the method I used  to check the problem. Someone passed this idea to me, so I can't take credit.
         
              With the saw locked down in transport position and pulled all the way out, I checked to see how much clearance from fence to blade there was.  I went less than that and used 6".

With the stock clamped in behind  the blade and a clamp on the trigger, (disclaimer: don't do this), I was able to push the saw through the stock without any operator induced torque. My error was around 1/32".

One thing I did not realize when I checked for square, it was with a piece 2 1/2" wide. So the saw was not being pulled out. When I checked at 0 and 0( this was today) on the 6" stock it did show daylight . Less than a 32nd.  Thanks for the input.

 

[honeydoman]

yes it was from the same store except saw # 4 was from a different woodcraft store.  my friend also same store.  however another store in town that sells kapex sold 4 saws and all 4 came back.

plue the time period was over 2 months and some were from a different shipment.  so I do not know.