clifton clowers
Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2017
- Messages
- 8
Hello. This is my first post, and my first Festool. After a lot of reading here and elsewhere, I recently ordered a Kapex (from Amazon, which is perhaps not the best idea.) The reason I chose a Kapex over various other saws is that I am strictly interested in a precision saw. Repeatability, ease of setting angles, etc. (I frankly would just buy a second table saw for cross cutting, but I don't have the room.) I don't care about the lasers, the dust system, the portability, etc. I am an artist who works in wood sometimes, not a contractor, so I really only about cutting precision.
My saw showed up, and it appeared to have been treated roughly by UPS, and possibly refurbished (lots of fingerprints, some sawdust). I called Festool to ask about condition, and they suggested I just return it for a replacement. The replacement arrived today. It appears to have been just as roughly treated (styrofoam in the box is broken into large pieces) and indeed the box was open, missing the plastic straps the first one had, and missing at least one small part (an allen key.)
Now to the question - all else aside, there seems to be considerable play in the saw head. It looks like, if I tried, a cut measured at 12" could be anywhere from 11 15/16 to 12 1/16. Obviously I am not going to try pushing the saw side to side as I use it, but it is definitely not that rigid. Doing work where 1/1000" matters, certainly when cutting a miter angle, applying perfectly angled pressure is less likely which will throw off cuts. This also looks like a recipe for kickback.
I asked the person at Festool if this was expected, and he said "no" which is why I ultimately returned the first one. This is my first miter saw, so perhaps I am expecting something that is not possible - but I expected there to be as little play as there is in my table saw fence. So is this endemic to this design? To this type of tool? Am I looking for something that simply does not exist? Thanks.
My saw showed up, and it appeared to have been treated roughly by UPS, and possibly refurbished (lots of fingerprints, some sawdust). I called Festool to ask about condition, and they suggested I just return it for a replacement. The replacement arrived today. It appears to have been just as roughly treated (styrofoam in the box is broken into large pieces) and indeed the box was open, missing the plastic straps the first one had, and missing at least one small part (an allen key.)
Now to the question - all else aside, there seems to be considerable play in the saw head. It looks like, if I tried, a cut measured at 12" could be anywhere from 11 15/16 to 12 1/16. Obviously I am not going to try pushing the saw side to side as I use it, but it is definitely not that rigid. Doing work where 1/1000" matters, certainly when cutting a miter angle, applying perfectly angled pressure is less likely which will throw off cuts. This also looks like a recipe for kickback.
I asked the person at Festool if this was expected, and he said "no" which is why I ultimately returned the first one. This is my first miter saw, so perhaps I am expecting something that is not possible - but I expected there to be as little play as there is in my table saw fence. So is this endemic to this design? To this type of tool? Am I looking for something that simply does not exist? Thanks.