Kapex thinking of purchasing tomorrow

[mkwaogima]

Good Morning!

I have owned a festal t-18 plus three for a year now and am thinking of purchasing the Kapex saw. I am an independent contractor and am wondering how much should I purchase straight away. the dust extraction unit or the mobile stand and arms?

I am somewhat new to the Festool world however, have not regretted it yet.

Thank you for any thoughts.

Gabriel

 

[wow]

First, [welcome] to the FOG!

Your question is an interesting one. If you purchase the DE at the same time, you will receive a discount. Might be reason enough to make that choice?

On the other hand, it really depends on what you NEED. Do you need the extensions to do your work? If so, that could dictate what to buy first.

Either way you can't go wrong...

 

[RJNeal]

[welcome]
Your answer all depends on how/ where you work.
If you are inside finish houses a lot. Then I would steer towards a CT vac.
And use some other items for a table. Planks or old doors.
If your outside or in unfinished houses then I would steer towards the mobile stand and arms.

Good luck,
Rick

 

[peter halle]

Another welcome to the FOG!

I would suggest that you look at your workflow.  If your cutting is inside usually then a dust collector might be higher on your needs than if you usually cut outside. Dust collection does improve with the 36 mm hose and improves even greater with a shortened 36 mm hose.  If you regularly need to make repetitive length cuts then the ug cart and wings could speed up your workflow.  Otherwise you might be just as happy at least in the short run with some other out feed stand or device.

For instance, and this not saying anything against the Festool UG setup (which I would love to get) I use three of the Keter folding tables @ about $49 each.  I use one for my Kapex and then place 1 Systainer one on each of the others to match the Kapex bed height.  I don't have the luxury of repeatable stops but rather just support.  If I need to change over to using them like sawhorses I just take the Kapex and systainers off.  This way I have about $150 invested and flexibility.

I have also done similar with my MFT.

Just a thought.

Peter

EDIT:  It seems that rjneal types faster than I do  [big grin]

 

[NHSP759]

I've got a small wood shop in my basement. I have the MFT/3 but my Kapex is sitting on a small work table I had previously built. I purposely bought my second Midi dust extractor specifically for my saw. To me this is more important for DC and health reasons not to mention I'm anal about cleanliness. To me the MFT Kapex stand is not worth it for the cost. At least not now. Besides, the Sys 1's are level with the table for my Kapex and I can always build an outfeed table. But then again, this is a stationary tool in a hobbyist basement.

 

[sancho57]

Heres my take. Festool is a system. What you need is entirely based on what your building.

The basic coponents of the system IMO are

TS55/75
MFT
DC.

Once you get those you can Build your system.

As far as the Kapex. It is part of my system. I bought the Kapex MFT with extension wings. But there are options. Some guys here are very creative and have built their own stands, Ron Paulks Ultimate Miter saw stand is one of many ive seen here.

Im not that creative.  [big grin]

 

[DavidW]

I would go with the extractor before the before the stand, as was said you will save 10% on the extractor and you will need it when you start collecting more Festools,  [wink] especially the sanders. Someone said the only tools that do not use the vacuum are the cordless drills (and the soon to be released Vecturo  [sad]).
David

 

[Jaybolishes]

Dave Reinhold has some videos using kapex wings he made with the crown stops.  I think a stand could also be easily made so if it were me and money was tight, I'd go for the saw and a vac, especially if you're going to be inside a lot.

 

[BMH]

I would recommend the dust extractor with the Kapex. I used the Ryobi stand with my Kapex for a year before moving to the UG with wings. Festool is a system and the DE is a key component. It truly doesn't matter in my mind if you are cutting inside or outside you are still breathing wood dust that more often then not is toxic to your lungs.

The other reasons is that you may need to buy another Festool component  before you need the UG stand. I finally got the UG stand when I had to redo the trim in my house, between Katz measurement techniques and UG stand with wings I was around 40% more efficient. I strictly use the metric system and a tallmeter tape that is calibrated to my UG wings.

Good luck

 

[blakjak220]

I do this for fun so I've probably got a different view than a contractor... but I'd say definitely get the Kapex/Vac combo  -you save some money getting them together, the vac will work with every other Festool you buy (and there will be others) and being able to work without dust flying everywhere is great... you can always find something else to use as a stand for now, but you can't replace the vac to the same extent...

No contest... get the vac

 

[MaineShop]

Hello Gabriel,

I too work as a contractor and use my tools to make my living, I would say hands down get the dust collector. Once we started to incorporate festools into our setup with my crew it changed the way we work and the item that had the biggest impact was the DC. We have probably a half dozen shop vacs in the trailers and around the shop but they just don't do what the festool dust collectors can do. I mean they can honestly make sanding a pleasant experience. Now there is so much less dust around where we are working that we often do a full clean at the end of every day as opposed to the end of the workweek like we use to.

Adam

 

[glass1]

Kapex pretty much has to be used with a de or it gets all jammed up. I may be in the minority but I prefer to wear a good dust mask when doing really caustic work like routing and multiple rips on the table saw when on site. De is nice in a shop situation but on site how many vacuums you got switching back and forth from table saw to kapex to router to ts75. Argh....

 

[mkwaogima]

I purchased the Kapex with ug stand and wings .....works great! a bit disappointed they don't just include 36 mm hose ....especially when forking over 3000.00

also was looking for where to buy a kit to install standard tape measure to affix on extension wings....

Thanx much all as your comments helped me decide to do it right and I do appreciate the help

 

[mkwaogima]

forgot to mention the ct26 hands down best shop vacuum I have ever used......

 

[PreferrablyWood]

Congratulations on your new Kapex.. I suppose one will be landing on my doorstep maybe in a year.

I'm going for the CMS GE with router and table saw modules this year..