Need a miter saw for a large jobsite project, would you buy a Kapex?

[ProCarpenterRVA]

Aside from the Kapex being overpriced by $500, the fact it's only a 10" blade, and the fact you will be lucky to have your saws motor not burn up in a newer model after three years, I can't say I would do it. Boy I'd like to buy one, but three of the five builders I know who had one had many issues. Also it's  worthwhile to get a 12" bladed saw.  So many times I find myself wishing I brought my 12" Bosch Axial to a job instead of my 10" Makita. Sometimes a large crosscut capacity with a large cut depth are handy to have.  The only drawback with the axial is it's heavy.  The dust collection with a kapex dust shroud installed on it  is amazing.  Slower you cut, more dust you can expect to collect and it's over 90 percent of it which is comparable to the Kapex.  If you just dive the blade into the wood you can collect only about 60 percent.

I've played with a lot of unplugged Bosch glides and was impressed.
I'm getting analysis paralysis.

It's all fun and games until you have to pick up the darn thing to cart it out of the store. Yikes, this thing is a bit heavy!! [emoji52]

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[yetihunter]

Oh, I would not consider that saw for construction/carpentry/remodel.  [scared]

 

[Rob-GB]

Any mitre saw that is re-located from job to job will have the occasional need to re-calibrate unless you have access to a hover board  [big grin]

My Kapex has travelled many miles since purchase in 2010 and I the only calibration that I have needed to do was with the laser (twice). It gets used for everything from cutting rafters to joint points on geometrical stair handrailing to mitres on furniture.
At the risk of jinxing the tool...it has never let me down.
Before the Kapex I managed with an Elu chopsaw, similar models are now branded dewalt and the quality is much lower. I retired that Elu but have it in reserve for a rainy day.
Rob.

 

[Job and Knock]

I've played with a lot of unplugged Bosch glides and was impressed.
I'm getting analysis paralysis.

Try this quick cure - pull the Glide and the stand out of the van, together with 2 or 3 cables and an industrial vacuum cleaner. Haul it across 200 yards of rubble-strewn construction site, then up 6 flights of stairs (say 80 or 90 steps) to the third floor and set-up the kit. This will take 4 return journeys. Do a full day's work framing out or trimming-out. Then unplug the saw and break down the sawing rig, haul it all don to the ground floor (another 4 return trips) and lug it across to the van where you need to pack it in neatly. Go home. The following day repeat, and keep on repeating for the full 6 days of a working week and for the full 4 weeks of a month. Then see how keen you are on the Bosch glide saw and the Gravity Rise stand.....

 

[Jaybolishes]

That's why you get the Dewalt stand. With the money you save you can offer $100 a day for a hand if it's too heavy.

 

[yetihunter]

I was that $100 a day hand for most of my twenties. 
No thanks, I ain't going back to a jobsite and I
certainly ain't carrying nothin'. 

 

[cubevandude]

I wish Dewalt offered the DW777 in North America.  They sold an older version of it under the Elu name about 25 years ago.  It will do most of your trim work and is smaller that the 12 inch monsters sold now.  I used the ELU for over 15 years until I decided a new saw was needed.  I missed the Elu and picked one up a few years ago at an auction with the original blade still in it for $15.  It does not have the upgraded fence on it though and needs the fence changed.  Dewalt fixed all the quirks from what I see in the videos.  I'm in Canada so can't get the Dewalt 777 anyway.  I think it would be a great saw and looks like they just made it cordless.

 

[big K]

Two huge issues with the Kapex saw, besides the price anyways. I have always hated vertical handles on any miter saw. To me the ergonomics make that saw a no go. And since the more recent Kapex's have developed a nasty habit of smoking out, I am not willing to gamble that kind of money to test my luck.

Pity, as I would love to get a SCMS that excelled in dust control the way the Kapex has, but apparently Festool is not in any hurry to correct the problem. Oh well.

 

[Rob-GB]

Two huge issues with the Kapex saw, besides the price anyways. I have always hated vertical handles on any miter saw. To me the ergonomics make that saw a no go.

Is this an American issue?
I ask this as there seems to be an idea that if it is not powered it is not a tool in the states.
The grip action on the Kapex is just like using a handsaw and very natural to anyone who learnt using hand tools before being let loose with power tools.
I have only once used a chop saw with a horizontal aspect and that felt very foreign to me.
Rob.

 

[peter halle]

Every miters I have had since 1983 has had a vertical handle.  A few times I had had to use a horizontal handle and that handle was offset to one side of the centerline.  Felt weird to me.  I would thing that the center handles set up like that on the Kapex would appeal to both left and right handed users and keep forces more inline with the blade and slides.

Preferences will always vary of course.

Peter

 

[ProCarpenterRVA]

I wish Dewalt offered the DW777 in North America.  They sold an older version of it under the Elu name about 25 years ago.  It will do most of your trim work and is smaller that the 12 inch monsters sold now.  I used the ELU for over 15 years until I decided a new saw was needed.  I missed the Elu and picked one up a few years ago at an auction with the original blade still in it for $15.  It does not have the upgraded fence on it though and needs the fence changed.  Dewalt fixed all the quirks from what I see in the videos.  I'm in Canada so can't get the Dewalt 777 anyway.  I think it would be a great saw and looks like they just made it cordless.

That's essentially my 35 year old Dewalt 1707 Crosscutter Saw in Yellow!!! German made, 8-1/2" blade, 27 mm dust port, absolutely love the saw, way ahead of its time in America. I paid a small fortune for it back then, and I was envied by all the guys I worked with, especially since it never really caught on and was hard to get. Unfortunately the weird stroke and the small format make it too dangerous(I'm cautious, have seen a few fingers chopped ) to let anyone else use. I still have it in the miter saw arsenal in the shop, though... It is light enough to grab when finishing up a project and just need to get a few pieces of trim installed. I can still get parts for it!

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[pettyconstruction]

Two huge issues with the Kapex saw, besides the price anyways. I have always hated vertical handles on any miter saw. To me the ergonomics make that saw a no go.

Is this an American issue?
I ask this as there seems to be an idea that if it is not powered it is not a tool in the states.
The grip action on the Kapex is just like using a handsaw and very natural to anyone who learnt using hand tools before being let loose with power tools.
I have only once used a chop saw with a horizontal aspect and that felt very foreign to me.
Rob.

I agree, I don’t care for the horizontal handle type
Charlie

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[aloysius]

Whilst I'm personally not a fan of vertical mitre saw handles, I suppose it's because I've only really had horizontal ones before & since my own Kapex:  DeWalt DW1251, Bosch GCM GDL, Metabo KGS 216 LTX 18.  So the action of a vertical handle just doesn't "feel right".  For the same reason, those asymmetric handles on smaller Festo/Festool/Mafell routers also feel just too weird to me too:  whereas my older Elu & DeWalt router designs feel "just right".

I can understand where some situations call for, & probably work best with, a vertical handle.  Handsawing, or other vigorous or energetic pushing actions lend themselves to vertical handles more than horizontal.  Track/rail sawing or even just crosscutting or ripping freehand with any circular would just be too stupidly un-ergonomic with horizontal handgrips.

Yet the pull-out-push-down-push-in action of SCMS & even more so the carefully restrained, creeping feed of a Radial Arm Saw just seem more natural to me with my hand held horizontally.

As far as the Kapex is concerned, however, its not just the handle alignment that's an issue for me.  My hands are fairly small (size M gloves), & the elongated hand slot on the Kapex would tend to get slippery when I'm sweating.  I'd often have to catch myself in the process of losing my grip.  That's dangerous.  I'd far rather devote my attention to the blade in/on the workpiece than on my grip.

 

[yetihunter]

Whilst I'm personally not a fan of vertical mitre saw handles, I suppose it's because I've only really had horizontal ones before & since my own Kapex:  DeWalt DW1251, Bosch GCM GDL, Metabo KGS 216 LTX 18.  So the action of a vertical handle just doesn't "feel right".  For the same reason, those asymmetric handles on smaller Festo/Festool/Mafell routers also feel just too weird to me too:  whereas my older Elu & DeWalt router designs feel "just right".

I can understand where some situations call for, & probably work best with, a vertical handle.  Handsawing, or other vigorous or energetic pushing actions lend themselves to vertical handles more than horizontal.  Track/rail sawing or even just crosscutting or ripping freehand with any circular would just be too stupidly un-ergonomic with horizontal handgrips.

Yet the pull-out-push-down-push-in action of SCMS & even more so the carefully restrained, creeping feed of a Radial Arm Saw just seem more natural to me with my hand held horizontally.

As far as the Kapex is concerned, however, its not just the handle alignment that's an issue for me.  My hands are fairly small (size M gloves), & the elongated hand slot on the Kapex would tend to get slippery when I'm sweating.  I'd often have to catch myself in the process of losing my grip.  That's dangerous.  I'd far rather devote my attention to the blade in/on the workpiece than on my grip.

Now, c'mon, you know that the Dewalt versions of the Elu routers
don't feel right. The handles aren't shiny.
To be fair, the plunge action is still the best thing since sliced calamari.

If anyone wants the Elu saw, there's one on eBay. 

So did the op buy a kapex or what?

 

[Job and Knock]

I wish Dewalt offered the DW777 in North America.

Shame that they don't. That's been my "drag around" saw for the last 5 years and it's been pretty good, although TBH mine is actually a DW771 (variable speed, otherwise identical) and I have the legstands for it as well. The Kapex gets kept for the high value/high accuracy tasks but for slamming-in miles of MDF or softwood skirtings (baseboards) and basic architrave sets the little DW is hard to fault - apart, that is, from its' less than stellar dust extraction. It's also god for my old back! A couple of colleagues have bought a newer, lighter version the DWS773/DWS774, which is even smaller and lighter

That's essentially my 35 year old Dewalt 1707 Crosscutter Saw in Yellow!!! German made, 8-1/2" blade, 27 mm dust port, absolutely love the saw, way ahead of its time in America.

Not really. Same format, different motor, though, and slightly better guards - oh, and the dust extraction requires a 3-into-1 "snake" hose

 

[Lbob131]

;D