Not satisfied with dust collection on kapex

[Janmara1]

Hi
When cutting maple and other wood on the kapex I am satisfied with the cuts, however it seems to me that I am left with far to much residue of dust surrounding the saw. I have replaced the hose with a larger width, have replaced the bag in the midi yet find that the only way to get up the remaining sawdust is to disconnect the hose from the saw and then vacuum up the remaining sawdust, anyone have any advice as to how to resolve this issue?

 

[deepcreek]

Slowing your cut rate down helps.  A shorter hose does as well.  Make sure you have the vac turned all the way up.

The Kapex collects more dust than any other SCMS I've ever used but it's never going to get 100%.

Try making a cut without any dust collection to see how much it is doing.

 

[ear3]

I assume everything is copacetic with your Midi (bag not full or blocked).  I don't have the Midi, but based upon my experience comparing my Festool vac with a more powerful shop vac, I think it is just the way things are with the Kapex at lower CFMs.  Between my CT26 and my 6.5HP Ridgid shop vac (which has a higher CFM), the dust collection is better on the latter, and so in my shop I keep it tied into the Kapex. 

 

[RKA]

I don't understand how people use these in finished homes.  While the dust collection is quite good, I think 10% escaping is too much to use inside a finished home.  I recently staged my Kapex in my garage to trim out a bedroom (4-5" wide and cut on the flat) and cut down some 2x lumber for another project.  This is probably the fist time I've done this much work with the saw continuously and normally I clean up after I'm done cutting, so usually there isn't much to clean up.  The mess generated was way too much for the inside of the house.  The car in the adjacent bay 12 feet from the saw was covered in fine sawdust (as was everything else in the vicinity). The area below the saw had a good amount of course dust and the saw itself was covered.  Changing the bag had little effect.  Swapping the mini for a 26 had little effect, and all this is with a 5ft 36mm hose connecting the two. 

I think sometimes the expectations set are a little too high.  What you describe sounds normal to me, but if there is any question whether the dust extractor is doing its job, unplug it and the other 90% should confirm that it's working quite well. 

 

[Kev]

I don't understand how people use these in finished homes.  While the dust collection is quite good, I think 10% escaping is too much to use inside a finished home.  I recently staged my Kapex in my garage to trim out a bedroom (4-5" wide and cut on the flat) and cut down some 2x lumber for another project.  This is probably the fist time I've done this much work with the saw continuously and normally I clean up after I'm done cutting, so usually there isn't much to clean up.  The mess generated was way too much for the inside of the house.  The car in the adjacent bay 12 feet from the saw was covered in fine sawdust (as was everything else in the vicinity). The area below the saw had a good amount of course dust and the saw itself was covered.  Changing the bag had little effect.  Swapping the mini for a 26 had little effect, and all this is with a 5ft 36mm hose connecting the two. 

I think sometimes the expectations set are a little too high.  What you describe sounds normal to me, but if there is any question whether the dust extractor is doing its job, unplug it and the other 90% should confirm that it's working quite well.

I tend to agree with you .. if you want to achieve dust free cutting with an SCMS you've got to introduce some form of enclosure with high volume extraction. Not very portable!

 

[jonathan-m]

This is likely not the solution you're looking for, but I've had 2x CT26 vacuums connected to the Kapex which improves collection further. With only 1x CT26 you can still smell the wood dust in the air. When doubling up, besides better visual collection, the smell in the air is all but gone, which indicates a lot more of the fine dust particles get captured. Note that this was cutting 18mm MDF boards.
Doubling up doesn't make it dust free either, but if I had to make a guesstimate, I'd say using 2 vacuums cuts the residual dust by another 30-40%.

Setup is as follows: a 1.2m long 50mm hose goes to a Y-connector and from there I have 1.2m long 36mm hose to the Kapex dust port.
If you have multiple vacuums, I suggest you give it a try and see what results it gives you

In any case, most people around here seem to put a Midi vac under their Kapex but I recommend the more powerful CT26-36-48. The Kapex needs all the airflow it can get.
And actually I recently replaced the 2x CT26 with 2x Bosch VAC090 which has a bit better suction power than the CT26's and instead of the 3 second shutoff delay of the CT26 they run for 20 sec after the machine is shut down to pull out any residual fine particles floating around in the vicinity of the saw. Some might find such a long shut off delay annoying though, but it does serve a purpose.
All said and done I think the Kapex has really good dust collection out of the box already, for a miter saw.

Some woodworkers say you can never have enough clamps, I say you can never have enough vacuums!

 

[jaguar36]

Something else to keep in mind, Festool only rates the Kapex at collecting 91% of the dust. That means that 9% is still getting away, which is quite a bit.  You can certainly do some things to improve that, but its unrealistic to expect it to collect significantly more than what Festool rates it at.

 

[Cheese]

[member=30676]Janmara1[/member]
There was much discussion on improving the Kapex dust collection capabilities in this post from last year.
http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-jigs-tool-enhancements/kapex-dust-collection-modification/

 

[Tayler_mann]

I've found my Kapex to be more than adequate for collection. My old makita would rain a haze in a room after two cuts. My Kapex would take 100's of cuts to make the mess the makita would make. If you are in a finished house than no matter what you use a good should be used of some kind. I think it would be hard to keep the depth of cut the Kapex had and improve collection. It could be done but I have a feeling it would be a pain to deal with. If they did improve it, great, if not it is still a wonderful machine to use.

 

[ear3]

Agreed -- I think the expectations we've come to have of Festool dust collection, based upon the other tools in their line (like the sanders or the routers), have fed some of the disappointment/perceived shortcomings with the Kapex.  Compared to my previous Bosch CMS, DC on the Kapex is much better.

I've found my Kapex to be more than adequate for collection. My old makita would rain a haze in a room after two cuts. My Kapex would take 100's of cuts to make the mess the makita would make. If you are in a finished house than no matter what you use a good should be used of some kind. I think it would be hard to keep the depth of cut the Kapex had and improve collection. It could be done but I have a feeling it would be a pain to deal with. If they did improve it, great, if not it is still a wonderful machine to use.

 

[nclemmons]

I never heard from Dave Askew in that Kapex thread posted by Cheese.  So I ordered a saw stache from Fastcap and added it to my Kapex.

Simple addition that makes a good improvement in the dust collection on the Kapex.

I know [member=8352]erock[/member] also did this and I found his video on it for those interested.

 

[jbasen]

My previous saw, before the Kapex, was a Milwaukee 6955-20 12" sliding compound miter saw.  The Kapex dust collection puts the Milwaukee to shame. With Kapex connected to my CT Mini with a 35mm hose there is a small amount of dust to clean up. The Milwaukee would spew dust all over my shop.

 

[jmbfestool]

Doing a kitchen job yesterday.

My mate had his new dewalt he recently bought set up.

Im not going to moan to much about the saw

 

[Cheese]

So I ordered a saw stache from Fastcap and added it to my Kapex.

[member=167]neilc[/member]
Would you recommend adding the stache to the Kapex and could you characterize the amount of improvement?

 

[nclemmons]

So I ordered a saw stache from Fastcap and added it to my Kapex.

[member=167]neilc[/member]
Would you recommend adding the stache to the Kapex and could you characterize the amount of improvement?

I would recommend it.  It's really low cost and easy to add.  My Kapex is normally connected to a central dust collection system.  I have a hobby shop and didn't have the desire to spend money on a second Festool vac just for the Kapex.  The saw stache definitely reduces the 'spread' of dust from the saw out the back. 

neil

 

[Acrobat]

I don't understand how people use these in finished homes.  While the dust collection is quite good, I think 10% escaping is too much to use inside a finished home.  I recently staged my Kapex in my garage to trim out a bedroom (4-5" wide and cut on the flat) and cut down some 2x lumber for another project.  This is probably the fist time I've done this much work with the saw continuously and normally I clean up after I'm done cutting, so usually there isn't much to clean up.  The mess generated was way too much for the inside of the house.  The car in the adjacent bay 12 feet from the saw was covered in fine sawdust (as was everything else in the vicinity). The area below the saw had a good amount of course dust and the saw itself was covered.  Changing the bag had little effect.  Swapping the mini for a 26 had little effect, and all this is with a 5ft 36mm hose connecting the two. 

I think sometimes the expectations set are a little too high.  What you describe sounds normal to me, but if there is any question whether the dust extractor is doing its job, unplug it and the other 90% should confirm that it's working quite well.

Agree entirely. I keep mine in the garage, no way would I use it in my home. Far too much escaping for my liking, even with 36mm shortened hose to a big festool vac. Would love to try the saw stache thing. Wonder if Festool will implement this kind of addtion themselves in a future release?