Review of the new kapex stand

[honeydoman]

here it is a review of the kapex saw stand that will be available as of March 1.  I really liked the portability and eaz of use... let me know what you think.

Review The Kapex Saw Stand by Kreg Kreg's Custom Carpentry

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

In the spirit of full disclosure, Kreg was provided the Kapex UG mobile miter station for review purposes by Festool USA.

 

[PeterK]

So Kreg. How solid are the extensions? Are they designed more for trim use or do you think they could take some abuse like cutting framing lumber? Just does not look like the extensions would be stable with a heavier load with just one leg although Festool has fooled many times before. i really like your presentation. Thank you!

 

[jimbo51]

Ka pex or Kap ex.  I come from industry where capital expenditure was referred to as cap ex  so I have always thought, Kap ex.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

Where in the hell are you suppose to pile stuff up at?

Lord knows after about 10 minutes worth of work I got a pile of stuff on the mft.

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Ka pex or Kap ex.  I come from industry where capital expenditure was referred to as cap ex  so I have always thought, Kap ex.

Pronounced Kay-pex in the US. However, I think in Germany is sounds more like Cap-ex.

 

[Scott_W]

Gee THANKS Kreg! Don't you think you did enough damage to my wallet already?  ;D

Great video, if.. when I get the Kapex, I'll check out the stand as well!

Thanks...scott

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Darcy, you're just bummed you didn't get the grand prize for demo/ownership  [big grin].

Kreg,  you scored big!  Congratulations, my friend.

Brice, get off the floor and stop with the "I didn't get one" tantrum  [tongue].  I'll send you a magic pencil.

Congratulations goes out to all those that got the booty past and present.  I'm sure it was well deserved, otherwise Festool wouldn't have sent them to you.  AND thanks for the reviews on those items!

 

[norwegian wood]

Stand looks ok but needs pneumatic tires for those of us who work on jobsites with muddy or sandy soil.
The extension wings look okay for light trim work. Watching him almost tip the wings hooking them on from the one legg design makes them look wobbly. I guess until you get that knob screwed tight. But he almost tipped it a couple times trying to get them on

 

[festooldude]

hi Kreg,

nice review [big grin],

here are some tips from another kapex user..  in the video you say ya have to turn the head to full 60 degrees.. I disagree.
From what i can see, you dont have a angle finder sitting in the hole festool made for it.. When you do, and you turn the head fully 60 degrees,
it will push the anglefinder out of the socket.. Also with the kapex attached to te UG stand, folded down, if the head is in 60 degrees position,
the saw's heavy head, will have the tendency to slide down, even if the knob for the forward action of the head, is tightend down really hard..

So, if you slide the sawhead to the other side, it would be stirdier, and the weight will also have a lower balance point!..

I hope you find this info usefull!!

greetings Rick

 

[rxe]

Good review.  I certainly learnt something (more on this later).

Likes about this stand:

- You have a full width stand without the size.  Compared to my old dewalt, this is a lot easier to manage.  It will fit in a car...the DeWalt didn't really fit in a land rover (too long)
- The wings are more sturdy than they look.  I was also wary of the flex, but once the v grooves are tight, they are solid
- The scales are accurate, and repetitive cuts are easy and quick to set up.

Dislikes:

- Assembly.  You need 4 hands, 3 knees and the strength of an Ox to get the saw on the stand.  The stand is totally unstable until the saw is locked down, so there is huge potential for dropping it.
- The saw will fit on the stand back to front, and then it won't fold up properly.  So you have to go and find the Ox, then do it again.
- There is no registration for the wings - it is really easy to set them up a mm out front to back.  Ditto for the vertical alignment.  You need to check with a straight edge every time you fit the wings.
 

Overall, I'm happy with it.  It makes set up quick, and my chop saw is now more portable. 

So what did  I learn?  Well, I've had it for 4 months now, and I never knew about the extra extensions that Kreg pulled out of the wings!  I didn't get the wing covers and straps either!

 

[justinmcf]

thanks for the great review.

i appreciate you taking the time to make this video.

great job.

justin.

 

[pierreblonde]

Stand looks ok but needs pneumatic tires for those of us who work on jobsites with muddy or sandy soil.
The extension wings look okay for light trim work. Watching him almost tip the wings hooking them on from the one legg design makes them look wobbly. I guess until you get that knob screwed tight. But he almost tipped it a couple times trying to get them on

Pneumatic tires would be no good as when it is setup with the saw and wings nice and level you would end up with it bouncing on the pneumatic tires. The solid ones ar fine and I take mine on site with no problems. They look like the wheels of the ctl22 But they are not and are really solid
The wings don't like sideways presure but I don't stack against it when I'm cutting. But there are very solid in use I've just been cutting a lot of rough sawn 12"x2" sappele down. 14ft long with no problems at all. The scales are great and I set the scale all the time now and don't tend to mark the timber ! Don't see how you could miss the pullouts ??

 

[Brice Burrell]

Nice overview Kreg. [thumbs up]  I got to see this briefly in Lebanon last spring and it looks to be a huge improvement over the old extensions.  A few questions, how is it carrying and getting the cart/saw into the van?  Also, how well does it setup on uneven ground?  How about you report back when after you've had a chance to use it for a while. (And where are the Carpenter pants?) 

...Brice, get off the floor and stop with the "I didn't get one" tantrum  [tongue].  I'll send you a magic pencil.....

Ken are you spying on me, you must have some secret camera sitting next to my computer to know that. [big grin]  BTW, when should I expect to get my pencil in the mail. [thumbs up]

 

[Frank-Jan]

Nice review Kreg!

I'm wondering, without the brackets bolted to the saw, the height of the kapex equals that of a sys1. With the brackets, will it now be usable without the stand with a sys2, or is the height of the brackets choosen randomly?

...here are some tips from another kapex user..  in the video you say ya have to turn the head to full 60 degrees.. I disagree.
From what i can see, you dont have a angle finder sitting in the hole festool made for it.. When you do, and you turn the head fully 60 degrees,
it will push the anglefinder out of the socket.. Also with the kapex attached to te UG stand, folded down, if the head is in 60 degrees position,
the saw's heavy head, will have the tendency to slide down, even if the knob for the forward action of the head, is tightend down really hard..

So, if you slide the sawhead to the other side, it would be stirdier, and the weight will also have a lower balance point!..

Rick, the anglefinder locks in position at 2 locations, if you pull it out a bit, you can feel a "notch", in this position the saw can turn the full 60 degrees, and the angle finder won't fall out.
You have a point about the sawhead weighing down on the rails, and the lower centre of gravity, but I would just mount the kapex to the stand the other way round, so the sawhead points up in the 60 degrees position.
Like in this demonstration video of which I can't understand the language: link

 

[festooldude]

Hi Frank-Jan,

Thanks for your comment.. you're right about the turning around of kapex on the ug stand.. very clever [embarassed]..
But, about the anglefinder, i feel the knotch as well, but one way or the other, (i also carry it around alot without the ugstand) mine
still has the tendency to fall out if i have the saw in 60 degrees position..

Since i only have T-loc systainers, i can tell you that the Tloc sys1 does not have the same height as the kapex..

thanks, rick

 

[tiralie]

Since i only have T-loc systainers, i can tell you that the Tloc sys1 does not have the same height as the kapex..

Really! It's (the turn table table height) the same height as the old Sys1.
Why would they change it for the TLoc?
Tim

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

Darcy, you're just bummed you didn't get the grand prize for demo/ownership  [big grin].

Kreg,  you scored big!  Congratulations, my friend.

Brice, get off the floor and stop with the "I didn't get one" tantrum  [tongue].  I'll send you a magic pencil.

Congratulations goes out to all those that got the booty past and present.  I'm sure it was well deserved, otherwise Festool wouldn't have sent them to you.  AND thanks for the reviews on those items!

In all honesty, I think the current extensions are better.  I mean at least you can use the crown stops with them.

I spend 800 bucks on this set up and I have to rig up my own stops. [unsure] 

If you could use the crown stops with those wings and the kapex on it's mft/3, I think that set up is as good if not better then the saw helper was.

As they sit now, not really.

 

[jonny round boy]

Since i only have T-loc systainers, i can tell you that the Tloc sys1 does not have the same height as the kapex..

Really! It's (the turn table table height) the same height as the old Sys1.
Why would they change it for the TLoc?
Tim

The T-Locs are based on the same stacked dimensions as the classic systainers, but I believe the feet on the T-Loc are higher to accomodate the 'hook' part along the back edge. This would mean that the overall height of a sys1 T-Loc would be about 5 or 6mm higher.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

Since i only have T-loc systainers, i can tell you that the Tloc sys1 does not have the same height as the kapex..

Really! It's (the turn table table height) the same height as the old Sys1.
Why would they change it for the TLoc?
Tim

I just measured a Sys 1 T-loc and it is an 1/8" taller then the regular Sys 1, I don't see any issues with that at all.