thinking about a kapex, your thoughts?

[clark_fork]

Just noticed that a reconditioned Kapex was offered on the Festool recon website. The recon price is $958 vs $1475, thats 35% off.  [eek]

A significantly good deal but gone in seconds. However, personally I would consider it an expensive boat anchor. The Kapex idea passed me by with not only the stories of the persistent engine failures but the little talked about trebuchet effect of flinging small cut offs across the shop like some medieval catapult.

 

[Gregor]

the little talked about trebuchet effect of flinging small cut offs across the shop like some medieval catapult.

In my experiments the flinging mostly happend when ignoring the manual (not waiting for the saw to come to a complete stop at the end of the cut). Adding a sacrificial back fence also helps keeping small offcuts in place.

 

[ChuckS]

Flinging, if any, is a technique/set-up issue, and that has nothing to do with the design or build of the Kapex, in spite of its motor issue. The two are not related whatsoever.

Shooting (kickback) can happen in any mitre saw if the proper safety measures and techniques are not followed.

To cut small parts (including delicate molding work) safely on the mitre saw, there is a host of techniques (tricks) that one can learn and use.

 

[ProCarpenterRVA]

Flinging, if any, is a technique/set-up issue, and that has nothing to do with the design or build of the Kapex, in spite of its motor issue. The two are not related whatsoever.

Shooting (kickback) can happen in any mitre saw if the proper safety measures and techniques are not followed.

To cut small parts (including delicate molding work) safely on the mitre saw, there is a host of techniques (tricks) that one can learn and use.

Agreed.

I have a capex I use everyday sometimes all day how you approach a cut matters and that happens to everybody

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[jeh]

Don't do it. Buy another brand saw and definitely don't buy into those who say 20 amp line, dedicated line or using separately supplied outlets for vacuum and saw does the trick. All of this is to justify to themselves why someone thinks there saw has not failed. The reality is that there must have been some change to motor at some point. I have two that have never failed though they were purchased when the saw was first released in the US and both are used at customer sites where I have no control of how power is getting to the outlet I am using.

 

[kevinculle]

The reality is that there must have been some change to motor at some point. I have two that have never failed though they were purchased when the saw was first released in the US...

I agree with your assessment here, except if it were something as simple as a part change why wouldn't Festool revert back to the old design.  Of course there is always the possibility that a supplier made an undocumented change.  Anyway I have an early (2009 Dated) Kapex that has never missed a beat and the stories of the failures always seem to relate to relatively new machines.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

USA better redesign its entire electrical grid because the kapex is perfect and the electrical grid is flawed. Why are other miter saws not failing. Many report using Makita's and Dewalt's and hitachis for 10 years with no burnout and than puff the kapex blows out.

Dewalt is owned by Black and DeckeR who has decades of experience making both home and Professional/industrial power tools. B&D also has repeatedly tweaked the engineering on their motors over the years for better performance.

Makita is also decades old in the power tool industry building electric motors. Obe other thing about Makita is that the company is based in Jspan. Japan uses 100v and 200v electrical systems in different parts of the country, and also uses both 50 and 60 hertz. Europe on the other hand is mostly 230v or 220v 50 hertz, and the USA is 120v 60 hertz.
Makita, when designing and engineering motors for the Japanese market, had to design motors for systems that were slightly lower voltage than normal, which usually means the motors whould have to draw higher amperage, which usually means the motors would need thicker wire due to the increased amps draw.
If Makita wanted to use those same motors on tools for foreign markets, which wouldn’t surprise me, the insulation on the motor windinds wouls also need to be manufactured thicker fir the higher voltage. This might explain the durability of Makita motors.

With Festool, I’m sort of wondering how long they’ve been manufacturing their own motors.
Some of the older tools such as the PS1 jigsaw appear to have been manufactured by Flex, or other outside companies for Festool. The OF2000 router was likely made by Mafell. The OF1000 router was made by Festool, and I presume they made the motor as well, and a variation was made and rebranded for Mafell, but I’m sort of wondering if a number of the motors Festool used were made out of house.