Why Neuter Your Kapex?

[Dr. P. Venkman]

One of these days, I’ll get around to making the changes I want to the wall on which my Kapex lives. I built a pretty standard, no frills miter station with a few drawers underneath and the cabinet tops level with the Kapex table. Over the years, I’ve discovered some things I wish I had incorporated and some things I wish I had done differently.

So I occasionally browse pictures of miter stations for inspiration, and I constantly see stuff like the picture below.

That Kapex definitely cannot make use of the full range of miter angles, and I’ll bet it can’t even get to 45 degrees. And god help you if you use the wrong hand to adjust it and slam the back of your hand into the corner of the counter.

I can’t tell for sure, but that box behind might also restrict the bevel cut angle.

Why do so many people put their miter saws in a setup that restricts their function like that?

ETA: I stand corrected on the 45 degree miter. At 45 degrees, the handle is (barely) fully contained within the width of the body. Which I guess is ok if you never cut greater than that, but still…

 

[onocoffee]

These kinds of pics makes me feel as though I'm not the only weirdo with a lot of Systainers. It is well lit though!

 

[usernumber1]

its not a miter station its a chopsaw station. miters are done on site, i'm using a sled and a tablesaw in the shop

 

[luvmytoolz]

@onocoffee I love the systainers, helps me to maximise small spaces while keeping things nicely sorted

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Why do so many people put their miter saws in a setup that restricts their function like that?

It's an assumption that there's a restriction...if the individual's personal setup meets their particular needs, then there's no restriction. Many of us don't use the compound angle stuff in our work in a shop situation, while folks who do things like extensive architectural trim work will leverage that capability. The individual needs are different. Some of us don't even make a built-in station. To-date, that's me. I hadn't used a miter saw in my shop for many years other than occasionally to shorten a long board. I used my slider for most of that kind of thing. It's only been since I finally upgraded from the 1980s CMS to the Kapex (a holiday gift from me to me) that I started using this particular kind of tool again and I've found the Kapex to be accurate. I got a good one. I may build a more formal station in the future, but there's "flexible advantage" to just leaving it on the stand and support wings it came with. Time will tell.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I have a somewhat similar setup. It has changed some, since moving it home. In the old shop, it was free-standing, now it's against a wall, so my storage is more like this.
It looks like he has the same Woodpeckers Stealth-stop, as I do, on the left. Strangely though, nothing on the right?
The square corners seem to be a problem. Both sides of mine have clearance to move slightly past 60 degrees.
I had the hood, behind the old saw, because the dust extraction was not so good. That pic is old, I did have the Makita in the older place, before moving.