Kapex - mods/improvements.
Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 6:40 pm
This has been the saw I've loved to hate in the past 9-10 months of using it. Almost assuredly every time I did not check for squareness the saw would be out of square.
So, first I set out to make it so that the miter gauge would not move after cutting. I took the bolts out, and to no surprise the bolt shoulders barely contact the miter gauge around the bolt hole. I think this is bizarre, so I set out to source washer face bolts, but gave up on doing so once I found out that the bolts are 5.5mm. Good luck trying to find 5.5mm washer faced bolts in the US. So, rather that drill the holes out and thread them to suit my needs I decided to take the easy out and put washers under the bolt heads. Not a pretty fix, but it works and actually seems to work well so far.
Next, I have had a ZCI on one side of the saw, but often times I need to use both sides of the saw or want to use both sides. So I find it a bit annoying and being made out of wood it is not always perfect, perfect. I took some aluminum 1/4" sheet and decided to have at making a set of ZCI inserts.
Festool has some undrilled and untapped bosses in the factory fence, I drilled those through and into the new fence then threaded them 10-24 (no metric taps on hand, or bolts for that matter) then cut them for allen heads that fit below the surface. I polished the metal and attached.
Next, I shimmed them out with pieces of paper until they were coplanar and at the same height, further adjusted them until the fence was true along it's length. After which I squared the saw up again, then fine tuned that using an actual piece to cut. I'm convinced as well that the blade could be improved upon as it does not cut perfectly straight lines, instead it deflects about 1/2 a thousandth in the middle of the cut.
So, first I set out to make it so that the miter gauge would not move after cutting. I took the bolts out, and to no surprise the bolt shoulders barely contact the miter gauge around the bolt hole. I think this is bizarre, so I set out to source washer face bolts, but gave up on doing so once I found out that the bolts are 5.5mm. Good luck trying to find 5.5mm washer faced bolts in the US. So, rather that drill the holes out and thread them to suit my needs I decided to take the easy out and put washers under the bolt heads. Not a pretty fix, but it works and actually seems to work well so far.
Next, I have had a ZCI on one side of the saw, but often times I need to use both sides of the saw or want to use both sides. So I find it a bit annoying and being made out of wood it is not always perfect, perfect. I took some aluminum 1/4" sheet and decided to have at making a set of ZCI inserts.
Festool has some undrilled and untapped bosses in the factory fence, I drilled those through and into the new fence then threaded them 10-24 (no metric taps on hand, or bolts for that matter) then cut them for allen heads that fit below the surface. I polished the metal and attached.
Next, I shimmed them out with pieces of paper until they were coplanar and at the same height, further adjusted them until the fence was true along it's length. After which I squared the saw up again, then fine tuned that using an actual piece to cut. I'm convinced as well that the blade could be improved upon as it does not cut perfectly straight lines, instead it deflects about 1/2 a thousandth in the middle of the cut.