KAPEX Owners, Do you think the saw is worth $1300?

[Paul McGaha]

To you Kapex owners,

Saw is priced at $1,300. I've read it is a very good miter saw with the best dust collection features.

Guess I have 2 questions:

Are you satisfied with the performance of your saw?
Would you recommend it to others, including acknowledging the price of it?
Thanks guys.

PHM

[Jeff Monson]

Paul, its a hard nut to swallow. I've owned mine since they were release here in the US, 2 years or so? My last mitre saw was a Hitachi, the Festool is much nicer....but it should be. Dust collection is great, I'd say 90% captured. It has some really nice features, it is also very compact for the capacities. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat, its performance has been spot on from the beginning. My main complaint on the saw is the price of replacement blades, I'm contimplating trying a Freud this time as they are much less to replace. I'd recemmond this saw to anyone.

[Chris Rosenberger]

It depends on what you are going to use it for & if you have the money to spend on it.

When they first came out, & not having used one, I did not believe they were worth the money.
Later on I attended a 2 day training class at Festool Headquarters in Indiana. I got to spend a lot of time using the Kapex & decided it was worth the money. I bought one on the way home from the class.
It cuts better joints better than any miter saw I have ever used & has a lot of other nice features, but those were not the most important things about it. For me the most important feature about the Kapex is the great dust collection. I do a lot of on site work.
Many times in the winter I have to use the miter saw inside a home, because they do not have garage space available & the weather is to bad outside. How to control dust was always a problem with other miter saws I have used. I had to use a lot of drop cloths to cover things& would still have a lot of cleanup afterwords.

The Kapex has great dust collection when connected to a good vacuum, but it still misses some dust. So have also added a Fast Cap saw hood to the saw. I now get very close to 100% dust collection. Now I have very little cleanup to do when the job is finished. For me that makes it worth the money.

[Tom Ewell]

I am satisfied with the saw. Like the features and dust collection is pretty good but is not totally "drip free". Accuracy is excellent, particularly if tweaked to tolerance as described per setup manual.
Supplied blade, as with their other blades, is top notch, but proprietary means that one can't go down to the local purveyor and pick up a new one. I believe major manufacturers now offer compatible blades, so other options are available online.

The only problem I have is the handle setup, I much prefer the configuration of DeWalt, Bosch and Makita, they all fit my hand better. Pulling the trigger to release the drop down takes getting used to and can see where the uninitiated could bugger up the works by forcing things.

Is it worth the money?

That is a hard question to answer, I find Festool gear in general to be very high quality, accurate and rugged, the older stuff I have is still going strong. I figure it’s the last purchase of tool type I’ll need, if I go Festool.

Last week, I did look over the new Bosch GCM12SD for the first time, it has a lot going for it and I would have given it strong consideration had I not already had the Festool rig.

[Chris Tsutsui]

I'll be honest, the Kapex is not worth $1300 because in capable hands, a $600 mitersaw can do the same things a kapex can.

What I like about the kapex is the minor details such as the quick clamp, compact size, dashed line laser, and consistency in the craftsmanship. There's also that satisfaction bonus from spending more money and having a more exclusive saw.

I would say that the Kapex should be arond $800 and then I think it would be priced about right.

Unfortunately, festool likes to price their tools at a level that hurts.