After a LOT of research and fear of commitment, I just picked up a KAPEX KS120 compound miter saw. Tough justifying the price for a small home shop, but I needed something with fixed rails and there’s no middle of the road saws. The dealer was happy to take my money for the saw, but blew me off when I asked questions about hooking up to the dust collection port. I have a dust collector and cyclone on order, and am still using 2 Shop Vacs. One roll around for general use (table saw, planer and general clean up), and a smaller one permanently attached to my CNC. This saw has the 36mm port on it. Is there an easy way to convert that for now to use with my 2.5" Shop Vac hose? I tried Google and YouTube with no straight answers. Thanks.
Take a look at https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WAAFXA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Gary
I’ll give that a shot, but I don’t think it’ll work because the fitting on the saw isn’t a smooth collar. Thanks.
If you have the measurements I will design you a custom attachment for free. If you have a 3D printer it will be easy to print out. I have festool stuff and have printed a bunch of this kinda stuff for myself.
Cheers
Mark
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I can print it for you as well if that is useful, just need to get it to you after!
That would be fantastic. I’ll take some pix, and measurements with a caliper, and send you a PM. Thank you Mark.
Check youtube for making dust collector fitting and you will find plenty of videos on how to addapt pvc to just about anything and how to do it.
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Best tools ever. It’s like the line from Hellraiser…
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Thanks guys.
There’s always this:
Also, I’m glad I don’t know what I’m missing with a saw like that. Every time I NEED to be precise with my miter saw, I end up fussing around with machinist squares and tapping the cheap saw into alignment. As soon as I put the saw away, it’s all off again.
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My Kapex is a couple of years old so the inside of the dust port is smooth - Festool has been migrating the 27mm (smallest) dust hose to have bayonet shape. However what you should know is that the 36mm hose fits on the outside of the dust port and in fact Festool recommends that you use the larger hose for better airflow. The other thing is that while the tool end of the hose is metric, the end that plugs into the vacuum is the same size as a US shop vac, so if you buy a Festool compatible hose you can use that hose with your current vac. I bought the cheaper Bosch hose (cheaper being a relative term) (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AV78B) and took off one of the ends and cut the hose to a more convenient length when I set up my Kapex bench.
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Thanks Steve. I bought the similar Bosch hose that is anti-static. I was unaware that one end would fit my Shop Vac. Appreciate the info.
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Do you own a 3d printer? I’ve made a dozen adapters.
I do not Greg. Another member here sent me a file which I brought to a friend to print. I tried it last night and it didn’t fit the saw. I tried heating it a little bit with a torch and ruined it. Not sure if the stl file or the printer are the cause.
I can’t remember whether I bought a new end for the Bosch hose from Festool that gave it a 36mm end - I think I might have.
Do you have a good set of measurements for the D27 taper plug? I measured and printed some adapters to allow a 36mm plug to fit a 2 1/2" port on my spindle sander, but was recently thinking about something else (can’t remember what at the moment) and was surprised that I hadn’t done one for the 27mm plug.
I have an anti-static Bosch hose coming tomorrow, and already received the Festool 36mm and 2.5 ShopVac ends. I’ll let you know how it goes. I went off the deep end this weekend and demolished my jalopy of a miter station. Bought 4 sheets of 3/4 Maple and I’m just about done building a new one. Bought an Infinity Cutting Tools fence system too. Fingers crossed.
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