Inspire Woodcraft
Festool Kapex KS 120 Zero Clearance Dust Collection Throat Plate
Festool Kapex KS 120 Zero Clearance Dust Collection Throat Plate
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The Festool Kapex KS 120 is known to be among the best when it comes to dust collection, but it still suffers from one inherent flaw that all other miter saws have: A huge gap in the back of the throat plate that allows debris that falls below the table to be thrown behind the blade and all over the saw and bench.
Enter the Dust Collection Throat Plate. This replacement, zero clearance throat plate has a built-in shroud that surrounds the blade under the table, guiding all the debris to the rear of the saw. And once there, a specially designed vacuum port carries it all away via a clear vinyl tube connected to your vacuum or extractor.
This comes as a two-piece solid throat plate without an opening for the blade. Once you cut into it, you will be left with an opening that is only as wide as the blade, known as zero-clearance. This narrow opening provides material support right up to your cut line, helping prevent tear-out and keeping small offcuts from falling beneath the throat plate where they can cause dangerous ejection and kickback.
What's included?
- Throat Plate/Shroud. This will come as two pieces, a front section and a rear section. It replaces the factory throat plate and installs reusing the factory screws.
- Throat Plate Vacuum Port. This installs on the rear section of the throat plate with four small screws (preinstalled).
- Clear Vinyl Hose. This is what carries the dust away. It connects the throat plate Vacuum Port to the Vacuum Adapter.
- Vacuum Adapter. This is what allows everything to work together. On the vacuum side you can hook up to almost any extractor, shop vacuum or even a dust collector. It will accept 2-1/2" dust collection hose, 2-1/2" shop vacuum hose, 1-7/8 shop vacuum hose or 36mm Festool antistatic hose. On the tool side there are two ports. One port is to hook up to the dust port on the back of the saw. The other port is sized to fit the supplied 1/2" outside diameter vinyl hose OR can be used with 5/8" inside diameter hose (not included or available from us). All fittings are tapered to provide a secure connection to a wide variety of brands of hoses, both new and old.
- Rail Stop. This will keep the saw head from fully returning to the factory "chop" position, which will keep the blade from cutting too far into the Vacuum Port.
Dust Collection Throat Plates are not intended to be used while making bevel cuts! These were designed for cabinet and furniture makers that rarely, if ever, use the bevel feature of their miter saws. Bevel cuts will destroy the shroud and the zero-clearance functionality. The full range of miter cuts can be made as long as the blade is plumb, or 90 degrees to the table.
Only intended to be used on the FESTOOL KS 120 miter saw. Not tested or guaranteed to fit any other make/model. Parts and accessories for other makes/models can be found on our website. PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK THE MODEL NUMBER OF YOUR SAW BEFORE PLACING AN ORDER.
3D printed using high-quality PETG filament.
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Received timely manner build quality seemed top notch. Installation was about 5 minutes. After using it can’t really tell a lot of difference. Using Kapex and 32mm hose to Kapex vacuum. I am not seeing any dust through the tube however it might me getting dust I can’t see. on installation it cut small groove in vacuum tube connector as you stated in instructions it would. Cut did not cut through the housing though. Still evaluating. Any other suggestions would be welcomed.
Hey, David!
The two most common things I find when people question the performance of our Dust Collection Throat Plates, on the KS 120 specifically, is that they are using a 27mm hose OR they are not cutting material that uses the front half of the blade.
A lot of people assume they have a 36mm hose because the outside diameter of the 27mm hose measures roughly 35-36mm (a 36mm hose measures roughly 47mm). The Vacuum Adapter is not intended to be used with the 27mm hose because 27mm is far too small for decent extraction on a miter saw. If you do use a 27mm hose, it will plug the vacuum line to the Throat Plate, and you won't get any suction. If this applies to you, an inexpensive fix is just to buy a 1-7/8' or 2-1/2' hose from your local hardware store and use it instead. Standard issue shop-vac style hoses will work with Festool extractors.
Keep in mind, Dust Collection Throat Plates capture and evacuate the debris coming off the front half of the blade (teeth being used that are forward of the arbor). On the Kapex, this is anything about 2-1/2' or wider, chop cutting a 90-degree cut. That number decreases the farther from 90 that you go (a miter cut). The farther you get from that baseline 2-1/2 at 90, and the thicker the material being cut, the more noticable the collection will be because there will be more material being cut. If you cut the 'correct' way (pull the saw all the way forward, chop down all the way, then push back), you likely will not notice any debris being captured because you will only be using the rear half of the blade.
These things are challenging to explain in writing, but hopefully this helped make sense of things a little. If you have any questions, you can shoot me an email at inspirewoodcraft@gmail.com and I will do my best to help!
All the best,
Jodee
As good as you presented
I recently upgraded to a Festool Kapex miter saw from my Rigid one.
The dust collection was basically nonexistent with the Rigid. Even with the addition of the Rousseau Model 5000 dust hood, the saw still spewed dust.
Out of the box, the Kapex dust collection is light-years better than the Ridgid, and that is without the Rousseau hood and using the standard throat plate. Additionally, ditching the hood helped gain a bit of space in my shop because I could push the Kapex up against the wall.
I wanted to replace the OEM throat plate with a zero clearance insert to improve cuts. I could make one, but I remembered seeing an ad for an insert that included dust collection features. I did some research and found that Inspire Woodcraft made it, so I ordered it.
After it arrived a few days after ordering, it took maybe 15 minutes to install, cut the kerf, and perform some test cuts. It works like a dream. There is very little, if any, dust not captured by the insert.
Overall, I'm very please with the value and performance of the insert. Additionally, I'm happy to support a small business with my purchase.
If you're on the fence about purchasing one, just do it. You'll be happy you did so.
Easy to install on my Festool Kapex.
So, first off the connection to the Festool outflow port is tough because it rotates when moving the saw in and out. The clear suction tubing keeps getting caught up and pulled out. It actually pulled out and fell down into the saw blade. Going to just cut the end off and secure it with some tape. Secondly I can’t see that any dust is being sucked up into the tubing. I’ve physically pushed saw dust into the throat plate and watched the dust go through, but don’t see that when actually cutting lumbar. I’ve been doing outdoor projects using 1x6s, 2x4s, and 2x6s. Please let me know if I’m doing something wrong.
Hi Matthew,
If you can reach out to me via email with some more details, I can try to help solve what's going on. And I can always send out replacement parts as needed. Keep in mind that Dust Collection Throat Plates are designed to collect the debris forward of the arbor, so cutting style plays a big role. If you are chop cutting, you should see an improvement as part of the cut is happening on the front of the blade. If you are slide cutting on material that narrow, you likely won't notice any difference because all of the cutting action is taking place on the rear of the blade and very little is entering the throat plate to begin with. Again, please reach out and I can help figure out what's going on!
All the best, Jodee