Cordless tools - Best Platform To Choose?

[frankendoodle65]

Festool also got their mitre saw handle wrong as well.

I can't speak for the drills but I'm very happy with the handle arrangement on my KS60 mitre saw, though my previous Bosch had a similar arrangement so maybe it's just from familiarity. I can't get on at all with the horizontal style handles on other saws, just feels totally unnatural to me.

 

[Ollie78]

An ergonomic disaster like @Ollie78 has said, it just feels wrong and must be designed for people with very odd hands. It is light and compact but not nice to handle or use, Festool also got their mitre saw handle wrong as well. Perhaps the design was led by marketing and not the engineering team.

I have the opposing view of the mitre saw handle direction.
I was all set to buy the Bosch saw with the axial arms but when I tried it I hated the handle being horizontal and found the safety latch awkward.
I find the Festool much nicer. I wonder if it is just because my old Makita had the handle the same way or its just the way my arms work. It seems they are about 50/50 accross the brands.

Ollie

 

[Doug71]

An ergonomic disaster like @Ollie78 has said, it just feels wrong and must be designed for people with very odd hands. It is light and compact but not nice to handle or use, Festool also got their mitre saw handle wrong as well. Perhaps the design was led by marketing and not the engineering team.

Everybody is different, for me the Festool CXS is the most ergonomic driver I have used, it just feels like an extension of my hand.
Because of how you hold it all your force is directly in line with the screw, it gives you the control of a normal hand held screwdriver.

Regarding the Kapex handle I have said many times I prefer the vertical in line with saw blade style, it feels to give you more control and is great for using left and right handed. The horizontal handles, especially the ones to the side just make me feel disconnected from the saw.

It's not just Festool, many of the other manufacturers now do the same style. I think it's a bit like how Festool first used fixed rails on their mitre saws while everybody else used sliding rails, the rest are slowly catching up.

 

[Spectric]

It might be what you get used to but for me a horizontal handle is like the handlebars on a bicycle and keeps everything in a nice plane with the wrist.

 

[Jameshow]

I'm guessing a vertical handle places less twist in the sliding bars assembly than an offset horizontal handle.

 

[Spectric]

On my Bosch it can be rotated to either vertical or horizontal and having tried both the horizontal came out on top. When you really think about it the obvious difference is that in the horizontal position your fingers not only wrap round the handle but can rotate as you move the saw down, not something possible with a vertical handle which must place more movement into the wrist.

 

[MikeK]

Regarding the Kapex handle I have said many times I prefer the vertical in line with saw blade style, it feels to give you more control and is great for using left and right handed. The horizontal handles, especially the ones to the side just make me feel disconnected from the saw.

I replaced my DeWalt DWS780, which has a horizontal handle, with the Kapex 120, which has the vertical handle. I wasn't sure I was going to like the Kapex handle, but I now prefer it over the DeWalt. The DeWalt handle was configured for use with the right hand because the paddle release could be pressed with the middle and ring fingers and the trigger was where the index finger would be. Using it with the left hand was cumbersome since the little finger was now the trigger finger. The Kapex does not have this problem.