Jigsaw itch. Which of these have you used?

[tomlt]

I've got the Mafell P1CC, an older bosch GST135 and the Makita 4350 and a Makita 18v Brushless Body grip. Do I need 4 jigsaws - nope. Do I like buying ever increasingly expensive tools - Yes :-(

The Mafell is good, but not really any better than the Bosch or the festool I've tried. The Makitas for their price are excellent and the 4350 has had some hard work cutting 10mm mild steel and keeps on going. I mostly use the 18v Brushless Makita, I like the body grip, the light and the portability. It lasts for ages on a 4ah battery and has enough grunt to tackle most jobs (kitchen work tops etc.). None of them are much good in anything thicker than 2". I recently cut out a hole in the centre of an ash table slab for a "beer bucket" - used the mafell. It was too hot to touch after 15mins of work, the quality bosch blade still cut off vertical. Admittedly the slab was 3.5" thick and pretty hard even though only air dried for 12months.

Unfortunately I don't think the jigsaw will ever be a precision tool for me, better suited for the building site than the workshop in my experiences. Definitely useful in the right circumstances though.

 

[Doug71]

I have a corded Festool and it hardly ever gets used, it's main use is cutting up pallets for the wood burner

About the only other time I get the jigsaw out is if I have a lot of scribes to cut but by the time I have got it out and plugged it in it's often as quick to cut them with a handsaw.

I am on Makita battery platform and am looking at getting their cordless jigsaw, I think it will get more use, although it will probably just mean I take the saw to the pallets rather then the pallets to the saw

 

[siggy_7]

I bought a Bosch GST140 which is a lovely jigsaw - when it works. I've had two speed controllers pack up on me after very little use. My experience has been such that I won't go near Bosch tools now. I bought the Makita 4351 to replace it and I'm very happy with it.

 

[pcb1962]

Unfortunately I don't think the jigsaw will ever be a precision tool for me, better suited for the building site than the workshop in my experiences.

Same for me, I bought the cordless Festool because I thought I'd be able to cut perfectly to a scribed line with it but I was still complete rubbish at it. Now I've seen the guy at Freebird Interiors doing all his scribed infills with the little Festool planer I need to get one of those now.

 

[Terrytpot]

Jigsaw Blades | Bosch, Dewalt & More | Saxton Blades - they're the best value I've yet found

I'm using saxton blades too in my Dewalt DCS334 and if I pick the right one for the task at hand , together they perform wonderfully. If on the other hand I make a poor choice of blade or attempt to use the saw for something its not really suitable for I realise that my enthusiasm can easily exceed mine and my saws ability. The task you described sounds to me like something that would be possible but be prepared to do a lot of additional work cleaning up the faces you'll be cutting as, in my opinion, jigsaws can produce quite clean cuts but are not really designed to provide finish quality cuts unless engaging in rough carpentry.
It would be unfair to compare my Dewalt to the old B&D piece of junk I had previously as that wasn’t even capable of a straight cut let alone doing any fancy cuts in anything over 1/8" thick while my Dewalt recently cut through some 5mm Ally and practically left a polished finish as if it had been slicing through butter. I did entertain going down the Makita route as I have quite a bit invested in their range but I didn’t like the soft start ramp up cut feature on it or the extra "press me button" before hitting the trigger which is shared on their cordless router that I also have and it bugs me every time I use it.

 

[bp122]

Interesting feedback here. This is where real life experience trumps marketing mumbo jumbo.

Had I not read the experiences here and in a few other websites (UK and American) I would have believed that Festool was the ultimate one to buy and forget the rest.

Almost consistently I have read that Festool jigsaws have let their owners down, especially compared to other tools that Festool do which are believed to be the best in their categories.

Bosch appears to have lost its charm and quality over the years, according to most. Metabo and Makita have come out better than any. DeWalt users have been happy as well.

I looked for a few metabo and Makita body grip ones in the used market, DeWalt battery ones too, but in the end I got a lightly used (from the photos) Makita 4351 240v in the end for a reasonable price.

I made a decision not to go with the battery ones because I cannot afford to buy the battery and charger for a good jigsaw, neither could I justify spending three times the price on a DeWalt 334/335 because I already have their battery in my drills and drivers. Didn't get the dewalt 331 as I didn't particularly like the d handle versions as they feel too big for me.

Now need to get a good set of blades and try that bad boy out!

 

[sunnybob]

I've just yesterday cut out a dozen different shapes for my grandkids to colour and stick stuff to.
I always make a template of each new shape (I have a dozen or more) so I can repeat them as and when. I used 9 mm birch ply. printed off the required shapes from the internet scaled up to a full A4 sheet, pasted the paper to the ply. First cut was with the jigsaw to seperate the pieces. Then the bandsaw to get 99% of the edges finished. Then hand smoothing with files and sandpaper to get a perfect template.
Then more rough cutting with the jigsaw and bandsaw, and finally the router table with the template stuck with double sided sticky. This lot were turtles, goldfish, snail, masquerade mask, jet plane, etc etc.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

As an aside - I had a diy book published by Bosch in c.1984 that stated that though jigsaws were a useful tool, they would never be any good for cutting material over 1/4".

 

[johnnyb]

not really an answer but in the same way that using a fein multisaw changes the way you do things in a fundamental way. using the mafell changes the way you think about jigsaws. also I simply love the collins coping foot. I've got mine on an old bosch but with t244d blades it makes cutting scribes a doddle( but you need to practice a bit)
use the mafell with a guide rail in thick timber is a revelation.