I Need A New Jig Saw

[dwp99]

Hello Everyone,

As the title states I'm looking for a new jig saw and thought I'd ask if anyone could recommend a good one, brand and model.

Growing up Dad had a solid aluminum Craftsman that would cut anything and cut it perpendicularly square with the surface. But my brother has it now and that's fine.

I bought a Skil reciprocating scroll a few years back and hate it. I needed one to do a job and thought I picked a good one. HA, what a POS. the first thing to go was the piece of spring steel that kept the roller against the blade. Now the roller is flopping around making all kinds of noise. I can square up the base to the blade and it still cuts at and angle.

I'm looking for a no frills jig saw, no light when you pull the trigger, no port for a vacuum and no scroll. Just the best jig saw on the market. I mostly cut 1"x and at times will cut 2"x or 10 gauge metal. I'd rather have a corded saw because I don't want to mess with batteries.

Thanks for the advise,

 

[shoturtle]

The bosch barrel grips are really nice, and bosch make some of the best jigsaws on the market.

The standard top grip are also excellent, I prefer the top grip personally.

 

[jw80]

Bosch or Festool.

 

[amguttin]

bosch or do another old craftsman you can find them anywere. also the dewalts are very nice

 

[toolaholic]

Bosch or Festool.

I second that! I love my bosch jigsaw!

 

[billp603]

The bosch barrel grips are really nice

+ 1 on that, I love my barrel grip, you never notice how much you fight with vibration on a cheaper jig saw until you try one of these.

 

[DMAR]

^^^. +2, or 3, or 4, or 5, or whatever, when I had to replace my old jig saw years ago, the Bosch was the best one out there. I have not shopped them in recent years, but probably still the way to go. My Bosch is a real pleasure to use, and you really can't say that very often when talking about hand held jig saws. Very smooth, powerful, and versatile. Years later, I'm glad I spent the extra $$ to get the Bosch...

 

[NUTTSGT]

I have a B&D jigsaw that has worked ok for me. It's just a cheap one and basic model and I don't use it much. When it does die, I've already planned on buying a Dewalt.

 

[LSU]

Bosch. Mine is 20 years old. Im on my third cord but love it. Being able to adjust the blade angle is amazing. I've done some large hard builds with it and have never had a problem. Lots of power. I've got wood, time and pipe with it.

 

[Rust]

I have an older dewalt in a metal case that continues to serve me well.
I'd like to try a Bosch, but my dewalt will probably out live me...

 

[Jack Olsen]

The Bosch is expensive -- it lists for $300. But Amazon's got it for $139, and it was a night-and-day improvement over my Black & Decker. Their blades are great, too.

 

[Monte]

Bosch - Swiss made

 

[mryyc]

Got handed down a Bosch that's about 25 years old when my dad passed, night and day difference compared to my newer Mastercraft Maximum jigsaw with fancy lasers and lots of knobs. Pick up the Bosch first every time now.

 

[Monte]

 

[dwp99]

Thanks everyone, Looks like I'll be checking out the Bosch jigsaw.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Here's the Amazon one:

Bosch JS470EB 7-Amp Barrel-Grip

 

[Monte]

$128.- (refurbished)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bosch-7-0-A...1789263288063667797&pid=100009&prg=1004&rk=5&

 

[shoturtle]

can not go wrong with the bosch, they make a great jigsaw. cpotools has 20 dollar off till today on any item. Labor day sale, they also have factory refurbished, which I buy allot for personal used. They are like brand allot of time.

 

[demographic]

I have a Bosch which hasn't done a straight cut since I bought it, it always cuts a slant. The blade wobbles slightly in its holder.
Thing is, I've had it for twelve years now and I just can't kill the damn thing, its no worse (nor any better either) now than when I bought it.

Its Swiss made and it does the job, but its not nice and I've used a lot better jigsaws over the years.

I'm not really sure how Bosch has got a good reputation in the US, the cordless drills were fairly **** for years on end and only recently have started to get better quality, the powerplaners never had much power and wouldn't take much wood off in one go.
The chopsaws were overly complicated things with too much electrical solonoid safety features and Makita always had them beat.
Their corded SDS drills had a slow rate of percussion and were blown out of the water by the Makita version.

Can you tell I'm not a fan of Bosch?

I'll admit that their routers have been good quality and still are.

 

[bigdummy30]

I love my dewalt(higher priced out of the 2 dewalts) but LOVE Bosch blades so I'm sure the Bosch saws are nice too but one I bought a few years ago had some kind of a burr of metal embedded in the plastic pad on the bottom and left some nasty gouges in a customers corian counter top....I took it back and bought a Dewalt so didn't get a lot of time with it....and I'm sure it was a isolated case.

 

[shoturtle]

Well I would say you brought a lemon, and should have return it the day after you brought the Bosch jigsaw.

But with the newer high end corded rotary hammers, the bosch is the market leader. We switch from hilti to Bosch at work about 5 years ago, and they have been stellar performers. They have gone a long way in the last 25 years. Then there are their demolition hammer, high price but stellar performer. Makita are excellent as well. And depending on price point does have more power.

In the cordless rotory hammer, the bosch it the monster in the market, the only one that comes close are the makita. As makita does make some fine tools.

With the current rotory hammers corded any of the hilti, Bosch or makita would be my pick, can not go wrong with any of them.

 

[dwp99]

Thanks again for everyone's input.

I just recently picked up a Bosch 21147 spline drive rotary hammer drill and love it. I also have a Dewalt DW346 circular saw and a couple Milwaukee 3/8 hand drills one which is a hammer drill. There's a Craftsman Commercial router and an old Craftsman 103.24241 Table saw also. So I've got a start on my power tools, now I just have to replace Skil's excuse for a jig saw with something more substantial.

I have never used a barrel jigsaw so before I order one I think that I will wander into Home Depot and try one out to see how it feels.

 

[geezer48]

i had a bosh barell saw for years when it quit i bought a porter cabel,big mistake.

 

[JerseyBoatBuilder]

I am starting to hate the newer Bosch JS model barrel grip jig saws compared to the 1584vs's they discontinued and replaced.

They are getting to dam heavy, the foot plates to big and they can't cut no where near as tight of a radius as the 1584vs models.

I have 2 Bosch 1584VS's at work and a Bosch JS470EB at home, I can trace the radius of a Dime on wood and cut it out perfectly with the 1584 maybe followed by minor hand sanding on bad cutting days.
The Js470 almost always need to be followed by a dremel to touch up cuts.
Personal gripe of mine doubt that many people require a jig saw to do that though

 

[jw80]

I second that! I love my bosch jigsaw!

Me too, but I've played around with the Festool before and its very nice but pricy(buy once cry once.)

 

[cheechi]

My 120v & my 18v.

To be honest, I had read terrible reviews about the corded Bosch I could afford and stopped looking for a while, then I stumbled on that Cman open box. That sears jigsaw cuts a lot straighter than either I thought a jigsaw could, or straighter than I could cut with a Jigsaw. I thought the scrolling bit was just a gimmick but you'd be amazed how many times it's easier to pause, move the shoe a little bit keeping the blade straight, and scroll back into the cut without having to move away from your line. Yes, I could go on. If you really really love a sturdy D handle, this one might not be the best for you, but since everyone is recommending barrel grips, this gives you both in some capacity.

I love the 18v for simple cuts, especially overhead/awkward positioning. May not be as powerful as the biggest, best corded jigsaw, but certainly beats the entry Skils & Ryobi corded models in my book.

One of those two new Bosch jigsaws are what I'd buy now if I had the money.

 

[Mr Ratchet]

I don't care much for the barrel grip type. I have a older Milwaukee that has the best handle design that I have ever used on a jig saw. Their newer ones have a more traditional grip.

For power tools I like Bosh, Hitachi, Makita, and Milwaukee the best. Here's a pretty good clip on top handle jig saws.

 

[frankush]

My Bosch barrel grip is over 20 years old and is still serving me well. It's a great little saw.

 

[dwp99]

UPDATE Re:I Need A New Jig Saw

Update:

Hey guys I finally got a Bosch jigsaw. It's a 1590evs that I found on ebay, best part it was only $56.00. Everything was included along with an assortment of Bosch blades. The case was a little dirty but some Simple Green and a scrub brush took care of that. I couldn't believe that the manual and the splinter plate were still in the case also. Well I'm happy.

Thanks to everyone for your input, suggestions and help.

 

[theknurl]

Doug;
congrats.....wait to you discover the blades available for it



i use mine to shorten high end gun stocks......then kiss it with the Apex