It would cut anything like butter. It didn’t matter what. The tool-free blade holder worked so well, that once I broke a blade in half, right in the middle of the blade, but that blade clamp still kept the other half just sitting there.

Among other things, one day I decided that my deck was just turning into an old rotten disaster, so I borrowed a sawsall from work to cut the deck down quicky. 10% through the (expensive) blade was all chewed up. I went in my shed and got out the Bosch just to try the new jigsaw out on the deck. I thought it wouldn’t hold a candle to the recip saw. But, even on non-orbital it sawed the deck right in half with a Bosch Progressor blade. So, to finish it all off I set it on orbital setting 4 and that *ONE* single blade cut all the rest down of this deck in record time! I was just beside myself. And the jigsaw was not overheating, stinking, or anything out of the ordinary. It just kept on cutting!

An expensive jigsaw can really do more than just a normal jigsaw can do, in my opinion. Problem is, I don’t have $180 to blow on another one. So, I thought this review was pretty sweet. Keep up the good work.

What ever happened to the review of the Irwin mini tools you were gonna do?

For harder materials, or when you need a more precise cut, or if splintering is an issue, you can turn the orbital action off or down.

I don’t know how old you guys are, but I remember seeing my dad buy power tools - his would last him on the order of 15-20 years.. And today he’s seeing tools that I’m getting, and coming away really impressed with a.) the performance, and b.) the price point. In some cases durability is also impressive, but like TourPro said - it seems we’re heading in the direction of a disposable society where things aren’t made to last.. they’re made to perform. So yeah, maybe a 25 year old BMW will last you forever if you take care of it - a modern Hyundai will school it in performance and fuel economy. (except maybe in the twisties).. Though the modern Hyundai will be lucky if it lasts you 10-15 years.

Also, I’m in the market for a real cheap jig saw.. anybody know if this is available in Canada?

Tim

The first one was truly awful - it had no features such as orbital motion, except for a unusable quick release blade lock. Problem was it quick released while you were using it, and was almost impossible to release when you wanted to change the blade. It didn’t have nearly enough power to cut through what it said it would, but made 10 times more noise than it should have done. And it broke.

The second one was much better, orbital motion, variable speed, much better balanced. It uses two screws to hold the blade. It’s a bit slow to change, but at the end of the day I spend more time cutting than changing blades, so I don’t mind. It’s still going after a couple of years of abuse.

Experience with cheap tools is so varied. I’ve yet to use a cheap hand drill that is ok. And my cheap angle grinder sucked as well. But I have a £10 150W bench grinder, which despite the crap duty cycle (10 on, 50 off), is excellent, a £25 pillar drill which is fine for light metalwork, a £30 air compressor which is fine for cleaning and impact wrenches, and a £30 Dremel-clone with flexible shaft, which has probably been my best buy.

I’ll admit that I am always skeptical about reviews you see people do but this was handled nicely. You did what I’d do. Stick it in front of some wood and see if it blows up. Kudos. I have always avoided cheap power tools like the plague but you have me thinking it might not be so bad an idea. Something is better than nothing right?

I don’t know about high end places, but my local barber told me something interesting. He gets more mileage with a series of $80 razors than he did with a $400 razor. As they say, your mileage may vary, but if you abuse your tools you may be better off going with a string of the $20 models…

The other side of the coin. Once I asked my Dad why he never cleaned the chain on his bike. He told me the average lifespan of bicycle drivetrains where he rides is about two years, then he just gets a new bike. Will we be facing mountainous landfills of cheap tools in the future? I can very realistically imagine “Joe Homeowner” disposing of this unit once the blade got dull and simply buying a new one. Like one of those plastic razors.