On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:26:18 -0500, Joe Bleau
wrote:

My 10+ year old Bosch jigsaw seems to have given up the ghost. I
could send it off for repairs (Bosch says $89.00 max charge). Add
shipping and I'm around $130. Festool's PS300 Trion seems to be fixed
at $280 everywhere on the web.

Just wondering if something has come out that is really better than
that good old Bosch?

Opinions please?

Well, yeah, something better than the good old Bosch _has_ come out.
The good _new_ Bosch. My 25 year old Bosch died the death and the
part I need to fix it isn't available from Bosch USA (it might be
available from Bosch UK though), so I got a new 1590. Every
criticism I had of the old one they've fixed--ten years ago Fine
Woodworking described their ideal jigsaw and apparently Bosch
listened.

The 1590 that I have was made in Switzerland, just like the 25 year
old model that it replaced. It works accordingly.

The Bosch with the right blade rips and crosscuts almost as smoothly
as a Woodworker II--the only thing that keeps it from being a glueline
rip is that it's difficult to make any jigsaw cut a 100% straight
line. I can't imagine the Festool doing better--as good, yes, but not
better. I do find myself wondering what blades the people doing the
various tests that found that the Festool cut more smoothly were
using--Bosch makes a huge range of them and if they did not make the
right blade selection they might have gotten a misleading result.

I've seen a number of people say that they prefer a barrel-grip saw.
I've never had any trouble holding either of my top-handle Bosch saws
by the barrel--if you have big hands then the top handle might get in
the way though. On the new one there's a variable speed trigger (with
upper limit set by a dial) on the top handle--that makes the top
handle worthwhile in my book, and latching the trigger on isn't really
any more awkward than the switch on my old one.

Bosch's new blade change is just lovely. Slide a lever on the front
and the blade ejects. To insert the new blade, just insert it and
push until it clicks.

I haven't found the side blade guides to make any real difference but
they are there, and don't seem to need the kind of adjustment that the
Festool guides need.

Personally I wouldn't pay a hundred bucks more for the Festool unless
there was compelling evidence that it did something significantly
better than the Bosch, and I haven't seen such evidence.