"Andy Hall" wrote in message news:487c53c7@qaanaaq...
On 2008-07-15 02:14:42 +0100, "Arfa Daily" said:


Thanks for all the comments. It's kinda the conclusion that I had come
to.
However, I have to say that the original B&D I had (the 25 year old one)
was
excellent, even though it was cheap. It cut straight and square, and
didn't
seem to have any problem cutting any thickness up to the maximum that the
blade could cope with. The up to date B&D circular saw that I have, is
also
of a good quality, and is a faultless performer, so not all of their
current
tools are rubbish. Perhaps they're just not good at jigsaws anymore ...
Ya
liv 'n' lern, as they say d;~}

Arfa

It's something where cost reducing the mechanism leads to a major drop off
in behaviour. I had a B&D one somewhat newer than your but not as bad
and had come to the conclusion that all jigsaws were limited in terms of
control and being able to follow a line. Initially I thought it was
something that I was doing and tried various things, all to no avail.

I consigned the jig saw, generically as a fairly limited tool restricted
to doing certain rough work and so quite limited for my applications.

Some while later, I tried a Bosch GST series at a tool show just to see
whether there was any difference with a c. £100 product. Was there. I
was amazed. I could get accurate work, excellent control and results
were really good. So I bought one.


Sometimes manufacturers do lose the plot and have a period of bringing out
****ty tools of one type. There does seem to be a generic thing here
though. The low end jigsaws seem to range from disappointing to down
right rubbish.

So I think the conclusion is that if you do have use for a jigsaw at all,
then this is one where deciding whether you want to buy a Bosch or Makita
is justified. Otherwise don't bother and manage some other way, unless
you just want a £20 job for cutting the occasional rough hole out of
something.



Well, that's sort of the way I was thinking when I bought this one a couple
of years back, when the old 25 year jobby finally gasped its last. It was by
no means 'cheap', and certainly not the cheapest that B&D did at the time. I
guess that my mistake was to think that I was 'upgrading' by getting one
with extra features like the scroller. I suppose that the extra money over
the cheapo 'fixed' one that was in the range, did not cover the extra
features, so in order for B&D to match their decided price / performance
point, something had to give, and it was the basic mechanism ...

That said, I have a B&Q 12v cordless drill that cost about 20 quid, and was
bought for a specific job to use as an electric screwdriver on close to 1000
LCD TV sets that had got to be dismantled, and the speaker in them changed.
I thought that it would do that job, and be about clapped out at the end.
Eight or so years later, it is still used many times every single day as a
screwdriver, and pretty frequently as an electric drill as well, and
continues to give good service, so sometimes, cheap doesn't also mean
"nasty" ... :-)

Arfa