Hi All

Had a job today where I had to fit 3 x 3 fence posts to the edge of a deck,
to hold trellis. Plan was to notch the posts to fit over the edge of the 6
x 2 joists & bolt them through.

Bought some Makita L 10 blades to try, they are 155mm long & claim to cut
softwood 135mm thick.

They will cut softwood 135mm thick easily, but even using my new 'mutts
nuts' Makita jigsaw, the cut is all over the place. Tried adjusting the
speed, pendulum action etc, but still crap.

I did think it was asking a bit much to be honest - ended up cutting the
notches in the posts with a handsaw - hard work but 100% more accurate.

So why do they make blades that will cut 135mm but don't actually work
properly?


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi All

Had a job today where I had to fit 3 x 3 fence posts to the edge of a deck,
to hold trellis. Plan was to notch the posts to fit over the edge of the 6
x 2 joists & bolt them through.

Bought some Makita L 10 blades to try, they are 155mm long & claim to cut
softwood 135mm thick.

They will cut softwood 135mm thick easily, but even using my new 'mutts
nuts' Makita jigsaw, the cut is all over the place. Tried adjusting the
speed, pendulum action etc, but still crap.

I did think it was asking a bit much to be honest - ended up cutting the
notches in the posts with a handsaw - hard work but 100% more accurate.

So why do they make blades that will cut 135mm but don't actually work
properly?



Get yourself a decent jigsaw

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Hi All

Had a job today where I had to fit 3 x 3 fence posts to the edge of a deck,
to hold trellis. Plan was to notch the posts to fit over the edge of the 6
x 2 joists & bolt them through.

Bought some Makita L 10 blades to try, they are 155mm long & claim to cut
softwood 135mm thick.

They will cut softwood 135mm thick easily, but even using my new 'mutts
nuts' Makita jigsaw, the cut is all over the place. Tried adjusting the
speed, pendulum action etc, but still crap.

I did think it was asking a bit much to be honest - ended up cutting the
notches in the posts with a handsaw - hard work but 100% more accurate.

So why do they make blades that will cut 135mm but don't actually work
properly?

I've found with deep cuts, it sometimes works to go really, really
slowly. The blades will go through at speed, but not straight. Also,
treated timber seems to be worse than untreated.

A

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Bought some Makita L 10 blades to try, they are 155mm long & claim to cut
softwood 135mm thick.

That is one heck of a length of unsupported blade!

The trick would be to go very slowly wih pendulum on the low setting,
and also don't try to guide the machine to rigidly (i.e. not against a
straight edge). I would expect if the wood is at all non uniform though
you will have trouble, since with that blade length there is very little
you can do at the top end to have much influence on where the tip of the
blade goes.


--
Cheers,

John.

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Stuart Noble wrote:

Get yourself a decent jigsaw

He did - do pay attention at teh back.

These long blades are practically a small bandsaw. As such they still
need to maintain tension if they're to achieve anything. While they're
cutting on the upstroke it's OK, the problem is wobble setting in on
the downstroke. If there's any force on them at all during the
downstroke, they buckle. To avoid this use a slow feed rate and maybe
the smallest pendulum action. Try to minimise the force during the
downstroke.

Andy Dingley wrote:
Stuart Noble wrote:

Get yourself a decent jigsaw

He did - do pay attention at teh back.

I know, and he was so pleased with it. I was going to say that I'd made
a jigsaw puzzle from railway sleepers with my Aldi jigsaw but thought
better of it.

Stuart Noble wrote:
I know, and he was so pleased with it. I was going to say that I'd
made a jigsaw puzzle from railway sleepers with my Aldi jigsaw but
thought better of it.

I'm going to get you at playtime for that..............


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Stuart Noble wrote:
I know, and he was so pleased with it. I was going to say that I'd
made a jigsaw puzzle from railway sleepers with my Aldi jigsaw but
thought better of it.

I'm going to get you at playtime for that..............



Actually I've got quite a decent AEG, which cost me £100+ 20 years ago.
I always use coarse cut blades on wood. Doesn't stop the wandering
completely but the wider kerf certainly helps.