Jigsaw and drill advice

[WonderWoman]

Hoorah, Im back after my boss deleting this site address and not being able to find it again until somebody on another site posted the address!!

Right, as some of you may know Ive been wanting to cut squares/rectangles out of wood blanks.
A friend very kindly said he would do it for me but that was weeks ago and im still waiting.
So my boss has leant me a Ferm jigsaw which I have used on a waste piece of wood and Im quite good with it, I also bought a G clamp and a McKeller cordless drill to make the holes to get the saw in.

Do you have any advice on the best way to use these tools?

Thanks

 

[PowerTool]

If you want to cut straight lines with a jigsaw,clamp a straight piece of wood to run the edge of the jigsaw base against.

 

[Adam]

I've never yet managed anything resembling a straight line with a jigsaw However, getting new (sharp) blades may improve things, as will choosing a blade with the correct number of teeth - e.g. jigsaw blades for metal have lots of small teeth, and a blade for wood has a much less.

Adam

 

[Gill]

A scrollsaw technique that you might find beneficial is stack-cutting. Here, you sandwich several pieces together and cut them simultaneously instead of cutting them individually. Not only does this mean you cut more pieces with every cut, but 'tear-out' on the underside of the cut is reduced.

Gill

PS Adam - I'm with you insofar as jigsaws go. I just don't get on with them.

 

[Philly]

Adam
I was talking with a Festool salesman the other day (just passing, you know :roll: ) and he said the Festool jigsaw blades are far superior to most others on the market and will cut straight and square. He has been selling them (the blades NOT the jigsaws :lol: ) to a lot of local joinerys and boat yards who love them.
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[Taffy Turner]

WW,

In my experience with jig saws, there are two important elements to cutting a straight line: -

1) Use a sharp blade - preferably a new, good guilty blade.

2) Go slow! Don't try and force the saw, or the blade will deviate off square and also wander all over the place. Take your time and let the saw do the work.

It can sometimes help to turn off the pedulum action as well - there is a usually a 3 position switch down at the side of saw near the blade. Switch this to the off position (if fitted).

Obviously it helps to run the sole plate of the saw against a straight edge too.

Regards

Gary

 

[WonderWoman]

Thanks

I want a nice neat edge so Im using a fine wood blade.
I like the idea of using another piece of wood as a guide, not too sure about the stacking idea tho.

Urgh, tried the pendulum thing, hated it, the blade went all over the place!!

 

[Der_Goalie]

Would suggest using Lenox blades. They are slightly more expensive, but far better than any other blade on the market. Other than that clamping a piece of timber as a guide (as someone else suggested), and turning the orbital action off should give a good cut. Also I know that Festool & Metabo offer a guide rail system for their circular saws & jigsaws, it might be worth looking to see if Ferm do something similar?

 

[wizer]

if you are doing many of these I think you should consider a circular saw

not expensive and would be more accurate and a lot quicker

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro ... &id=38500#

 

[Gill]

not too sure about the stacking idea tho.!

Why not? If you're interested in doing this commercially (which was the idea I got from your earlier posts) it'll increase your productivity dramatically.

Gill

 

[Travis Byrne]

Hello WonderWoman

Mr WiZeR has got the right idea. A Circular Saw and clean up the corners with the jig saw. A little more risky but the best way to get the stright line.
This assuming the cutout is large enough for the Circular Saw.
Best of luck.

PS
If you are determined to use jig saw and it has adjustable speed, then use med. speed. This will give better control.


Travis

 

[MikeW]

Adam
I was talking with a Festool salesman the other day (just passing, you know :roll: ) and he said the Festool jigsaw blades are far superior to most others on the market and will cut straight and square. He has been selling them (the blades NOT the jigsaws :lol: ) to a lot of local joinerys and boat yards who love them.
Hope this helps
Philly

Hey Philly,

I use Festool blades in my Bosch. Wonderful blades. With their longest and most agressive blades I've cut 12/4 exotics to my rough lengths. They stay sharp, even the less agressive ones.

Highly recommended, even in non-Festool jigsaws as long as they take the same blade type.

Mike

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Adam and Gill

I've never yet managed anything resembling a straight line with a jigsaw

PS Adam - I'm with you insofar as jigsaws go. I just don't get on with them.

I had the same problem until I bought the Festool. It leaves such a good edge you'd think it was cut on a tablesaw.

Hi Phil

I was talking with a Festool salesman the other day and he said the Festool jigsaw blades are far superior to most others on the market and will cut straight and square.

When I bought the Festool jigsaw as part of the offer 50 Lennox blades were included. The only blades that Festool recommend for their jigsaw are their own and the Lennox.

The blades are excellent. They're not cheap, but imho worth every penny.

Cheers all
Neil

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

Just to add to what Newbie_Neil has said about the Festool jigsaw.

I used to struggle with a cheap jigsaw until I got the Festool. If you want straight lines you can buy a guide rail which will give you perfectly straight cuts and is much more reliable than a straight edge clamped to your workpiece. Also, the Festool will give you 90 degrees every time, no problems!!

Cheers


Saint

 

[Gill]

From memory, WonderWoman is cutting holes in blanks the size of greetings cards. I think she'd have difficulty finding a circular saw capable of making such cuts.

Neil and Saint - the Festool sounds like a wonderful jigsaw but at £240 (or thereabouts) it's way beyond my means. That said, I rarely need to use a jigsaw anyway . The type of saw that WonderWoman is using sounds like a very basic one which is on loan anyway. I'm presuming the advice is to get a good quality jigsaw eventually ? In the meantime, I'm trying to think of suggestions as to how to make the best use of the tools she's already got.

Gill

 

[wizer]

would a hand saw and a lot of practise be better than a low grade jigsaw?

 

[WonderWoman]

Thanks for yuor comments.

I think a jigsaw would be too big for what Im doing.The rectangular shapes I need to cut out are 9cmx2.5cm.

I bought a coping saw the other day which seems ok, time consuming but relatively speaking gives a better cut.

I gave it a go last night.I used my drill(McKeller)and made some holes.Where are the best places to put holes?I had to try and combine 2 as my drill bit wasnt big enough to get the jigsaw blade in.Il get a bigger bit at the weekend.
That went fine, not even I can mess that up.

Then I attempted the jigsawing.Oh how you would have laughed.
Every line I cut looked ok from the front but as I turned the wood to look at it I could see the lines were bent, like Id been pushing the blade against the wood and it didnt give a straight down cut but a bendy one(do you get what i mean?)
As I tried to correct the lines the hole just got bigger and bigger and more and more distorted.It looks hideous.
Also when I went into the corner to cut little bits away it left huge gouges.

Should I try not to push?It just feels like it wont cut if I dont push to get to the line I want to cut.

 

[StevieB]

WW, How thick is the timber you are trying to cut? If your hole is only 9 by 2cm or thereabouts do you have a plunge router? I suspect that this combined with a template would be far superior to a jigsaw. you would then simply need to square the corners if you didnt like them rounded.

Unfortunately with woodwork there are a lot of ways of doing things like this, and nearly all of them are expensive to begin or require alot of skill with hand tools if you want good results (by expensive I mean it requires the purchase of a tool you do not have). Its one of the downsides of beginning in the field and doesnt really ever end as there is always just one more tool that you want! (not need, want!).

If someone came to me and said I dont have any tools, and want to cut a slot 9cm by 2 cm in a piece of timber how should i do it with minimum outlay, my answer would be to use a spade bit the correct width in a hand drill, and clean up with a sharp chisel. Then I would suggest a router as the next option (look at the T3 from trend as a good cheap router). If you have the skill a scroll saw is a possibility, but I have variable success in cutting straight lines this way. A jigsaw is possible but seems to need an expensive one to get accurate results. At the scale you are working at accuracy is all important since defects become more noticeable the smaller your work.

Best of luck with it, and dont get disheartened if its not perfect first time - like everything woodwork gets better with practice!

Steve.

 

[Gill]

I bought a coping saw the other day which seems ok

That's a move in the right direction .

time consuming but relatively speaking gives a better cut.

Tsk. Isn't it about time somebody came up with a method of automating or mechanising this operation to speed things up ?

it didnt give a straight down cut but a bendy one

Unfortunately, that's a common problem with jigsaws. To overcome it you need to spend serious money on something like the Festool that's already been mentioned.


I seem to recall that a few months ago somebody suggested you might find a scrollsaw useful for this sort of work...

Gill

 

[WonderWoman]

I had to google what a spade bit was and I looooove those things.They are the bits i wanted even before I bought a drill!!!

A plunge router looks ok but I need it to go right through 2.5cm, I think il leave that idea for now as it looks complicated and more expensive.
Your other idea sounds great and cheap,Im gona give it a go.
So yuo mean drill out relevant size circular holes then chisel away at the left over triangular shapes?

Dont know if I said but my boss bought a scroll saw, I tried it and the wood caught on the blade and it went all crazy, Im not strong enough for a scroll saw(im such a wimp)I was surprised how much puff jigsawing took out of me!