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Tim Nott

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I need a 'grown-up' jigsaw to replace an old green Bosch 360 watt.

Shortlisted are the Makita 4350 or 4351, the Dewalt 331 or the Bosch GST 135

The Bosch looks dead clever with its blade guide sytstem - bit like bandsaw and has had glowing magazine reviews but user forums (both in UK and US where it is called something else) seem to indicate it is unreliable, with faults ranging from the blade jamming or dropping out to the switch failing. Anyone have personal experience with any of these?
 
I have the bosch 135 BCE, it replaced an old black & decker "thing".

It is one piece of grunt that has made easy work of anything I have thrown at it. The various pendulum settings and the sds blade type fixing makes it so user friendly.

I would recommend it totaly.

Les
 
I have the bosh, not sure if it's the same model as i haven't had chance to use it yet, got it at the car boot for £35 which replaced a Makita that was stolen before i got chance to use it either...

So i guess i'm not much use for a review at the end of the day.
 
Tim Nott":k1iljtuf said:
...user forums (both in UK and US where it is called something else) seem to indicate it [Boscg GST135BCE]
is unreliable, with faults ranging from the blade jamming or dropping out to the switch failing. Anyone have personal experience with any of these?
Yes, a couple of years of hard trade use. No, mine isn't unreliable, there has been no problem with the switch and blades don't drop out unless you insist on using bargain basement cheapo Chiwanese rubbish - Bosch, Lennox, Makita, Metabo and Festool blades all work fine. As Roger says the blade is the key

Since buying mine almost every tradesman who has borrowed it has come back impressed with the power and straightness and quality of cut and so far several of my joiner/shopfitter colleagues have bought one for themselves. Not heard of anyone having problems yet.
 
I use a Makita BV45000, alloy body, nothing fancy apart from variable speed. Its been used mercilessly for about 20 years, never broken malfunctioned or faltered. Cuts straight, cuts deep and tough stock used it to cut sheet steel, perspex as well as timber and man made boards.
Its noisy. Seems they are noisy from new.
Considered a top end Bosch once, but not too impressed with Bosch, the green stuff is far too lightweight and most of the blue stuff is unremarkable.
Some is excellent like the GBH SDS, but would want a hands on trial before committing to a Bosch jigsaw.
 
Bosch make the best jigsaws I have always used them.

Bosch actually invented the jigsaw and they have always been pretty good. I used the 135 quickly the other day and it seemed good only bad point was that the trigger seemed dodgy it kept going slow and fast but that could have just been dust in the switch. It was somebody elses and only a month old but everything else seemed good on it.

It has the quick release blade change the same as my cordless Bosch jigsaw which saves a lot of time.

Ps when I upgraded my 15 year old Bosch recently I bought the more basic GST 80 which has now been superseded by http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PI ... er=froogle. The GST80 is a basic PRO jigsaw which is what I wanted at the time (less to go wrong).
 
It's the switch thing that worries me - see
http://tinyurl.com/yj8z7gb
http://tinyurl.com/yfuhaof

chippy1970":3m0q0m4u said:
Bosch make the best jigsaws I have always used them.
Bosch actually invented the jigsaw and they have always been pretty good. I used the 135 quickly the other day and it seemed good only bad point was that the trigger seemed dodgy it kept going slow and fast but that could have just been dust in the switch. It was somebody elses and only a month old but everything else seemed good on it.
 
I have a Makita - can't remember which model - it's a really nice machine and I'd recommend it. The blue Bosh ones are good too. Never used any of the others (apart from cheap rubbish which I wouldn't recommend) so I can't comment on them.

Cheers
Mike
 
I tried a few different ones, but ended up with the Festool, but what I did realise is that the D handle type are much harder to move around the work, I really like the hand position on the body version, I feel like I'm just pushing gently forwards as opposed to moving my wrist and arm everywhere.

Makita do a version a friend of mine has one and raves about it.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp? ... =1&jump=44


Cheers

Jed
 
jedmc571":2xf5uzc0 said:
what I did realise is that the D handle type are much harder to move around the work
It all depends on what you're doing. On the bench with work well clamped down a body grip probably is better, similarly it's much better for scribing where the tool is held underneath the work, however, when you're installing stuff and you don't have a bench the D-handle offers a more secure grip (leaving you with one hand free to act as a "cramp", the hand holding the loop handle also pushes down onto the work) and if you're trying to make lots of cuts into something like a floor body grip jigsaws will rapidly give you a strained wrist because of the awkward angles you're having to work at. Me, I have one of each type :lol:
 

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