The poor man's band saw

[Graham Orm]

A jig saw mounted beneath a table like a router. Clever. Not deadly accurate but a handy quick option.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh0p8VA_QHM

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The Bosch better quality diy ones years ago came with an alloy table to invert the saw.

 

[Mark A]

I made one once, just for a laugh. I used a spare roller guide on a frame to support the top of the blade (the expensive gold 150mm Festool jobbies).

The depth of cut was obviously limited, but all in all it worked surprisingly well.

 

[xy mosian]

It can work very well like that.
In need of a power fret saw, some years ago, I upended a jig saw fitted a fret saw blade and tensioned it with a length of architrave.
Having bought a number of blades, thinking I'd bust a few, I eventually used only one in about an hours work.
The results were good but the whole thing needed clamping to something heavy to stop it bouncing around.
xy

 

[SammyQ]

Has anybody taken time to view the rest of this guy's utube postings? He's good. In a get-it-done way. Like it.

Sam

 

[AndyT]

My old Burgess 3 wheel bandsaw has an attachment which converts the rotary motion of the motor to an up and down action so you can attach a jigsaw blade, poking up through the table. It looks the sort of thing that ought to come in useful, but hasn't yet. But I've only had it about 20 years so far...

 

[rafezetter]

I'd be a bit concerned about lateral blade bending, as I get it sometimes when trying to cut shapes with my jigsaw and I can't think of any way to stabilize the blade without it being a fairly convoluted overhead contraption.

Anyone notice his push stick?

 

[Claymore]

Love the Swan push stick....... he makes some clever stuff and worth checking out his other videos

 

[Tetsuaiga]

Seems like a nice idea for internal cuts that a fret saw would be too small for. It's always a bit of a pain for me securing the work with clamps then going round it with the jig saw