Well as usual i got stuck into it without reading the manual and then when things did not go the way i had hoped well i went in search of a manual.
I thought it worth sharing some of what i learnt.
The bosch jig saw i bought is a Model 1587avs this has tooless blade change and variable speed, a dust blower and oscilation adjustment.
First up i got done the project that it came in handy for. Thats a different story. It was a case of cutting baltic birch out.
Even though i had bosch blades i had never done any research into blades period. My acquisition of Bosch blades had come about after hearing the comments about them from members here. Well the blade i bought made my fraudulent excuse for a jigsaw hand vibrator step up a notch but still a piece of junk remains just that. Going free to any member that wishes to pay for postage. I offered it to my buddy but he has three already and after he got to taste the Bosch lets say he now knows the difference too.
Ok so first lesson i got was checking to see my base was set at 90 degrees if you want to cut edges that are square.
My initial thought was something was wrong with the machine given it was recon.
But i discovered that the aluminum casting on the base has a wedge shaped raised piece that helps to align the base perfectly at 90 degrees to the blade, that is if you take care to make sure to slide the base onto the wedge properly.
But even after fixing this i thought something is up when i tried the two different type blades and put a square on them. One blade is thin and short T101AO and the other longer and wider.
Thats when i decided to take the plastic non scratch insert out of the casting and look to see if there was some sort of burr or other manufacturing remnant that was causing the plastic to lift. Because when i put a straight edge across the surface side to side the surface was not flat.
Well i discovered that the plastic insert had not been pressed in and clipped in properly even though it has 6 screws to hold it.
When that was fixed and the based properly aligned on the wedge the cuts were unbelievable.
Thats when the fun started. Up until then i was cutting a piece of Borg laminated scrap pine board 3/4 thick.
I was trying out the T101AO blade which is amazing and in a machine like this Bosch well its another amazing on top of that.
So i hauled out a square and got a piece of MI walnut a tad shy of 1 inch thick and keeping the narrow fine tooth blade cut a slice or two off the end of the walnut board.
The finish and squareness of cut well i hope the pictures do it justice.
Key thing i learnt is read manual. But then use your own senses and check out things when they dont seem to match what others are getting even if you a rookie.
When i looked at the T101AO bosch blades and then took out the junkie vermont HD pack i had purchased 8 years ago there is just no comparison. One lot is stamped rubbish and the other is Swiss ground steel with properly ground and shapped blades.
The T101AO has a taper from front to back on both sides which aids when it comes to cutting curves and keeping nice clean edges.
It really really is worth having a selection of the blades on hand and switching them out for different tasks.
My last point before pics is if you are on a tight budget and dont have money for a $300 upwards bandsaw get yourself a $99 reconditioned Bosch jig saw and a selection of blades and you will cut curves with fantastic edges on any wood. You may not be able to resaw but any other bandsaw job you would easily be able to do and the space saving is a no brainer.
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