Thats certainly one of the jobs I'd want it to do John, but how good is that cut? My current m/c would just about cut that with a struggle and the blade would wander about all over the place giving nothing like a square cut. Not expecting it to be dead on like a chop saw.
Choice seems to be between the Bosch GST 135 & the Makita.
So if your aspirations are low, this may be fine. However, it is incorrect to assume that everybody else has low expectations of outcome, and for jigsaws especially there is a large difference between the £15 and the £125 jigsaw.
Cutting cross grain like that, the cut will be very good - no struggle at all, and it will remain nice and square.
The only time I have suffered from any blade wander on thick stuff is when I was cutting through an egg box door (i.e. two thin pannels with large air gap and cardboard honeycombe between).
With pendulum off, or on setting one, the cut quality is also very good
- in fact as good as a circular saw if you have a steady hand. I have found if I cut out a template in MDF, give it a very quick and light sand, and then use it to guide the router, I get none of the tell tail ripple in the finished routed surface that I used to get when I did similar things with an "ordinary" jigsaw.
I can't see you being dissapointed with either of those.
There is also a Freud one that is a little cheaper - not used it but the constuction quality looks pretty good. I also noticed a Hitachi the other day. Never used one of their jigsaws, but I have used one of their circular saws which was *very* good. so it may be worth having a look at as well.
What I'm looking for is a general purpose electric saw to carry about all the time for all sorts of unexpected jobs. If I know I'm doing decking, laminate flooring or trimming a door I'll take a chop saw or circular saw, but often people will say "while you are here could you .....".
So a good quality jigsaw seems favourite, if it will cut a reasonable straight line.
I progressed through el cheapo B&D (years ago), el cheapo Ferm and a mid range B&Q Power Pro. All have been poo basically.
You should find blades compatible all the way round. Almost all jigsaws use the Scintilla (Bosch) fitting. The only exception I've found is B&D who have their own thing.
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