Great difficulty cutting 18mm MDF with T101B jigsaw blade

[fred]

Fed up watching that crap. They have the ideea patented to the eyes. One of the backers is a lawyer and they are attempting to make it compulsory. If its forced on the Yanks we won't be far behind.

All because some untrained idiot was using a small electric saw with out a riving knife or blade guard, whilst holding it by hand. Now we have elf'n's afty legislating for the brain dead, I gave up on the intelligence of the a verage yank the day I saw a note stuck on a wide angle side mirror warning that objects may appear further away. Doh ! . The majority of table saw accidents would NOT have been saved with the saw stop.

[Capitol]

[John Rumm]

MDF clogs blades so you need one with coarse teeth. If you have a pendulum action on the saw, then turn it on. Don't force it. You may also find you get a better straight line following a drawn line rather than using a straight edge to run the machine along.

[John Rumm]

True for *cheap* jigsaws - a proper professional one however is a completely different class of tool and quite capable of cutting a straight line.

[stuart noble]

The OP's ancient AEG is no slouch. I have one too. £100+ 40 years ago IIRC

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You use a router for that.

[Rick Hughes]

almost normal for jigsaws. if hole is critical I cut a template in

1/4" ply and use a bearing guided router bit.

If hole is square then if possible use circular saw.

I do find reverse tooth blades (down cutting blades) that cut the opposite way are much better on MDF .... I buy them for laminates, but find them good on MDF

[JimK]

But what do you cut the ply template out with....?

Jim K

[meow2222]

Using a jigsaw with a fence is a classic mistake. Follow the line by steering it.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

I use a router and a fence..

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I have a hole cutting attachment which allows you to cut the hole direct. There will be a minimum size, though, which may be too large with many larger routers.

Lidl recently did what they called a combination cutter which will route holes from 50-160mm radius. Only snag with it is the 4.8mm collet size - most places don't stock bits.