Makita L 10 Jigsaw Blades

[The Medway Handyman]

Hi All

Had a job today where I had to fit 3 x 3 fence posts to the edge of a deck, to hold trellis. Plan was to notch the posts to fit over the edge of the 6 x 2 joists & bolt them through.

Bought some Makita L 10 blades to try, they are 155mm long & claim to cut softwood 135mm thick.

They will cut softwood 135mm thick easily, but even using my new 'mutts nuts' Makita jigsaw, the cut is all over the place. Tried adjusting the speed, pendulum action etc, but still crap.

I did think it was asking a bit much to be honest - ended up cutting the notches in the posts with a handsaw - hard work but 100% more accurate.

So why do they make blades that will cut 135mm but don't actually work properly?

[Stuart Noble]

Get yourself a decent jigsaw

[auctions]

I've found with deep cuts, it sometimes works to go really, really slowly. The blades will go through at speed, but not straight. Also, treated timber seems to be worse than untreated.

A

[John Rumm]

That is one heck of a length of unsupported blade!

The trick would be to go very slowly wih pendulum on the low setting, and also don't try to guide the machine to rigidly (i.e. not against a straight edge). I would expect if the wood is at all non uniform though you will have trouble, since with that blade length there is very little you can do at the top end to have much influence on where the tip of the blade goes.

[Andy Dingley]

He did - do pay attention at teh back.

These long blades are practically a small bandsaw. As such they still need to maintain tension if they're to achieve anything. While they're cutting on the upstroke it's OK, the problem is wobble setting in on the downstroke. If there's any force on them at all during the downstroke, they buckle. To avoid this use a slow feed rate and maybe the smallest pendulum action. Try to minimise the force during the downstroke.

[Stuart Noble]

I know, and he was so pleased with it. I was going to say that I'd made a jigsaw puzzle from railway sleepers with my Aldi jigsaw but thought better of it.

[The Medway Handyman]

I'm going to get you at playtime for that..............

[Stuart Noble]

Actually I've got quite a decent AEG, which cost me £100+ 20 years ago. I always use coarse cut blades on wood. Doesn't stop the wandering completely but the wider kerf certainly helps.