Mac Alister Jigsaw

[opps]

Whilst working a friend's today. I needed to shorten a 42mm Iroko worktop that I had previously left loose. I had to remove 18mm from the edge where it meets the old worktop. It was a pretty straight forward profile.


The red lines are the new cuts. I used my festool plunge saw to remove as much as possible and then decided, given that my Festool jigsaw was elsewhere, to use the customer's Mac Alister jigsaw. His (supplied and used blade) would not cut through the wood, so I put a Festool Carvex blade in to it. Even with a decent blade it struggled. I haven't used a cheap jigsaw for years, I had forgotten how awful they can be. I ended up using a chisel to clean the internals of the corner. I have never needed to do that with a decent jigsaw.

The whole experience was horrible. I am sure that I could feel the base flex as I used it. I normally only hold down jigsaw with one hand, on this occasion, I used two.

 

[ETAF]

I haven't used a cheap jigsaw for years, I had forgotten how awful they can be.

Yep, I have been there , as a DIYer in the early days bought cheap, and when i used a decent quality tool, my brother had - what a difference
I guess as you go up the price curve , from £25 , the difference is large and then starts to plato out a bit

I am sure that I could feel the base flex as I used it.

the material would have to be the thinnest cheapest - to knock them out at £25

I would love a festool Jigsaw - BUT my Dewalt cordless is fine , i looked at the Milwaukee and Festool Drill/Impact driver - lovely kit - but as a DIYer cannot justify

i have a Mafell tracksaw on my wish list - increase in price by about £30+ from earlier in year
Again my brother has a festool tracksaw , and its brilliant to - but was more expensive a while back - anyway - we can wish, hard to justify

Mcallister, is a B&Q brand - well i guess Kingfisher, B&Q, screwfix, i dont think the quality reputation is very high. I do have a toolbag , that homebase ( Bunnings ) where selling off - so not sure how they had the products - but anyway the tool bag is great

I guess the jigsaw may have been dropped, who knows what condition

That has to be some difference between £25 - jigsaw and a festool at 10x the price

I seem to think Peter Millard did a test on various tracksaw from lidl/Aldi/screwfix etc

In fact remembering now , my uncle purchased a mitre saw from either lidl or aldi - awful thing - all out of square and no decent adjustment , the motor was so noisy
it went back after seeing what we could do to fix - that was about £49.99

 

[opps]

Yep, I have been there , as a DIYer in the early days bought cheap, and when i used a decent quality tool, my brother had - what a difference
I guess as you go up the price curve , from £25 , the difference is large and then starts to plato out a bit


the material would have to be the thinnest cheapest - to knock them out at £25

I would love a festool Jigsaw - BUT my Dewalt cordless is fine , i looked at the Milwaukee and Festool Drill/Impact driver - lovely kit - but as a DIYer cannot justify

i have a Mafell tracksaw on my wish list - increase in price by about £30+ from earlier in year
Again my brother has a festool tracksaw , and its brilliant to - but was more expensive a while back - anyway - we can wish, hard to justify

Mcallister, is a B&Q brand - well i guess Kingfisher, B&Q, screwfix, i dont think the quality reputation is very high. I do have a toolbag , that homebase ( Bunnings ) where selling off - so not sure how they had the products - but anyway the tool bag is great

I guess the jigsaw may have been dropped, who knows what condition

That has to be some difference between £25 - jigsaw and a festool at 10x the price

I seem to think Peter Millard did a test on various tracksaw from lidl/Aldi/screwfix etc

In fact remembering now , my uncle purchased a mitre saw from either lidl or aldi - awful thing - all out of square and no decent adjustment , the motor was so noisy
it went back after seeing what we could do to fix - that was about £49.99

The jigsaw is probably a year old and lightly used. There is no evidence of damage to the base. My jigsaw before my current Festool was a black AEG/Atlas Copco (the cheaper one in their range). It too had a folded metal base. In today's money, it would be somewhere between £100 to £120. I never had any any problems but as I think back, I cut anything thicker than 22mm MDF.

I had completely forgotten how much cheap jigsaws bounce. I have cut up to 85mm softwood using my Festool, and I only needed one hand to guide it. With the Mac Alister, I was only going from zero to 42mm over a distance equating to the diameter of my circular saw blade and then a single 18mm (42mm) depth of cut. Both hands were definitely needed and none of the cuts ended up being square...

 

[ETAF]

wow - 85mm on a jigsaw - and square that really good - i have often cutdown some 75mm posts - but would not use my dewalt jigsaw for that - even with the longer blades - tried once , nightmare

difference between high quality trade tools -
My brother did a lot of kitchen fitting , hence he purchased the tracksaw - for worktops 30/40mm

 

[Deleted member 174758]

wow - 85mm on a jigsaw - and square that really good - i have often cutdown some 75mm posts - but would not use my dewalt jigsaw for that - even with the longer blades - tried once , nightmare

difference between high quality trade tools -
My brother did a lot of kitchen fitting , hence he purchased the tracksaw - for worktops 30/40mm

Try a Mafell P1cc - even straighter than the Festool (but at £500+ so it should be). I don't carry mine on many jobs, simply because my"lesser" tools (a Makita brushless 18 volt jigsaw and a Bosch GST160BCE) are generally sufficient - but they mainly get used for cutting 22mm thick or thinner stuff, plastics, etc. However, I'm trade, so correcting out of square cuts can cost me dear - either in time or worse, replacement materials, Which is why I spend what (to some) seem to be ridiculous amounts of money on tools.

I've had (or used) a variety "trade" jigsaws in the past, My first, circa 1980, was a Black & Decker Professional which never cut plumb out of the box, and which I could never cure. That was replaced by a Metabo in the late 1980s which was better (and was better than the model which replaced it for that matter), but it was still nothing to write home about, neither was the Kango which replaced it (actually a rebadged Holz-Her). In fact the first jigger I had which could true was the Bosch GST135BCE, which I bought around 2005. The only negative to that saw was that it used to blue the backs of the blades due to the tungsten carbide secondary guides. I still have that saw, albeit fully restored *

What has surprised from refurbishing a number of old power tools me is how accurate some of the DIY jigsaws from the 1980s were in comparison to their modern counterparts, B&D in Germany made some really quite decent saws for a while, presumably until the bean counters caught up with them

I'm also Festool TS55 user, having started with a Hilti WSC265. I tried a Mafell MT55cc on loan a long time back and simply couldn't justify the extra cost, about £100 (IMHO it just isn't worth the extra money), and in any case I also needed a TS75 in due course, so for deeper materials or cuts requiring more power that saw trumps the MT55 hands down. But nearly 4 years ago I bought a cordless plunger - a Makita - which has turned into my "daily user". The logic was simple - I already had the batteries (I use Mak 18 volt cordless kit), I already had the rails (the Mak runs on Festool rails) and it was a LOT cheaper than the Fes. But whilst it isn't quite as nice as a Fes (fit and finish, mainly), it cuts no less accurately. And it's worth noting that for the price of a MT55cc and a couple of rails you can buy a Makita SP6000 (corded version of the DSP600 I have), three rails (handy if you are doing a lot of sheet breaking down) and a Bosch GST160BCE jigger as well. So what price tool snobbery?

 

[opps]

wow - 85mm on a jigsaw - and square that really good - i have often cutdown some 75mm posts - but would not use my dewalt jigsaw for that - even with the longer blades - tried once , nightmare

difference between high quality trade tools -
My brother did a lot of kitchen fitting , hence he purchased the tracksaw - for worktops 30/40mm

I had to remake a porch support for a friend. His house had a shared porch cover with the total of 3 supports (on at the party wall). He had a brick/uPVC enclosed porch fitted. The fitters removed the party wall support. His neighbour, understandably got annoyed and demanded that (her half of it be reinstated. With hindsight, the timber that I was working with was probably closer to 60mm and not 85mm- it was about two thirds of the original. This was back in 2016, so my memory is a little patchy.

At the time, I didn't have access to a bandsaw, so I used my jigsaw and lots of sander paper. It took way longer than it should have but the "demanding" neighbour was happy.





The Carvex blades that I used are thicker than standard and I had to increase the width of the supporting shoes on the jigsaw with an Allen key. You can't do that with a cheap machine.

Admittedly, it was the wrong tool to use but it did the job and the cuts were pretty square.

According to festool, some of their blades will cut up to 100mm.

Jigsaw blade S 145/4 FSG/5 WOOD UNIVERSAL

www.festool.co.uk

£36 for 5 blades though

About 4 years ago, I helped a gardener build a "log cabin". The customer want a ply floor. My plunge saw was elsewhere, so for the first time ever, I used my jigsaw guide rail attachment. The ply was only 18mm and I used bosch progressor blades. The cuts were straight and pretty much at 90 degrees. I used the anti-chip insert, the chips were minimal and easily hidden in the expansion gaps under the skirting. Again, those are features not available with super cheap machines.

I fully understand why people purchase machines that they can afford. I just wish that they had an opportunity to understand that sometimes they might be better off either paying more or buying second hand and selling it on.

 

[ETAF]

I fully understand why people purchase machines that they can afford. I just wish that they had an opportunity to understand that sometimes they might be better off either paying more or buying second hand and selling it on.

Thats exactly where i am now, even as a DIYer - recent years the difference in quality and saving can be quite considerable.
I never had a driver until recently , everything done with manual screwdrivers and a pump-screwdriver (yankee) - should have caught up - years ago really

 

[opps]

Try a Mafell P1cc - even straighter than the Festool (but at £500+ so it should be). I don't carry mine on many jobs, simply because my"lesser" tools (a Makita brushless 18 volt jigsaw and a Bosch GST160BCE) are generally sufficient - but they mainly get used for cutting 22mm thick or thinner stuff, plastics, etc. However, I'm trade, so correcting out of square cuts can cost me dear - either in time or worse, replacement materials, Which is why I spend what (to some) seem to be ridiculous amounts of money on tools.

I've had (or used) a variety "trade" jigsaws in the past, My first, circa 1980, was a Black & Decker Professional which never cut plumb out of the box, and which I could never cure. That was replaced by a Metabo in the late 1980s which was better (and was better than the model which replaced it for that matter), but it was still nothing to write home about, neither was the Kango which replaced it (actually a rebadged Holz-Her). In fact the first jigger I had which could true was the Bosch GST135BCE, which I bought around 2005. The only negative to that saw was that it used to blue the backs of the blades due to the tungsten carbide secondary guides. I still have that saw, albeit fully restored *

What has surprised from refurbishing a number of old power tools me is how accurate some of the DIY jigsaws from the 1980s were in comparison to their modern counterparts, B&D in Germany made some really quite decent saws for a while, presumably until the bean counters caught up with them

I'm also Festool TS55 user, having started with a Hilti WSC265. I tried a Mafell MT55cc on loan a long time back and simply couldn't justify the extra cost, about £100 (IMHO it just isn't worth the extra money), and in any case I also needed a TS75 in due course, so for deeper materials or cuts requiring more power that saw trumps the MT55 hands down. But nearly 4 years ago I bought a cordless plunger - a Makita - which has turned into my "daily user". The logic was simple - I already had the batteries (I use Mak 18 volt cordless kit), I already had the rails (the Mak runs on Festool rails) and it was a LOT cheaper than the Fes. But whilst it isn't quite as nice as a Fes (fit and finish, mainly), it cuts no less accurately. And it's worth noting that for the price of a MT55cc and a couple of rails you can buy a Makita SP6000 (corded version of the DSP600 I have), three rails (handy if you are doing a lot of sheet breaking down) and a Bosch GST160BCE jigger as well. So what price tool snobbery?

How do you deal with the fact that each of your different saws remove differing amounts of the anti-splinter from the guide rails? I seriously need to replace the ones on mine. I only have two (all first gen) 1400's, one "2.4" and a 600. Both of my 1400s are inaccurate because I lent them to friends who used their own saws on them.

 

[opps]

Thats exactly where i am now, even as a DIYer - recent years the difference in quality and saving can be quite considerable.
I never had a driver until recently , everything done with manual screwdrivers and a pump-screwdriver (yankee) - should have caught up - years ago really

I can only recall trying to use a Yankee screwdriver once or twice- with slotted screws. Needless to say, I left score marks all over the place as tried to tighten the hinge screws.

 

[ETAF]

I left score marks all over the place as tried to tighten the hinge screws.

Yep, certainly a knack to it .....

 

[Deleted member 174758]

How do you deal with the fact that each of your different saws remove differing amounts of the anti-splinter from the guide rails? I seriously need to replace the ones on mine. I only have two (all first gen) 1400's, one "2.4" and a 600. Both of my 1400s are inaccurate because I lent them to friends who used their own saws on them.

When I first got the TS75 I had to set the TS55 up so that it matched the TS75 - a real faff, but you only need to do it once. When the DSP600 (Mak) came along I initially used the Festool rails (you can't adjust the Mak, believe it or not, other than by shimming the blade - the Festool base plate is adjustable), but on the odd occasion when I needed to swap (normally to the TS75 as the Mak was doing almost all the other work) I needed to shuffle the anti-splinter strip across and trim it. Fortunately the TS75 is generally only used for specific tasks such as trimming thick (antique) doors, so it's only one rail I had to do this for - twice, because when the rail went back to the Mak it had to be done again. Last year I had to use the TS75 quite a bit so I finally coughed up for 3 x `1500mm and 1 x 1000mm Makita rails and a rail bag. So the Mak and the Festool now have their own rails. The Bosch GKT55CE I bought (secondhand) to do cement fibreboard has always had its' own guide rails - a set of four Evolution rails (2 x 1400mm, 2 x 700mm)

In use I find that I have to shimmy the anti-splinters across every 2 to 4 months (just needs some lighter fuel to remove the old glue residue and double-sided tape to reattach it). I've used Makita replacement strips or thes from Axminster Power Tool for a few years, now - cheaper than Festool.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I can only recall trying to use a Yankee screwdriver once or twice- with slotted screws. Needless to say, I left score marks all over the place as tried to tighten the hinge screws.

You maybe weren't in line with the screws, your bit might have been a bit thin for the screws, and maybe you pushed a bit too fast - but yes, there is a knack to using them. We weren't allowed to use them to assemble polished work in case you skated across a polished surface (which you were docked for - so once bitten...). Aren't modern Pozi screws wonderful in comparison?

Now I'm becoming semi-retired I've started going back to using my Yankees. Perverse, or what?

 

[ETAF]

your bit might have been a bit thin for the screws, and maybe you pushed a bit too fast

I had about 4 different flat bits, one actually filed down for small screws - and 4 PH/PZ cant remember now the sizes, really soft metal flats , a bit of a problem japanned round heads , i seem to remember

 

[opps]

When I first got the TS75 I had to set the TS55 up so that it matched the TS75 - a real faff, but you only need to do it once. When the DSP600 (Mak) came along I initially used the Festool rails (you can't adjust the Mak, believe it or not, other than by shimming the blade - the Festool base plate is adjustable), but on the odd occasion when I needed to swap (normally to the TS75 as the Mak was doing almost all the other work) I needed to shuffle the anti-splinter strip across and trim it. Fortunately the TS75 is generally only used for specific tasks such as trimming thick (antique) doors, so it's only one rail I had to do this for - twice, because when the rail went back to the Mak it had to be done again. Last year I had to use the TS75 quite a bit so I finally coughed up for 3 x `1500mm and 1 x 1000mm Makita rails and a rail bag. So the Mak and the Festool now have their own rails. The Bosch GKT55CE I bought (secondhand) to do cement fibreboard has always had its' own guide rails - a set of four Evolution rails (2 x 1400mm, 2 x 700mm)

In use I find that I have to shimmy the anti-splinters across every 2 to 4 months (just needs some lighter fuel to remove the old glue residue and double-sided tape to reattach it). I've used Makita replacement strips or thes from Axminster Power Tool for a few years, now - cheaper than Festool.

I seriously need to replace my anti-splinter guides. I should have done it years ago. That said, I am still running on the original Festool blade. The 42mm worktops that I cut, I did 4 passes given the age of the blade (*blushes*). I only have the original 55mm saw, not the newer model. My saw is 15+ years old, but I don't use it day in, day out. It has only been used on hardwoods for about 5% of its life, other than that, normally 18mm MDF.

I hadn't thought of taking the existing anti-splinter tape and moving it over by a mm or so. Chuffin genius. Top man, thanks.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I had about 4 different flat bits, one actually filed down for small screws - and 4 PH/PZ cant remember now the sizes, really soft metal flats , a bit of a problem japanned round heads , i seem to remember

You've reminded me of something I'd forgotten - filing screwdrivers so that they fitted screw heads properly... Not really necessary with Pozidrives

Japanned heads you carried a wee pot of Humbrol black gloss and a brush for. They always seemed to flake off