Carvex started vibrating

[john5mt]

Two questions

1.

My carvex started vibrating like a mofo yesterday.

Looked up my paperwork and i bought it in sept of 2013 so its out of warranty.

Have any of you had this happen to yours? If so what was the repair that needed done? I dont want to send it in to find out its a 75% of new cost repair.

2.

What would you do? I thought spending this much i would never have to buy another jigsaw again. So i am not sure i can stomach buying another one new unless there is nothing comparable on the market. My old Bosch 1590evsk is still kicking so i am not in a hurry. But I have grown accustom to the flexibility of a barrel grip. Any new jigsaws out there that give the carvex a run for its money? Cordless or Corded?

Just so no one thinks i am a festool basher, I do own a large percentage of their catalog. Sometimes a tool in a line just isnt as quality as the rest? I have noticed Bosch seems to be targeting Festool in the way they have begun to mimic their tools and quality. Ie the Bosch JS572EBK looks an awful lot like the carvex.

Anyway let me know what you think. I would prefer to keep using this one if its a cheap fix.

 

[ear3]

Does the vibrating manifest while under load during cutting, or when just running the motor?  If the former, have you checked different blade configurations?

Don't have personal experience with it, but people say the Mafell jigsaw is tops.  That's an awful lot of coin to drop on a jigsaw, though:
http://www.toolnut.com/mafell-p1-cc-jigsaw-maximax-in-t-max-systainer.html

 

[Jaybolishes]

Call the service department and speak with them. You never know, they may fix it for free even if it's out of warranty. Seen it happen before.

 

[john5mt]

Its vibrating with no blade in it. Gets a lot worse when you try cutting with it.  [crying]

 

[john5mt]

That Mafell looks awesome....just not 800 bucks awesome. I have a hard time justifying festool....Mafell is usually double what the festool goes for.

 

[oldie]

So, something has started to 'fail' suddenly - not something that has crept up on you. 
That has me wonder if a partial strip-down might reveal some 'obvious' play in one or more components. 

Your're going to speak to Festool repair guys right? 
Depending on what response you get wrt potential repair costs etc - maybe they could talk you, or someone else, through how to try to identify/replace the faulty/suspect components. 

Just wondering if something relatively easy to get sorted... 

(Tiny piece of wood got jammed in the mechanism somewhere?  Maybe thorough 'internal' cleaning of whole thing - in case any impacted debris trapped somewhere??) 

Richard (UK) 

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

The simplest most solid jigsaws clamp the jigsaw blade so the bottom of the blade angles forward slightly like an extended leg. When the blade plunger rises the teeth get drawn thru the wood or other material. Non orbital reciprocating saws use a similar system, but in the of the reciprocating saws, the reciprocating saw blades have the teeth cut into the blade at an angle or arc in relation to the blade shank. Orbital actions on jigsaws and reciprocating saws make this geometry a bit more complicated, but the main thing is that the saw teth should be drawn thru the material on the pull stroke.

If a jigsaw or reciprocating saw is parallel to the plunge stroke, or worse canted backward during the plunge stroke, the jigsaw will wind up with a great deal of vibration.

If the blade is held loosely in the blade clamp so it wobbles or pivots loosely back and forth during the push and pull stroke of the plunger you will likely experience even greater vibration.

If there is some issue within the gear housing that causes the blade to be canted backward, or wobble loosely back and forth during the plunge and pull action there can also be a great deal of vibration during the cutting action.

A loose wobbly base can aldo cause issues.

My best guess though would be a problem with the blade clamp or in the gear housing, and I'm leaning towards the gear housing.

At least one other FOG member mentioned this problem happening with their Carvex.

In case you want to buy a different jigsaw, but stay within the Festool system, the Trion jigsaws use a different blade clamp mechanism that is very solid, and the jigsaw gear system is a different, more solid design.

With other manufacturers it's hard to give a simple recommendation, because the jigsaw mechanisms seem to vary greatly in design and manifacture not only betwean different manufacturers, but also between the different jigsaws within a manufacturers range.

Milwaukee for intance has at least three completely different jigsaw mechanisms used for their different saws. I believe this may also be true of Bosch. I'm not sure about Makita.   

 

[Holmz]

That Mafell looks awesome....just not 800 bucks awesome. I have a hard time justifying festool....Mafell is usually double what the festool goes for.

So with the extras I thought that the carvex is ~650$ , how is that a better deal than the 800$ one that works?

If we ignore the math then

I do not see any viable options other than sending it in, selling it, throwing it away, or using it tell it fails.
If it is bouncing around it does not sound safe nor capable of a good cut.
If it is vibrating badly it will shake itself to death soon.
I have had People on FOG sell mis-advertised crap, so that leaves sending it in, or throwing it away.

As it will not get better with age like a good bottle of red, why not just send it in?
If it is unfixable then decide in plan B

 

[jeh]

Get the Mafell and don't look back. You won't be disappointed as it works as designed. I have always thought the Carvex was a step back from Trion. I consider it to be a lesser Trion with a bunch of accessories to pimp it out with. I had a Trion and was suckered into buying a Carvex thinking it would be better. Turns out it was not so I sold it and moved on the Mafell. There really is not comparison. If I was blinded by the green and would not consider other brands I'd buy another Trion.

 

[pingvinlakrits]

I have had two Carvex battery jigsaws, never happy with any of them. Other than not cutting square one of them would often not stop in the right position to release the blade, it would take five to ten attempts before it would stop in the right position.

Also, I don't get a jigsaw that needs TWO systainers and a "system" when we are still talking about a jigsaw. I also think a jigsaw that needs to switch bases for tilt is a little too much - considering the jigsaw will still not cut square in some material regardless of base used.

I did get a PS300 second hand the other week - for the workshop - it is a pretty ok jigsaw. I prefer it over the Carvex.
It works well enough.

I did own the Mafell P1cc and had all the bells and whistles in a SYS 1 - I am probably one of the few to ever sell one. I only use battery jigsaws on site so it never came along and was gathering dust for occasional use in the shop and eventually I sold it. I did think it was a very neat package with all the stuff in a SYS 1 and I do think it is the best jigsaw out there, by far.

Should Mafell release it as a 18V model I would get one, for sure. My Metabo 18V is ok, nothing special, in some instances a little better than the Carvex, in some instances a little worse. It is a "good to have" machine that does not excel at anything but at least it came at a reasonable price. 

 

[Bob D.]

Watching the Mafell P1CC in this video is unbelievable for a jig saw.


Ouch ! !

EDIT:  Removed video that has been previously banned from the forum - P.Halle - Moderator