Cutting 4 inch slab?

[wrightwoodwork]

As good as the mafell jigsaw is. I personally wouldn't recommend it for ripping a lot of 4" battens.  It will do it for the occasional time. Yet you will be putting a lot of strain on the motor.  I have the mafell jigsaw and have used it to rip a 3" timber. It did do it slowly. It's far easier with a circular saw or track saw with rails and flipping the timber. Last year I needed split a 6" batten and used the mafell ksp85 and guide rails to achieve the cut. It worked fine and nothing that couldn't be fixed with a plane. The only thing is to make sure the top and bottom are parralel with each other

 

[jeh]

If you were to try the jigsaw on a rail for a cut that thick you may have some issues.  Just as you get drift with a bandsaw you may get drift with a jigsaw blade that long.  From what I have read here in other threads about the Carvex and the rail together Festool does not recommend that combo on material as thick as yours.

Peter

To be more exact:

For the benefits of others, and you [member=652]JimH2[/member], we do not recommend using the jigsaws on the guide rail with materials thicker than 18mm (3/4").

Shane

It is really unfortunate that this is a limitation of the Carvex. This is just the case where using the guide rail makes sense, but alas you can't use it with the Carvex. Not sure about the Trion. There are other jig saws that don't have this restriction.

 

[EdL]

Depending on how often you plan to be ripping 4" material.....to justify the cost.

Makita beam saw and just clamp a straight edge down for a guide.

Ed