Peter HS said:
I've got a Makita jigsaw which came with a box of various blades and they all have cryptic identifying part numbers. That's fine if you want to trawl through a website trying to work out what material a particular blade is intended to be used on. I generally select any blade and so far I've not had any problems cutting various types of wood as well as MDF.
Choosing the correct blade for your application will significantly increase the quality of the cut. Jigsaws have got a rather poor reputation for ragged or slanted cuts, but very often these two problems lie with choosing the wrong or a blunt blade, and not with the saw itself. You can often get a better cut with a cheap jigsaw and the correct good-quality sharp blade, than with an expensive jigsaw and the wrong blade. Combining a good quality jigsaw with a good quality blade of the right specifications often results in the user thinking "Wow - I never knew a jigsaw could cut as well as that!".
1. Can you determine from the approximate number of teeth per inch what material a blade best used on?
2. Why hasn't the industry standardised on a colour coding system like they have for resistors in electronics? After all, a brown blade could mean wood, silver could mean metal, blue for plastics, that sort of thing. You can buy packs of blades that fit just about any jigsaw. Maybe there's an easier answer but my blade box has about 10+ blades and bugger me if I can work out which does what.
Quite a lot of saw manufacturers use Bosch designations (which usually begin with the letter "T") in addition to their own numbers.
Festool has a good
comparison chart which gives the following information for each Festool blade:
Suggested use and composition/set of teeth, eg "For thin material: Straight cuts in metal, non-ferrous metal, aluminium, sheet metal 1/16"-1/8", Wavy set and milled"
Max Material thickness, eg "1 3/16""
Festool designation, eg "HS 60/1.2 bi 25/pack"
Festool Order Number, eg "488016"
Bosch designation, eg "T118AF"
Festool also has a
brochure which gives a summary of the details.
DeWalt has a similar list at
http://www.dewalt.co.uk/accessories/productoverview/hierarchy/2151/ which leads you to specifications for their blades and also includes the Bosch T-number. For example:
DT2221 Specifications
Applications: Fast straight cuts in aluminium, plastics, pipes and profiles. Extra long cutting life
Overall Length: 100 mm
Working Length: 70 mm
Tooth Pitch: 3.0 mm
Max Depth of cut: 30 mm
Equivalent Bosch Ref: T127DF
Pack Qty: 3
M.O.Q.: 1
Bosch themselves have got a very wide selection of well-regarded jigsaw blades, and you can browse through them if you start at
http://www.bosch-pt.co.uk/accboptocs2-uk/Category.jsp Again, you will be able to get detailed specifications for each blade, including the Bosch part Number and the "universal" T-number.
Bosch helpfully print details of the suggested application on the blade in English, eg "Flexible for metal", or "Special for fiber and plaster", and although the printing will wear off in use, the "T number" is printed on the part of the blade that goes into the blade holder so you can nearly always identify a worn blade.
As regards Makita, you may have to Google the part number to find out the specifications of each blade, but a start could be
http://www.ukindustry.co.uk/makita/Jigsaw_Blades___Universal.htm which gives useful information for many Makita blades as per the following example. Note how the equivalent Bosch T-number is given:
A-85743 B-23 Pack of 5 Jigsaw Blades - A85743 B23
Equiv to T118B. Suitable for mild steel, wood, decorative veneers and non-ferrous materials. Compatible as above. Milled and wavy set teeth
Forrest
