Which Carvex blade ?

[Rick Herrick]

Don't do much jigsaw work so haven't jumped on a good unit yet.  Got a request from my daughter for some large, block letters that she wants for her nursery so I bought the battery, barrel grip Carvex.  I will be doing initial work with 3/4" plywood.  I see Festool has a big bunch of different wood blades.  Can anyone suggest the best one for this project? This won't be intricate work, just fairly simple curves.  Thanks for any pointers.

 

[woodbutcherbower]

For curved or scrolling cuts, you’ll need a blade with a thin kerf and a minimal front to back depth. Best IMO are the Bosch T101AO which fits the Carvex. They usually come in a pack of 5 and they aren’t expensive.

 

[rst]

Agree with wood butcher, Bosch blades are best , ditto with oscillating blades

 

[4nthony]

Festool has the S 75 for curves.

The attached blade finder PDF was shared with me on here and has some useful info.

 

[woodbutcherbower]

Most Festool consumables are crazy-expensive - in this case, 3x the price of Bosch blades.

I rest my case, your honour …

 

[Rick Herrick]

Thanks for the tip on Bosch blades and also for the PDF on the Festool line up.  Spent a couple hours yesterday with the new saw and really not sure I am keeping it.  The biggest issue for me is I can't see where I am cutting.  I watched a Sedge video on how he did it and I tried that but its still not good enough for the results I want.  Also regretting the battery version, it just adds too much to the bottom so I can't get the grasp I want.  Also not very impressed with the DC.  Will try to find some Bosch blades first but the fact I can't see my cut line very easily will turn out to be a big issue for me since my eyes aren't that great to begin with.  Thanks again for the tips guys.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Thanks for the tip on Bosch blades and also for the PDF on the Festool line up.  Spent a couple hours yesterday with the new saw and really not sure I am keeping it.  The biggest issue for me is I can't see where I am cutting.  I watched a Sedge video on how he did it and I tried that but its still not good enough for the results I want.  Also regretting the battery version, it just adds too much to the bottom so I can't get the grasp I want.  Also not very impressed with the DC.  Will try to find some Bosch blades first but the fact I can't see my cut line very easily will turn out to be a big issue for me since my eyes aren't that great to begin with.  Thanks again for the tips guys.

My experience is based on the corded model, so I can't comment on the battery/grip difference, but I like the barrel grip far more than the old Bosch that I had before. The dust collection is kind of a gray area? It works, but you have to pause once in a while to allow it to clear totally. The Bosch actually blows the chips away, that works also, probably better as far as seeing the cut line continuously. It is not however collecting that dust. That is the choice one needs to make.

 

[woodbutcherbower]

Thanks for the tip on Bosch blades and also for the PDF on the Festool line up.  Spent a couple hours yesterday with the new saw and really not sure I am keeping it.  The biggest issue for me is I can't see where I am cutting.  I watched a Sedge video on how he did it and I tried that but its still not good enough for the results I want.  Also regretting the battery version, it just adds too much to the bottom so I can't get the grasp I want.  Also not very impressed with the DC.  Will try to find some Bosch blades first but the fact I can't see my cut line very easily will turn out to be a big issue for me since my eyes aren't that great to begin with.  Thanks again for the tips guys.

[member=72312]Rick Herrick[/member] Even amongst Festool diehards, the Carvex seems to be the one machine where opinions are wildly divided. Try and seek out a Mafell dealer and try their P1CC. For many people (myself included) - this is a machine in a league all of its own - and in particular (given your expressed blade visibility concern) it has a neat feature where the base can be unlocked, slid backwards, and re-locked in this new position, effectively putting the blade right at the front end of the saw in open space. They did this to enable the machine to cut very close up to a vertical surface, but perfect blade visibility is an added bonus. Hope you get fixed up.

 

[RJNeal]

Most of the time, where as I need to watch closely, I run the saw upside down and cut from the bottom. Hold it tight to your work and follow the blade from the top.
Hope this helps.

 

[kitfit1]

Most of the time, where as I need to watch closely, I run the saw upside down and cut from the bottom. Hold it tight to your work and follow the blade from the top.
Hope this helps.

In my mind, that is a very silly and dangerous thing to do. Just buy some Bosch T101BR's. At £4.91 for a pack of 5 it's a no brainer.

 

[Cheese]

The Bosch actually blows the chips away, that works also, probably better as far as seeing the cut line continuously. It is not however collecting that dust. That is the choice one needs to make.

Directly related to this comment, another nice feature of the Mafell is that it blows the saw dust across the blade to a dust collection port on the other side of the saw. So it is keeping the cut line clean while also vacuuming up the saw dust at the same time.  [smile]

 

[Michael Kellough]

Most of the time, where as I need to watch closely, I run the saw upside down and cut from the bottom. Hold it tight to your work and follow the blade from the top.
Hope this helps.

In my mind, that is a very silly and dangerous thing to do. Just buy some Bosch T101BR's. At £4.91 for a pack of 5 it's a no brainer.

There are times when the is no way to avoid marring the workpiece surface so the only way to cut is from below. Cutting from below also allows using a coarser faster cutting blade than the 101BR. And there is no dust accumulation to obscure the line.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Most of the time, where as I need to watch closely, I run the saw upside down and cut from the bottom. Hold it tight to your work and follow the blade from the top.
Hope this helps.

In my mind, that is a very silly and dangerous thing to do. Just buy some Bosch T101BR's. At £4.91 for a pack of 5 it's a no brainer.

It does sound that way, but it is actually a very common practice. In fact that it exactly the reason that the light shuts off when the machine is upside-down. Countertop guys do this when cutting out sink hole in laminate tops. This greatly reduces the chances of chipping the laminate.
Yes, they make downward cutting blades and they are in a word....junk. Everything about the cutting action of a jigsaw absolutely hates the backward teeth. The pendulum action works against  the cutting, though you can turn that off, but then what? The saw also wants to buck and kick back because the cutting action is pushing up, rather than pulling against the saw's base plate. The blade will also wander because there is no tension applied to it during the cut. Seems like a good idea, but it's just not.