Check out these cuts, then guess.

[Rick Potter]

Needed to make a slot for a breadboard in the kitchen I am building. Decided to do it by drilling a hole on each end, and making inside cuts for the slot. I made some practice cuts on junk imported plywood first.


First picture is the bottom side of the practice cut on the junk plywood.
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Second picture is top side of the plywood cut. Clean, huh? Note that the plywood is cut cross grain.
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Last picture is one of the plywood pieces at the rear, and the actual cutout of the oak breadboard slot at the front.
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Now for the guesswork. What power tool did I make the cuts with??

Rick Potter
Answer in next post.

[Rick Potter]

Bet nobody guessed this one.

270883 270884


Yup, my latest acquisition, a Rockwell Blade Runner, $40 on CL. I couldn't believe how great it worked, even managed to get the little fence set right. This was done with a new Bosch blade. If anyone is interested, I can look up the number, it was just a normal smooth cut blade.. I threw away all the blades that came with the machine. They are junk.

I hooked my shop vac to it, and dust collection worked pretty good too.

OOPS, one mistake in the first post, that is not import plywood, it is domestic. Cuts in the imported were great too.

Rick Potter

[david brum]

So Rick--you're getting cuts that clean with a jigsaw blade? If so, I definitely need to re-think my plywood cutting strategy.

[Rick Potter]

Yup, David,

Pieces are not sanded at all, and both sides of the cut are as they came off the saw. Maybe we should both consider an old Sears saber saw adaptor to fit a track saw track:D.

Rick Potter

PS: I just went out and checked. Plywood cuts were made with a Bosch T101B blade...10 TPI fine wood 'clean cut' model.
I also put a T244D blade in, and made a couple cuts. Pretty darn good cut too, and it's a 'fast cut' 6TPI blade

By the way, I read an article on jigsaw blades, forget where. The author said that normally we only need two blades......a Bosch 101B for regular work, and a Bosch 119BO, 12TPI for scrolling. Bosch also makes the 101B in an 'R'model that has reverse teeth for laminates

[Peter Quinn]

Yup, David,

Pieces are not sanded at all, and both sides of the cut are as they came off the saw. Maybe we should both consider an old Sears saber saw adaptor to fit a track saw track:D.

Rick Potter

PS: I just went out and checked. Plywood cuts were made with a Bosch T101B blade...10 TPI fine wood 'clean cut' model.
I also put a T244D blade in, and made a couple cuts. Pretty darn good cut too, and it's a 'fast cut' 6TPI blade

By the way, I read an article on jigsaw blades, forget where. The author said that normally we only need two blades......a Bosch 101B for regular work, and a Bosch 119BO, 12TPI for scrolling. Bosch also makes the 101B in an 'R'model that has reverse teeth for laminates


I always thought that looked like a pretty cool saw, nice to see its working for you. It occurs to me that the author of the "jig saw blade" article must be doing different work than me.......because when I'm cutting out an inside radius on 10/4 counter tops, I'm not using a T101B or a scrolling blade. I probably have about a dozen blades in my arsenal, a few of them from festool who make fantastic blades, particularly in the large and beefy end of the cutting pool. The bosch 101AO is probably the one I use the most, its my favorite for coping and lots of fine cuts in more delicate objects.