> >Nowadays I notice more
> >of the Sawzall type tools appearing (in the UK). These are still fairly
> >foreign tools to us so I was wondering what they are used for on home
> >territory.
One of the ISOA members dubbed it "the tool without a conscience" ;-)
It's for getting tough jobs done. Once I bought one, I wondered why I
didn't have one 30 years before.
Some guys have complained about blade life. I've tried lots of brands of
blades, and my Milwaukee Sawzall now gets a steady diet of DeWalt blades,
except when I need some specialty blade that DeWalt doesn't make. They're
much cheaper than Milwaukee blades, and in my experience outlast them by 4
times or more. None of the other hardware store brand has ever lasted long
for me at all. Maybe there's another industrial brand someplace, but the
supply places where I trade pretty much all carry Milwaukee, so I wind up at
Home Depot or the DeWalt store picking up the yellow blades.
No contest on the Sawzall itself, though - no far eastern stuff could ever
take what that Sawzall has been through, and it still runs great.. I've
abused my 12-amp Sawzall incredibly, and it just keeps going. It's fallen
20 feet out of a tree, sawed buried 6" tree roots underground for hours at a
time till the saw was too hot to hold, eaten tons of plaster and metal
filings showering down onto and into it - you name it. Like an old Timex,
it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
It's not intended for precision cutting, but that limitation is strictly
because of blade flex. With a stiffer blade and some care, you can do
impressively straight cuts or follow most any kind of shape closely.
Karl
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