How to use a jigsaw: tips from the master

The presence in the household of a variety of processing tools, including those with an electric drive, allows a large number of operations to be performed, for example, for sawing semi-finished wooden products and joinery.

To perform beautiful and useful things from or other material, you need to know how to use a jigsaw correctly and not make mistakes.

To do this, you will need to familiarize yourself with the tool itself and its capabilities.

A hand-held power tool designed to work on sheet materials is called a jigsaw.

The mechanical device allows you to make straight and curved cuts of various lengths, while, depending on the material being processed, the depth can reach 80–100 mm.

The handmade product consists of:

Support sole, which is a metal plane. Other elements of the tool are installed on it.
The body is made of high-strength polymer materials. Equipped with two types of handles - "bracket" or "mushroom". The motor, most often used in the form of UKD, is a universal collector motor that can be powered by a constant or variable current.
The cutting tool drive mechanism - converts the rotary motion from the engine into a reciprocating one.
Reducer - designed to regulate the cutting speed, which depends on the engine speed.
Pendulum stroke, accelerates cutting mode. Applicable only for straight cuts. But with this method, the quality of the cut deteriorates, so they try not to use it for materials that have a finishing side, for example, laminated flooring, furniture chipboard and others.

Some professional models are equipped with a device for connecting an external mechanism for forced chip evacuation.

Types of processed material

The jigsaw can be used with the following types:

wood of various tree species and products from it
metal - black, stainless, non-ferrous and their alloys
polymers - all types of hard plastics, hardboard, cement-bonded particle boards
slate, glass, ceramics and many other substances

Cutting tool

Engine power affects:

on the thickness and types of processed material
for cutting speed
duration of work

Cut quality and productivity depend on the correct choice of saw blade:

When processing wood materials, a tool with a length of 50–150 mm with a medium or large tooth of 3–6.5 mm is used. Larger sizes are used for rough sawing soft, smaller sizes for precise sawing. Laminate is best done with a small to medium sized tool that has a straight slope. On the side surface of the blade, some manufacturers carry the mark “clean for wood”.
Metal products are processed with a fine-toothed file. The length of the product does not exceed 75 mm, since the cut thickness does not exceed 3-5 mm. The tool can be marked, in the area of the shank, with blue paint and have the inscription "for metal - tool for metal". The shallowest tooth indicates whether the file is designed to work with ferrous metal or stainless steel. Larger - the tool is used for non-ferrous metals, their alloys, or they can cut hard types of plastic.
To make a curved cut, for example, a hole with a small radius (less than 10-15 cm), it is more convenient to use a file for curved sawing. The tool has a small tooth. A characteristic feature is a narrow canvas. This is necessary so that the file goes through various turns without clamping.
The tile is cut with a diamond or other coated file. As such, the tool does not have a tooth. The side surface of the blade can be marked "special for ceramics - especially for ceramics".

Saws vary in thickness. The larger size is used for working with wood and polymers, the smaller one for metals.

Working hours

For domestic purposes, a jigsaw equipped with a motor with a power of up to 500-650 W is quite enough.

You can purchase a more equipped power tool, but for most operations for purposes, this will be superfluous - with an increase in engine power, the price of a tool also increases.

All this must be remembered before using the jigsaw at home.

The home craftsman is most often faced with a limited range of operations and materials to be processed:

sawing wood
metal cutting
polymer processing
work with tiles

Sawing wood

In everyday life, products from coniferous or deciduous trees are most often processed. These include pine, spruce, birch, aspen, linden. They are soft, loose, so you can use high-speed modes.

Hardwoods - oak, beech or larch must be cut at low speeds, otherwise the power tool will overheat or simply cannot perform its functions.

It is advisable to apply the same modes to products with a hardened composition, for example, laminated flooring.

Thick parts such as boards or doors are cut at low cutting speeds. The choice of this mode is due to the fact that the cutting tool has significant loads that deflect it from the main direction of the cut.

The pendulum motion is advisable to use in the following cases:

the mode is turned off when processing wood with a thickness of up to 25-30 mm
position I is set for boards with dimensions of 30-50 mm
position II corresponds to values over 40-60 mm

When using a pendulum mechanism, it should be remembered that with an increase in the processing speed, the cleanliness of the cut deteriorates. Hence the recommendations arose - laminate, parquet board, furniture chipboard and similar materials are processed without a pendulum mechanism.

It is advisable to cut laminate flooring at medium and low cutting rates. To protect it from chips and get a clean cut, the workpiece is turned over or a file with a straight tooth is used.

Metal cutting

During processing, it is necessary to perform a number of operations:

securely fix the workpiece
use a file designed for work only with this or that type of metal
feed rate should not be more than 30-35% of the maximum
with a cutting length of more than 10–20 mm and a metal thickness of 3–6 mm, a cooling and lubricating emulsion should be added to the cutting zone, this will improve the operating mode of the cutting tool and extend its service life
in the case of large volumes of work, it is necessary to take a break to cool the power tool

In general, metal cutting is a time consuming operation that requires patience and time.

Polymer processing

Polymer materials - hardboard, textolite, various types of sheet, plexiglass and others, differ in softness and low mechanical strength.

The conclusion suggests itself that the processing of products from such material can be carried out at high cutting conditions.

But this opinion is wrong.

Due to its weak strength properties, plastic is characterized by the formation of chips and microcracks in the cut area, therefore, the processing speed should not exceed average values.

Another limitation is due to the increased viscosity.

This causes an increase in frictional forces, which, in turn, being converted into heat energy, begin to melt the workpiece.

The use of fine-tooth files and low cutting speed contribute to the reduction of negative effects.

Working with tiles

Ceramic materials require careful handling when handling them. Possessing high hardness, they suffer from low mechanical strength - an analogy with ordinary glass suggests itself. Easily transferring static loads, it bursts from a small but sharp impact. This implies a number of requirements:

it is necessary to place as large an area of the product as possible on the supporting surface
use a jigsaw to create curvilinear ones - it is better to perform straight cuts with a specialized tool, for example, a tile cutter
processing at low speeds, while avoiding overheating of the tool and the product itself
in the process of work, it is necessary to ensure that shock loads do not occur - that is, the jigsaw should be fed smoothly, without jerks

With significant volumes of operations, it is advisable to build a small workbench on which it will be possible to process tiles. This will allow you to unload the product as much as possible and increase ease of use.

Features of working with other materials

From the above information, it becomes clear that the determining factors when processing any material are:

selection of the required cutting tool
properties of the processed
cutting depth

Therefore, when working with new or unfamiliar materials, first of all, you need to attend to the correct choice of cutting tools. When selecting, it is necessary to be guided by the rule - a cutter for hard and durable material is suitable for cutting soft.

In other words, a laminate file can be used to cut, for example, plywood. And vice versa - using a cutting tool for boards, you can easily spoil not only the processed laminate, but also quickly blunt the file.

Advice 1. A person is designed in such a way that, in addition to reading, he wants to hear and see with his own eyes. Then you can see how to use the jigsaw in the video:

Advice 2. You can get a smooth and clean cut only by working with a serviceable power tool. Hence the conclusion - before starting the operation, it is necessary to check its performance.

Advice 3. Carefully, observing safety precautions, you can check the sharpness of the saw teeth with your fingers. Flattened peaks indicate that the cutting tool is unusable. such a file creates increased loads on the electric drive, which causes a reduction in the service life of the jigsaw.

Tip 4. In the process of work, the entire plane of the sole of the jigsaw should come into contact with the workpiece, - this will contribute to the cleanliness of the cut and the absence of vibration.

Tip 5. When processing thin sheet material, it is advisable to use an unnecessary piece of plywood as a backing. This will avoid vibration and rattling of the sheet metal. In addition, this method will prevent deformation of the product.

In order to fully master the rules of working with a jigsaw and get the skills to operate it, you need to know the tool itself well, be able to set the required operating modes, and use the desired file. But no theoretical knowledge will cost anything if you do not apply it in practice - therefore practice, practice and practice again.

Have you noticed a mistake? Highlight it and press Ctrl + Enter to let us know.