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After my Makita died i thought hey i like my Dewalt miter saw lets get a jig saw.Bad choice it has some good features:power,comfortable grip.Ya thats it,blade pops out of the guide roller even on straight cuts,dust and shaveings build up so you cant see anything your doing, blade advance swithch is hard to set, seems to break alot of blades.Bought a $40 one at discount H. freight store made in "russia" and it work better that the Dewalt.
Unfortunetly I was wrong.this jigsaw is no good. I purchased this item and had to return it twice cause of mechanical failure. I had an Ace Hardware jig saw for the last 7 years which I bought for $20 and it did the job. Seek elsewhere. I wanted to treat myself with a new tool and always thought Dewalt was a quality brand.
This is a very disapointing tool (and was my last dewalt miss fortune).It is very hard to do a straight cut wihtout having the blade wandering. Even using a guide and a slow feed rate the cut is far from perfect.The sole doesn't retain the 90 degree setting which mean that you constantly have to check for squareness.
I recently purchased another Porter Cable Model #543 and I am am as happy with it as I was the first one I owned. One of them was my Porter Cable Model 543 jig saw. I had the misfortune of having several of my power tools stolen. I replaced it with this DeWalt version. The DeWalt is sitting in a closet and I can't think of anyone who I dislike enough to "give" this frustrating tool for free. After light use the sole plate was constantly sliding from the 90 degree locked position and anyone who tried to change blades were constantly frustrated and handing me back to tool to change the blade.
I can't say how long this saw will hold up and I will use a jigsaw before any other saw I have so it will get alot of use. After i use it more and with better blades I report back. I thought looking at the design and testing it it would be easy for the blade to leave the roller guide but in actual use the pressure from the blade against the roller held it in place even on curves. The reviews did not look too good for the dewalt 321 or the 318 but no one had bashed this model yet. The blade change works well , it's a U - shaped lever you lift and release , so removing a hot blade is easy and a new blade can be installed with one hand.
It has a adjustable dial in the trigger for variable speed , I need to get used to this , the bosch was a separate dial and electronic. It does not have a blower to push saw dust off the line but I noticed the motor cooling fan did a pretty good job on it's own. I realized i did not have the saw on orbit at all and once swithced it cut even faster and better along with a smoother finish cut. Not having the funds to spring for another new bosch at the present and since I can't live without a jigsaw this one looked like it may fit the bill. It is far above all the other jigsaws I saw even near this price.
I cut straight and curves in 3/4" hard crate wood which was knotty and had warp and was harder than pine and the saw did the job even with the cheap blade provided. It's not a bosch or a milwaukee but it does come close enough for me for now , it has plenty of power and is well made and the fit is as good as most dewalt tools or most other power tools at $180 in the jigsaw range. So I was surprised. My nice bosch was destroyed being run over in the parking lot which was a great loss to me.
The case the saw comes in seems sturdy and has room and it has a real hinge not a fold over break off flex hinge. I must admit when I got it I had doubts mainly because of the other dewalt model reviews and this saw did not have quite the same design as the bosch as far as the blade change and the shoe did not have positive locks as the bosch offers , but the 317 does offer a adjustable scale so once you set the base a perfect 90 degrees and adjust the scale to line up with that mark it cuts a 90 degree cut pretty well , at least i had no problem. I just got mine today so I have not alot of time invested in using it.
I was not certain about the blade guide since the other dewalt models seemed to present a blade drift problem on the 321 and 318. I don't see any reason it should not but i can't say at ths point . For now it does do a real good job and I do hope it remains this way.
I imagine with better quality blades this saw will work even better , I can't imagine why on earth dewalt would only provide one blade and such a cheap one at that , this does not reflex much thought to instill confidence in this saw. I read many reviews here tryong to decide which would be the best buy for the money I had. The saw does not vibrate any more than the bosch did and I usually cut at about the middle speed but even on high the vibration was no worse than the bosch.
One nice feature is the way the front of the handle rounds down , it makes a real nice stable steering grip , not a tall block like many others. I am not concerned with any cut other than the 90 dgree setting so a toolless base adjustment is useless to me.
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