Friday, September 17, 2010 Bosch 52318 18 Volt JigSaw with 1 Battery Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Years ago I bought my first cordless tools, one a screwdriver and the other a light.Both wound up on the trash heap because it seemed like they spent more time on the charger than in actual use.How times have changed!First 3, 6, & 9V, then 14, 15, 18, 24V. Wow!... talk about power and convenience.As an old time retired contractor (I'm an active 73 yrs. young) I sometime feel like I should begin a movement to erect a national monument to whomever it was that started this cordless tool thing.Talk about utility and convenience!No more frayed or tangled cords (or worrying about cutting through one accidentally) or finding a close enough electrical outlet.This is real freedom from the tyranny of the cord.
Those are the reasons why this Bosch 18V cordless Jig Saw is only the latest to join the arsenal of cordless tools I am accumulating.
While admittedly it might be a mite rich for some pocketbooks, once you have one in your hand you discover that the legendary quality of Bosch comes shining through.And if you admire superb tool engineering as I do you will love this tool.
My last Bosch jig saw was purchased over 15 years ago and today it still provides the same dependable service as the day I bought it.If I had one complaint about the old one (a minor one) it was that I couldn't always remember where I put the long and thin shafted screw driver that I needed to change out the blade.
Well, in the cordless model, Bosch solved this problem in spades.The new blade locking and eject system firmly locks the blade in place and spits out the old blade when you want to do a change out like a ball player ejecting a "chaw."
But the convenience doesn't stop there: the balance is excellent with the placement of the battery (more about the battery later) providing just the right amount of ballast to help keep the weight of the saw on the work surface without the operator having to press harder, thereby allowing more control of the cut.
When you have to do some jig sawing on a surface that you don't want to mar, Bosch provides an easily slipped on smooth plastic cover for the base plate that lets you glide across the surface leaving nary a trace behind.Not a big deal but certainly beats having to look for some masking tape to put over the base plate to protect a delicate surface.The three-position blade selector, which controls the tilt angle of the blade may not be new, but these are: A built in blower to keep the area ahead of the blade clean and the blade guard for the blade to help prevent you from losing a digit are both conveniences that were lacking on my older corded model.Thanks Bosch!
The NiMH battery seems to take forever to run down and when it's completely discharged you're looking at about an hour to recharge.Of course since the battery is NiMH , you can put it on the charger whenever the tool is idle, since unlike the NiCad there is no memory problem
All in all this is a superbly crafted and well engineered tool and even though I have not had it in my possession very long you can rest assured that it will get the same hard (not abused) workout the other saw got and I feel confident it will work just as efficiently and dependably as its corded mate.Nuff said!

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