Reciprocating Saws

[RichZ]

I really need to get a reciprocating saw. It's not a tool that I use often, but when you need it, you need it. I had a Harbor Frieght "heavy duty" model, and for my infrequent use on the farm, it was fine, until I had a roofing project, and spent a few hours cutting the edges off of existing roofing. The head of the saw just broke after several hours of continous use.

So, I think I need something a bit sturdier. Are the cordless reciprocating saws any good? Having one of those sure would come in handy, but I wonder if they have enough power. Anyone have one that they like?

Thanks!!!

 

[Robert_in_NY]

We have a 18v DeWalt we use on our jobsites a lot and it has held up great over the 4 or 5 years we have had it. They have plenty of power and are extremely handy around a farm.

 

[ray66v]

B&D DeWalt make good tools. However; my complaint is, 10 years after the specific type number is out of production, your on your own. They can offer only sympathy if you need parts, even a simple switch. They have done this to me several times now, so I avoid their tools.

If you buy a good tool, you don't expect it to have an expatriation date on it. While I don't expect to be able to use it forever, it is certainly reasonable to expect to be able to buy a switch or brushes, after you have invested good money for a tool.

If you don't use it a lot, you could end up, like me. Tossing a like new, barely used tool, in the trash, over a defective switch you can't get anymore.

Milwaukee on the other hand has gotten me parts for tools over 30 years old. While this is, above and beyond the call, it is appreciated.

 

[gc2310]

Milwaukee is the only one.

 

[SnowRidge]

Bosch makes a 24 volt reciprocating saw I would love to have. You can get in a circular saw/reciprocating saw kit. It gets good reviews. I have never had a problem with Bosch products.

Hmmm, Xmas is coming up.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have a Makita 18 volt with the Ion Lithium batteries. I have four batteries and had to have two charging while cutting a cast iron tub in half with it. Any battery powered sawzall tha twill cut a tub in half passes my extreme duty test!!!!

I used to have a Porter Cable sawzall, but I wont recomend that brand to anybody.

My more powerful, corded sawzall is a Milwakee. It's a beast and has more power then I have muscle to control it. With an aggressive blade on it, you can cut through lumber and nails without knowing the difference.

While cutting that tub in half, I kept kicking myself in the rear for forgetting to bring it that day!!!!!!!

Eddie

 

[aczlan]

My more powerful, corded sawzall is a Milwakee. It's a beast and has more power then I have muscle to control it. With an aggressive blade on it, you can cut through lumber and nails without knowing the difference.

While cutting that tub in half, I kept kicking myself in the rear for forgetting to bring it that day!!!!!!!

I cant agree more, I used to work for a guy who had a corded and a 18v cordless Dewalt sawzall, the corded one always had more power, the cordless one was ok, very handy to move around to work on stuff but if you needed to cut something big today, the corded one won hands down.

Aaron Z

 

[SnowRidge]

..........
I used to have a Porter Cable sawzall, but I wont recomend that brand to anybody.

.........

What kind of problems did you have with the Porter Cable saw? You just say you won't recommend the brand. Why not?

I have owned a corded Porter Cable Tiger Saw for years. I have never had any problems with it. I used to use Milwaukee Sawzalls on the job, and my Porter Cable works as well as the Milwaukees did.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've had several Porter Cable tools, and they have all wore out on me fairly quickly. The Tiger Saw, or sawzall, had the metal guard at the end break from fatigue within a year of buying it. Then the motor burned up on me while cutting some rafters in an attic. It was warm up there, but mostly just uncomfortable. The motor started loosing power and then it started smoking.

The quarter sheet sander worked pretty good, but would get hot after allot of use. Then one day, it just didn't turn on for me. I spent a few minutes taking it apart to check out the switch, but that worked fine. The motor was getting power, it just didn't do anything.

The brad nailer was one that I really liked and only had minor issues with it not being 100% on driving the brads in to the same depth all the time. If I was doing trim work with it, I could expect at least two or three brads that wouldn't counter sink like the rest.

Then it got worse. I would stop and add more oil to it and that helped for awhile, but even that stoped helping. A few weeks ago, I gave it to my son to take apart and make into small pieces.

Of those three Porter Cable tools, all three failed on me before I thought they should. I go through tools fairly quickly in my opinion, but some just die sooner then others. I like Makita, Bosch and DeWalt. I'm having good luck with Hitachi, but only have two of them right now. Of the Milwakee stuff that I have, I'm good with some of it, but dissapointed in an orbital sander that I bought. It just doesn't have any power to it. The DeWalt that I bought to replace it is doing great.

Makita is more money then DeWalt, and is a better brand in both power, smoothness and fit. It's a tough call on which one I'll buy, but depending on how often I use it and rely on it really desides which way I'll go.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

One of my brothers had a Milwaukee Sawzall that I've used, and like Eddie said, it was a beast. Personally, I have a corded Makita, a JR3000VT that I've had over 5 years; only cost $95.69 including tax at Lowe's on 7/18/2003, and while I wouldn't say it's been used a lot, I've cut lumber to build a small deck, cut up a older bigger deck to dispose of it, and done a lot of tree pruning.

I've been very happy with my Makita, but it's big enough and heavy enough that I almost need both hands on it while last summer I was helping a son-in-law on a remodeling job and he has a cordless Ryobi that was lighter, easier to use, and so far has held up just fine.

 

[RichZ]

My concern with any cordless tools are the dang batteries. I've had a bunch of cordless drills. I had two DeWalts, and the batteries only lasted a couple of years on each(and on one the head also broke). Right now I have a 18 Volt Hitachi cordless drill, and I'm very happy with the drill, but I've had it 2 years, and the batteries won't hold a charge for more than a couple of days, now, when it's not in use. I like to keep it charged and ready to use, but I need to charge up the batteries before I use them. Once they're charged, I can use them as long as I ever did, but they used to hold a charge, when not in use, for weeks, now if I don't use it in a few days, I know the batteries will be dead.

So, I'd like to find a cordless reciprocating saw where the batteries will last for at least a few years. The reciprocating saw won't get as much use as my drill, which I sometimes use daily, but always at least weekly. On a farm, there's always something that needs work where you need a drill. I do expect to use the saw pretty often.

 

[jdbower]

I keep all my tools Dewalt, if one breaks 10 years after it goes out of production that just means I need to get a new one - after 10+ years I figure it's fully amortized anyway The other nice thing is that I've got a slew of Dewalt 18V batteries so if one fails it's no big deal. In fact, I've found it to be much more cost effective to buy a new tool (which usually comes with a battery or two) instead of buying just a battery, this is especially the case with their 7.2V screwguns since the kit with two batteries is about the same price as two individual batteries. The 18V set works great for most things, but I think any future purchases may be their 36V collection just because it's there. Cordless is fantastic for most tools because I tend to use them in the field where there may be no outlets. A reciprocating saw is especially useful to have cordless when you get a branch trimming blade for it.

One thing to help LION batteries survive is never to store them depleted and try to keep them charged routinely. A LION battery will cut out before it's out of juice, but it (like all batteries) will continue to discharge during storage. If it ever fully runs out of electrons the battery will become a paperweight.

 

[EddieWalker]

My batteries are about a year and a half old, so I don't know how much longer I have with them. I use them almost daily, so it's just a matter of time until they will no longer hold a charge. Some of the things that I like about the Lithium Ion batteries are their compact size. While still bulky, they fit in my tool belt so I can carry an extra with me when I'm in a dificult to get to location. The Sawzall does eat up a charge on a battery fairly quickly when compared to the drill. I also like how quickly they charge up again after being used up. Without an actual timer on them, I guess it's about 20 minutes, though sometimes it seems faster. With four batteries and two chargers, I've never had an issue waiting for a charged battery when I'm working hard. I also have two drills. It's faster and easier allot of times when drilling pilot holes and then screwing the wood together this way. I also like to leave them at different locations on the job is that's what's needed. I've never used any of the 24 or stronger batteries, so I don't know about them. I have plenty of power with 18 volts and don't see any need to change.

I did use a Ryobi set one time, but was pretty disapointed in it. Just no comparison to Makita. I bought mine on ebay after deciding what I wanted. It was a substantial savings over Lowes and other online stores. Just be sure you know what you want first and look up those model numbers. Sometimes ebay has great prices on new tools, sometimes not when you add shipping or other charges they add.

Good luck
Eddie

 

[czechsonofagun]

+1 for Milwaukee

 

[QRTRHRS]

I seldom reach for my 20 or so year old Milwaukee Sawzall after I bought a Milwaukee 18V combo kit a few years ago. The old corded Sawzall still cuts like a champ but the vibration is a killer. I understand that newer corded models have much better dampening. Anyway, the 18V is so smooth and easy to take up a ladder, etc.

 

[ScottAR]

We've got two Dewalts. A 24v cordless and a 9 amp(??) corded... They both give good service. If I was only buying one, I'd get a corded. The cordless is handy as a pocket knife but lacks the cajones of the corded model.

My uncle has a newish Milwaukee corded and I really like the quick change blade. It
also has plenty of power.

 

[dmccarty]

I bought an 18v Dewalt recip saw. It got the job done.

I have a few Dewalt 18V tools, Circular saw, drill, and recip saw. The batteries have been dead a few years now and I have not replaced them. I found my cheap B&W drill ran faster and drove screws further than the 18V. It certainly is not as convienient but those 18v batteries are danged expensive even if you can find them on sale.

What really made me iffy about battery power tools was when I last used the 18V drill. I went and drilled some holes. Put the battery back in the charger as usual. The chargers where in the utility room with wall cabinents right above them. I was walking around the house and started smelling something. The smell got worse and I had not been eating chili. So started looking around the house some more. Eventually I found the source. The battery I just put in the charge was smoking very badly. It was too hot to hold so I just unplugged the charger and put the battery outside and left it to cool off. The battery was MELTED.

I would have hoped that eventually the circuit would have tripped. I'm guessing something shorted out in the battery. That battery was about to catch on fire. And if it had caught on fire I think it would have spread to the wall cabinent and then burned down the house.

That was a couple of years ago and I have manage to live without having cordless tools. Having to pay for 18v batteries and then having to wonder if they will burn down the house makes it easy to not buy any at all.

Later,
Dan

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I bought an 18v Dewalt recip saw. It got the job done.

I have a few Dewalt 18V tools, Circular saw, drill, and recip saw. The batteries have been dead a few years now and I have not replaced them. I found my cheap B&W drill ran faster and drove screws further than the 18V. It certainly is not as convienient but those 18v batteries are danged expensive even if you can find them on sale.

What really made me iffy about battery power tools was when I last used the 18V drill. I went and drilled some holes. Put the battery back in the charger as usual. The chargers where in the utility room with wall cabinents right above them. I was walking around the house and started smelling something. The smell got worse and I had not been eating chili. So started looking around the house some more. Eventually I found the source. The battery I just put in the charge was smoking very badly. It was too hot to hold so I just unplugged the charger and put the battery outside and left it to cool off. The battery was MELTED.

I would have hoped that eventually the circuit would have tripped. I'm guessing something shorted out in the battery. That battery was about to catch on fire. And if it had caught on fire I think it would have spread to the wall cabinent and then burned down the house.

That was a couple of years ago and I have manage to live without having cordless tools. Having to pay for 18v batteries and then having to wonder if they will burn down the house makes it easy to not buy any at all.

Later,
Dan

Corded tools are generally more powerful then cordless and depending on our needs will dictate which tools we pull out. Also, cordless tools are handy like you said but generally are not needed by the average home owner who only uses these tools every now and then. Contractors see the advantage of cordless tools and even buying new batteries every few years is still worth it. Usually, by the time you pull the corded tools out and get an extension cord and plug it in (if you can find an outlet handy that is), run the cord keeping it out of the way of others, having the plug come apart (older extension cords are not fun) you could be done with the cordless tool and have it put back in the truck before you drill the first hole with the corded unit. But when we have to drill hundreds of holes we pull the cords out and use the corded units or if we have to cut a lot of lumber the corded circular saw comes out. But I think you are right in the fact you do not miss the cordless tools for the amount of use you have. However, I would miss them a great deal if I don't have them with me as I use tools every day.

 

[caver]

+1 on the Milwaukee corded unit. I bought one before Lowes quit carrying Milwaukee and now wondered why I didn't buy it years ago. I've found found more uses for it than I originally realized.

 

[LBrown59]

+1 on the Milwaukee corded unit. I bought one before Lowes quit carrying Milwaukee and now wondered why I didn't buy it years ago. I've found found more uses for it than I originally realized.

Every time I use my saws all i tell myself or my wife i wonder how i ever got along without it.