Woodworking

I'm surprised that you've had problems with your precision control mechanism.  It's also the reason I bought mine.  I find the adjustment simple, intuitive and reliable.

Do you think perhaps it's tightening the guides on the blade too much?  I previously had a Festool PS300 jigsaw, which had a similar but manually set pair of ceramic guides that gave me no end of trouble.  They were always either too loose or too tight, which caused wayward cutting or blade overheating respectively. If they're too tight the blade gets very hot, causing burning and blueing of the blade.

Curve cutting puts significant lateral and twisting stresses on the narrow blade:  even more so if the radii of your cuts is less than your blade is designed for.  Narrow blades for tight curves, fat blades for speed and straight cutting.  The sparking could also be a symptom of the guides doing their job, i.e. what they're designed to do.  Keeping the blade on-line and perpendicular, and compensating for these stresses.

I've always been mightily impressed with the performance of my GST135BCE, and find it far superior to all my other saws.  I have 5 in total, an old Elu, an AEG, the Festool previously mentioned, and a top of the line Metabo.  The last two were much more expensive than the Bosch, but pale in comparison. I regard that particular model as one of the best tools I own, and one of the best designed tools Bosch made!

Perhaps you should have it looked at. 

Hi Richard

The precision control is the big feature on this machine and they have kept the feature in the replacement: GST 140 BCE/CE . What blade are you using and what kind of application were you doing when it sparks. Depending on the blade you have fitted it could possibly be due to the orbit being too high for the blade and it is 'pinching' the teeth together on the down stroke. If you are doing preciese cuts then you could dial the orbit down for that cut.

I'm interested to see what combination is causing this for you.

Kind regards

The Bob Team

The issue only really happens when cutting worktops (for sinks and hobs). I have tried using thinner blades but found that it wanders somewhat. I tend to cut round the bends with the orbital setting off. I have tried used blades T244D speed for wood, T144DP precision for wood and T101B clean for wood and it has marked all the blades. As I say i'm very pleased with the rest of the jigsaw but the jury is still out on this particular feature. On another note, I purchased the GWS9-115 115mm angle grinder this week and have been very impressed with it. I have been using a 720W bosch grinder in the past and have found the extra power in this models motor really makes a difference.