Delivering quick and clean cuts in a timely manner has never been more important for tradies. Luckily, Bosch’s latest Brushless Jigsaws offer clean, accurate cuts quickly with little re-working and mucking around.
BOSCH’S BRUSHLESS JIGSAWS come in two variants: one with a barrel handle (GST 18V-155 SC) and one with a bow handled (GST 18V-155 BC). They’re perfect for builders and carpenters, particularly for specialists like cabinet makers and fitters.
SEE MORE: Tradie Tough Tests
Both jigsaws are cordless – best used with Bosch’s ProCORE 18V 4.0Ah batteries – and both have a 26mm stroke length. Both also sport features that help make for clean and accurate cuts with very little downtime. For this test, The Tradie met up with carpentry apprentice Angus Redfearn from Teak Building Co in Melbourne. Angus took us through some of the key features of both tools.
TEST #1: CUT FROM THE RIGHT CLOTH
Angus put both jigsaws to work on some merbau he was using for a patio, and both the bow- and barrel-handled jigsaws come with Bosch’s awesome sawblade-guidance design. Jaws at the baseplate hold the blade in place closer to the surface, so there’s no bend outside of the blade in the material.
“Both saws were making perfect cuts,” Angus said.
“The curved cuts were really good. Curves are one of the hardest things with jigsaws, and these ones handled the lateral resistance well.”
Adjusting the precision guide is super easy to do with an Alan key on the right-hand side of the baseplate. No matter the application, Bosch has tradies’ backs with a massive selection of blades. The HCS/HSS and bi-metal blade offerings can handle most wood and metal tasks, and for speciality materials like tiles and laminate, as well as some metals, Bosch has developed carbide blades.
TEST #2: SPEED DEMONS
Whether it’s making adjustments or replacing blades, tradies can waste a lot of time between cuts with some jigsaws. Thankfully, both brushless jigsaws from Bosch seek to get rid of as much downtime as possible. The bow-handled jigsaw comes with a variable-speed trigger which allows users to quickly shift from straight to curved cuts. Switching is double-sided so if tradies are using it at an angle or a left-handed, switching is still quick and easy.
“I found the switch fine for both,” Angus added.
Thanks to the precision controls mentioned earlier, the blades on both saws also last longer, and when you do need to switch up, it’s as simple as hitting the ejection lever for a quick swapping out.
“There’s so many little features that made things easy and quick,” Angus said.
There’s a lot of control from the screen interface on both tools, things like adaptive speed control (ASC) and switching the light on and off, but a number of things can also be easily adjusted from a phone – things like stroke limit and amount of speed limits if there’s only a few controls used regularly.
CUT TO THE CHASE
Bosch has made it easy to make quick cuts with little stress and fooling around with these jigsaws. Both the bow- and barrel-handled jigsaws are loaded with great features, and it’s also worth mentioning both jigsaws have a port for a dust adapter which makes clean up easy as.
CHECK IT OUT
Find out more by searching the new Bosch GST 18V-155 BC and GST 18v-155 SC cordless Jigsaws online.