Dumbass DIY question number 1001...

[RobL]

Hey all

 

My late father had a few tools in his shed that are still just about usable...

 

One of which was a Challenge Xtreme Jigsaw - bought from Argos.

 

There's a couple of dials on it that I'm not sure what they do, and I can't source a manual from t'interwebz, so I'm wondering if anyone here can shed some light on the matter?

 

The dials in question are the orange one on the side, and the orange one on the top, as seen in the pictures below.  The top dial goes from 1 to Max, the bottom, from 0 to 6 or something -

 

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for any help on this, I'm guessing they're standard jigsaw controls common to all jigsaws, but I'm no trades person or DIYist, so I don't have a clue about these things!

Edited May 11, 2022 by RobL

[Jockster]

The one on top will be the speed of the cutting action, 1 for slow, 10 for fast.

The one on the side will be for the length of the cutting stroke, 1 for short, 6 for long. 

There are many types of blades, for woods and plastics to metals and different lengths to, choose carefully and trying various speeds and cut strokes and you will have a very useful diy tool.

There should also be a guide plate too, like a T shaped rule that fits forward of the blade under that black thumb screw on the base plate. This helps with producing parallel cuts.

 

Hope this helps.

[RobL]

Ah right, thanks for that.  Seems simple enough, stroke length being how far down the blade goes per cut, and speed how fast the blade goes up and down. 👍

[Jockster]

I forgot to say, you should be able to change the angle of the base plate so that you can cut chamfers, always check that you have the plate at 90° to the blade for normal cutting.

[hairystick]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:55 PM, Jockster said:

The one on the side will be for the length of the cutting stroke, 1 for short, 6 for long. 

I doubt this very much. I have never seen a jigsaw with any form of adjustable "depth" function.

The adjustment on the side is normally for blade undercut. Essentially this permist the blade to go down - then sweep forwards and up. The intention is for cutting long straight cuts this improves the cutting action.

Normally 0 for blade "straight up & down" and other numbers for increasing amount of undercut.

 

Edit: Just found this, which me help with the explanation.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by hairystick

[Jockster]

Every day is a school day! Many years ago, back in the 80s, I had a jigsaw that had a variable stroke, but not variable speed, lent it out and never saw it again, it was heavy and great for cutting aluminium. Cannot remember who made it.