Thread: Useless AEG reciprocating saw?

For a start AEG are not what they use to be second it is a compromise and in my opinion will never come up to a single unit machine, I would be checking the drive mechanism it is probably slipping in some way

The AEG Omnitool is very lightweight; "proper" recip saws rely on having a bit of mass to provide inertia; what this means is that your saw may be moving in and out at the same time and opposite to the blade moving in and out. I have an Ozito pruning saw that is very similar.

Try using the saw to cut some thickish timber such as a bit of 75 X 35 studding firmly held in a vice or clamped down to a table. Make sure the wire saw guard is held firmly against the timber too; don't try to just hold it in your hands and attempt to use the centre of the blade.

If the timber gets cut then then the issue is inertia (lack of) and you just need to adopt a cutting style to eliminate it. My little Ozito happily saws through 3" thick bloodwood branches but struggles with 1" paperbark unless I hold the branch really tightly and jam the saw up against it hard.

Another important specs for a reciprocating saw to be able to cut through thicker pieces is the stroke length, which is essential for clearing sawdust otherwise the saw sits there repeatedly mincing the same sawdust

The AEG 2V attachment only has a 12mm stroke which is pretty small.
The 18V AEG only has a 19 mm stroke which is also rather small compared to the 28 mm on the Makita 18V which just eats through stuff with the right blade.

I was looking at the DeWalt which is fairly light at 3.5kg compared to the equiv Makita and Bosch but even then I wonder if a "proper" reciprocating saw is so big that I wouldn't reach for it as often as I'd have liked to use the wee omnitool head. Maybe better off just reaching for a plain ol' hacksaw or hand saw.

Reciprocating saw is a demolition tool, not a fine woodworking tool. Whatever finesse they need in manufacturing this tool wouldn't exceed that in making an angle grinder. Brand name is irrelevant, but stroke length definitely is. I have a number of them. My favorite is an Aldi 850 W with a stroke length of 28 mm. It cost me a total of 59.99 exactly a year ago. My triton 18V has a stroke length of 25 mm and together with a multi tool cost me a total of $49. I used the Aldi repo saw to cut through all the nails when I demolished my balcony last year. Still going strong.

If you have a garden then an 18v Recipro is a wicked bit of kit to have on hand. Every gardener should have one.

The foot on your saw looks like glorified wire. It may not be rigid enough to use as a rest.

Any battery saw such as this will struggle against a corded version.

BobL mentions stroke length. To compensate for this i have long used my saws free hand and used a long stroke back and forth with the saw running. This uses more teeth and results in more gutting before you may need to clean the gunk out of the teeth

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

I've done a demonstration of the AEG with some 50x50mm Tassie Oak; for a fair demonstration with metal I'll need to buy a new blade first.

How does the performance compare with dedicated 240v or 18v reciprocating saws?

24 seconds to cut through 25cm² hardwood is okay, though for a use like this I'd be using my mitre saw. It's the odd, awkward and unsupported jobs that I want the reciprocating saw for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fznIOAYLvA

That looks about what I would expect to me for .

Unfortunately I don't have any Tassie oak or a wood cutting 6TP blade to do a comparison
However I cut a piece of 50 x 50mm Tuart (harder than Tassie Oak) with an 18V Makita with used 6TPI demolition (more of metal cutting) blade and it did it in 14 seconds.
The demo blade is quite slow compared to a wood blade which I would expect to cut that same piece of wood in under 10s.

Just now:
Makita 18v with a well and truly used Bosch 3tpi (4ppi) tooth blade which is very aggressive
60x40 Tallow Wood (which is waaaay harder than Tas Oak)

Not clamped properly, so plenty of chatter, and took about 6-8 seconds counted manually. Had to stop after two seconds due to chattering its way out of clamping, reclamp using two clamps and carry on.

I'd estimate Tas Oak 50x50 clamped properly would take about 4-5 seconds.

Thanks guy, that settles it - I won't bother wasting any more time on the AEG attachment.

Don't throw it away; send it to me in Bundy and I'll use it as another pruning saw!

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Don't throw it away; send it to me in Bundy and I'll use it as another pruning saw!

But, but I want to do one of those smash-it-with-a-hammer videos and send to AEG!

I'll hold onto it until I can figure if I can justify upgrading to a dedicated saw. I fear I wouldn't reach for a 4+ kg monster as often as I have for the AEG attachment in the workshop / house and it'd end up gathering dust. But we'll see. If I do upgrade, I'll ship the attachment up to you.

So I went and got the DeWalt corded saw today, repeated the test with the same 50x50mm tassie oak and the same "woodeater" blade I used yesterday and where the AEG omnitool attachment took 24 seconds, the DeWalt did it in a mere 5 seconds.