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Jigsaw Review B&D JS700K
Alright, let's get to the point for this review. You're here to get some idea if this is a decent jigsaw or not and I will tell you, without question, it is not a decent jigsaw. How can I state this? Well, I recently had the opportunity to play with one. I ordered the JS700K jigsaw from Amazon because I had seen the scroll saw feature on a few jigsaws over the years and I wanted to give it a try. I had hoped that this jigsaw would become a back-up jigsaw and one that I could loan out. What follows is a brief jigsaw review for the Black and Decker JS700K.
This jigsaw review is based on my time spent with the JS700K that was delivered to me, and I must state that I did not cut anything with it. I have a good reason for not cutting anything; the shoe could not be secured in place. As you may know from my previous review of the Black and Decker FS1800D cordless drill, I am not a person that bashes Black and Decker without reason. I truly love my drill, but Black and Decker is ultimately a more budget-friendly brand and this is very evident on the JS700K jigsaw.
I will just list what I disliked about this model to make this jigsaw review brief and easy to interpret:
The tension wheel to tighten or loosen the shoe is designed very poorly and, at least for the particular jigsaw I received, I could not get the tension tight enough by hand to hold the foot in place.
The overall construction and assembly of this jigsaw is very lackluster. There were uneven seams where the two sides of the case didn't come together well, and there were a number of jagged plastic edges. One of the areas with jagged plastic remnants that should have been removed cause the trigger to hang in the on position…yet another reason I didn't want to cut with this saw.
The scroll mechanism doesn't turn smoothly. In fact, within the 360 degree turn I encountered 3 positions that seemed to have much more resistance to the turn, which would make it difficult to get accurate and clean scroll cuts by using this feature.
The shoe is a basic formed metal shoe and not a cast aluminum shoe. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, except that this shoe had a few black plastic projections on the bottom that prevented the show from making complete and even contact with a surface. The protrusions were only about 1 to 2 millimeters, but that can make a difference in fine cuts and beveled edges.
Not even the case met my very moderate expectations. The case for my Black and Decker Drill is strong and durable, but the one that came with this jigsaw was flimsy and made from significantly thinner plastic.
I may be leaving a few things out, but I can't attest to it's power, vibration, or actual cut accuracy. I would expect that only the power would have met my expectations and that vibration as well as cut accuracy would be very poor. You may notice that I didn't have a list for the things I liked about this model in my jigsaw review. Simply stated, I can't think of a single positive thing to say. I once thought that the overall look and design of the saw was noteworthy, but after handling it I now realize that I was wrong. Based on the issues noted above in this jigsaw review, I don't recommend this jigsaw for anyone.
Perhaps I got a saw that was rushed too quickly during it's manufacture, or maybe I was just unlucky and got a defective saw. I can't say for sure. The fact that this model has 15 good reviews out of 17 total reviews on Amazon makes me wonder. Nevertheless, I can definitely state that the particular JS700K that I was sent was the worst made jigsaw I have ever held, and this is even based on models from Black and Decker and Skil from well over ten years ago.