Hi guys, thanks for responding....
My situation is this: for the most part, tools that I buy have to serve first as tools for my remodeling business (it's me with two employees). I have a three car garage plus a storage room but most of that is filled up with tools and materials for work. The amount of space that I am carving out for my woodshop is going to have to stay small for now.
I want to make a floor mirror for my wife, and the feet are going to be cut from 10/4 maple, and the top of the mirror will be an arched piece of 6/4 material. I have been considering getting a bandsaw, but most of the stuff that I buy needs to be portable enough to go out to the jobsite if needed. The one non-portable piece of equipment that I have at the moment is a 6" jointer.
My question for the moment is whether you think the Festool jigsaw will give me a good, square cut as I make the feet? If the blade is going to deflect then I might as well get a bandsaw.
I like the Festool because of the DC and I already have two Festool vacs. (DC has become increasingly important for me because of problems with my sinuses, and so far I have seen a good customer reaction when they see us using DC in their houses).
One concern I have is none of the Festool video clips that I can find show the jigsaw cutting anything thicker than about 1". I don't know if this is a happenstance or by design. In the catalog I think it says these saws can cut up to 4 1/2" of material, although I can't see how a jigsaw blade can do that without a lot of deflection.
Thanks for your comments...
Rob
PS The suggestion to try the tool at WC is good except the two WC in my area aren't terribly keen on letting people use the display tools. I asked once if I could use the display tool over in the work area and the manager said essentially "no, we don't want the liability if someone gets hurt".