The Dremel Moto-Saw arrived in the mail from the US the other day – excitement! It was a prize for the everlong stove top fan instructable which was in the ‘Trash to Treasure Challenge’. So the saw claims to be a 2 in 1 tool, a fretsaw (electric version) and a scroll saw. Lets take a look and see what we think.

Click here to watch the video review, or read on for some extra little snippets. My first impression of the saw was that of smell! The plastic of both the box and the tool itself was doing some extreme off gassing. But lets try not to be put off by that, I’m sure it will fade with time, but is worth considering if you live in an apartment and want to store this in your home!

This is branded as very light and portable – and it is! So once I had the actual saw unit slotted into the plastic base plate, it was time to clamp it to the workbench. Without clamping this things would be flying across the shop when it’s turned on. The mounts look a little lean of material, undersized to my eye. A possible fail point, given plenty of vibration, a few knocks and some heavy stock. The clamps themselves are crude single piece bent metal bar-stock, but do seem easily up to the job (especially when compared to the thin plastic they will be clamping).

As you can see the table comes with two aluminium t-slot tracks, that are designed for a mitre gauge, for making ‘exact’ angled straight cuts. That’s not included, and I have heard online that people who want to buy it find it difficult to get hold of (I wouldn’t know though as have no intention of using it to make precise cuts).

I used the high speed camera to take some slow motion clips of the saw in action (see vid above), and it is really quite remarkable how little dust escapes the saws dust collection. Assuming, that is, you attach it to a shop vac. And if you are considering using this for anything more than once in a blue moon type way, you really should be using extraction on it. It will improve the quality of your experience, the quality of the cut and the life of the blade!

In the photos, I am using it to cut through a scrap of well seasoned 4mm ash heartwood (originally from the DIY chainsaw mill). It cuts this well enough – not super – and not like the bandsaw would – but sort of a fast version of what you would expect from a hand fretsaw. Makes sense I suppose!

The kerf left by the blade is small, which is nice, and the corner radius you can cut is surprisingly tight, once you get the technique down.

One of the coolest things about this saw, and the biggest advantages of scroll saws in general, is you can cut interior areas, thanks to the blades ability to be detached, threaded through a hole, and re-attached. You can do that with a jigsaw too and with less fuss, BUT a jigsaw’s blades must be much thicker, as they are not always in tension like the scroll saw’s blade.

One big annoyance with the moto-saw though, that I ran into almost immediately, is the fiddlyness of the blade mounting. the blade’s cross-bar that hooks into the top guide is wider than the vertical grove you need to thread it through. Meaning you have to twist the blade slightly to get it in. Not a big problem you might think, but when you have it hooked, precariously on the bottom mounting, and threaded through a work-piece, this becomes a real fiddle-faddle. Not fun. And it takes away from the scroll saw’s super power of cutting internal shapes.

The unit has variable speed, from 1.500-2.250 RPM, which is set with a simple turn dial on the handle. Useful for cutting different materials, especially if you are planning on any thin aluminium cutting.

Moto-Saw and Vibration

Vibration issues get their own section as I see it as a big drawback on a saw of this kind. The design is clearly made to be easily transported and stored away in the cupboard. The price paid for this is vibration! Without a cast iron table – the hallmark of any self respecting scroll saw – there is little to absorb or damp the large quantity of vibration created from the oscillating motion of the machine. To some degree this is a problem with scroll saws the world over: an up-down motion is just quite a bit inferior to the circular one found on table saws and bandsaws.

Because the blade is travelling back and forth over the same few teeth, those teeth dull quicker, don’t shed the dust they create as well,  heat up more, and therefore don’t last as long. Indeed the Dremel blades really can be considered consumables on this type of saw!

When you hole the work piece firmly onto the saw’s table, that attenuated a good deal of the vibration, but at the cost of all the vibration travelling into your hands! Not nice (or healthy!) for any length of time!

Related to the vibration, the noise, even on lower speeds, is enough to warrant ear defenders, which is a shame.

I tested the moto-saw with this thick bit of ash, and if you watch the video, you can see just how much effort that was. Not impossible though, with is impressive, given the inherent limitations of a saw like this.

In conclusion I think this saw does fill a very specific niche for a highly transportable, but slightly inferior, cheap scroll saw. I recon I will use it very occasionally, when people visit the workshop, who want to make something small and dainty. It has made me want to re-focus on finishing the big CNC machine I have been building – because that really will be good for making precise internal shapes.

Posted: 07|4|18 at 6:15 pm. Categorically squeezed into: Tools.

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