What reciprocating saw?

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/s_10153_12605_Tools_Portable+Power+Tools_Reciprocating+Saws

I have a bunch of Sears gift cards. So I am looking for one for $100 or less. Which would you chose?

I bought a Porter Cable for about a hundred bucks ten years ago. It's seen a fair amount of use in those ten years and still works as new.

Got a 10 year old dewalt - built fences, decks, cut a couple scrap cars to recycle size - still going strong. Although around Christmas there was a little battery powered milwaukee recip around $100 - that looks handy for pick n pull duty (they allow batter reciprocals)

i got the $100 Dewalt about 10 years ago and it is pretty damn awesome. it even came with a carrying case and a heavy duty 20ft extension cord.

Not the Craftsman. You couldn't pay me to take it off your hands.

Porter Cables are awesome. Looks like Sears doesn't handle them.

If your choices are the ones in that link, the reconditioned Milwaukee will put the others to shame.

I'm not a big fan of the DeWalt's plastic blade release.

The Makita is very serviceable, light and sturdy, but the orbital reciprocating action won't keep up with the PC.

I have a Porter Cable, a DeWalt, a Milwaukee, a Makita, and several Porter Cables. Only the Milwaukee and the PC can keep up with serious abuse. The others are decent homeowner models.

Except for the Craftsman.

I went to the Sears and they had Dewalt or Craftsman. So Dewalt it was.

SVreX wrote: I have a Porter Cable, a DeWalt, a Milwaukee, a Makita, and several Porter Cables. Only the Milwaukee and the PC can keep up with serious abuse. The others are decent homeowner models.

i bought a Bosch 14 amp one to replace my dead DeWalt - made in USA and powerful as hell. i'd put it against my buddy's milwaukee any day. DW quality has been on a downhill slide for the last 4-5 years. i got so fed up with breaking cordless saws that i went and bought a porter cable one.

I have used the Bosch. I agree. I can give that one a thumbs up.

But it won't beat the PC.

Oh, and it's not on that page linked.

Agree with SVreX: my old Porter Cable has had the crap beat out of it and is still going strong, same with my PC framing nailer and both DeWalt drills. I had a Black & Decker 1/2" drill, junk.

I have a Milwaukee Super-Sawzall - it has destroyed many, many things over the past decade+ and it is still going strong. I have cut 3/4 steel plate, chopped steel, copper and black iron tubing, removed exhausts, cut up whole cars... gutted a home... anywhere it fit it was the tool of choice. I have never given any regard to how much crap got in the thing or paid any attention whatsoever to taking care of it. It was over two hundred when I bought it in the 90s and if it died tomorrow it was money well spent (although I doubt it will ever die - it will probably need brushes I can't find anywhere though).

I would buy the exact same one again in a heartbeat.

I've got a Milwaukee that I got from my dad that's probably as old as me, and I punish it regularly. My only complaint is that stupid allen screw that holds the blade in comes loose on occasion. I did find out that the quick release that's on the new ones will retrofit to the old ones. I've heard people complain that quality has gone down on just about everything, so save some money and buy a really old one?

I have a couple old Milwaukees from my Dad, and they are really the best out there, but I also have an older DeWalt that sees more regular usage. I like the ease of blade change in the DeWalt, and it has an 1/8" longer stroke at the same speed, so it uses a couple more teeth on the blades.

I do like the 1/4 turn and remove the cord feature on the Milwaukee, though, and wish every power tool did that.

What is the remove the cord feature your talking about?

I bought a Craftsman Lithium Ion kit with drill and Recip. Wish I had just bought a corded recip and bought the drill/battery from Dewalt. '

Oh well. It gave me a scare the other night when the battery was cold and the charger thought it was dead, but once the battery warmed up it charged fine.

PHeller wrote: What is the remove the cord feature your talking about?

The power cord is a twist lock type that comes off for storage or easy replacement.

Hucko is a huckster. 
 

Canoe-zall 

I have seveal reciprocating saws.

 they all are hand pwered.

My father aquired a Milwaukee saw some 40 years ago that was used back then.  I used it to cut many things made mostly of metal.  I later gave it to my brother-in-law when I aquired a newer Milwaukee saw. Both are still in use.  I've had to replace the bushes on mine once. First time I ever had to do that on any power tool but that's only because this one has lasted so long. Everything else has broken/quit working long before it wore out the brushes.

I go back and forth as to what brand I prefer. 

Not straying too far off the general thinking here, but I've got a corded Delwalt that I bought ~10yrs ago and I've beat the thing to death with little care for it at time and it doesn't seem to mind. I do know when I bought it, I didn't buy the cheapest model, but went a little up their model range.

if I had to buy one today I'd think about going Milwaukee M18 Fuel since I already have that system for all of my other cordless tools, and you don't give up much if any power to a corded model

I realize this is an old thread, but I highly recommend the Milwaukee Hackzall. I already had a corded DeWalt and a cordless M18 Milwaukee. Picked up the Hackzall because it was a good deal and I bought it for the batteries. I was very surprised how different it felt from a regular Sawzall. Perfectly balanced for one handed use. I grab the Hackzall 90% of the time over the Sawzall. 

Milwaukee Hackzall

Seeing as it's been resurrected, and alot of time has passed since the original discussion, I'll add my thoughts.

When this was started, there was probably a reasonable power advantage in corded vs cordless, but by now that Gap is pretty small if it even exists at all. Plus, cords can limit uses and provide a potential danger.

I had DeWalt cordless gear around the time this thread was started, it served me well and I still have it as backup spares. Late last year I was in the market to invest into a new cordless ecosystem, after much research and thought, I settled on Bosch professional. To be honest, it wasn't really on my radar untill I used someone's mini reciprocating saw and drill. The power and feel was great, but the thing that got me over the line was a 6 year warranty on both tools and batteries.

The Bosch reciprocating saw has been a beast so far, I like the blade release mech, the built-in in led lights, the general feel... it's a really solid, well built tool.

Really though, you can't go to far wrong with any of the big name cordless gear, it just comes down to personal preference and perhaps skin availability if you're in the market for some of the more specialized tools.