Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Summary: If you are doing very light hobby work and looking for a very compact scroll saw that you can pack away into a nice case and put away, then this *might* be for you. Otherwise, get a real scroll saw - this hybrid isn't the solution..... As a powered coping saw with a stand that allows it to be converted into a compact scroll saw , this seemed to have some real potential. Flexibility and convenience. I guess that theory didn't work out so well. In practice, it's too compromised a scroll saw and unusable without the base. The reality is that scroll saw blades have minimal offset of the teeth. A narrow kerf is an advantage of a scroll saw, but once you no longer have the worktable to keep your material aligned, the blade binds and you're not cutting - the blade just jerks the work around. That picture of someone cutting trim freehand? Well, moulding is typically pine and perhaps 1/4"-3/8" thick, so yes I was able to duplicate that scenario. I'd say it wasn't worth the trip. Trying to cut even 1/2" plywood freehand was faster with a regular coping saw. Plus, you're going to want to use a table or miter saw for molding unless you're doing some funky crown molding in which case, yes, this might actually be worth having on hand. Oh, wait a minute, a coping saw costs how much? Never mind. How does this perform as a very compact scroll saw? Marginal. It will cut 1/2" plywood. 1/2" hardwood was slow but tolerable. 1" hardwood did not work. With only a 10-1/2" throat it's pretty compromised - the 2-1/4 throat is not that much narrower than normal scroll saws but you can't do anything over 1/2" anyways. Other basic things - there is way too much vibration, the power switch was very awkward to reach and had extremely poor efforts (Hard to turn on and off). So far it looks like Dremel only has one style of proprietary blades - a normal scroll saw would allow you quite a selection. For portable use I'd seriously consider a regular coping saw which is a lot more flexible and has a lot more capacity (cutting width) than this saw, and for a semi-stationary device I'd probably prefer a regular scroll saw - about the same price as this device.