Black and Decker: A sting in the tale (Black & Decker Scorpion 400W Handsaw)

Member Name: soundsexciting

Product:	Black & Decker Scorpion 400W Handsaw
Date:	15/12/05 (806 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cuts just about anything with minimum effort on your part

Disadvantages: poor design means the blade becomes loose

I bought my black and decker scorpion about 5 years ago. At the time it was the only electic saw that I could find and I had a big DIY job to do at home.

The saw itself comes with three blades; one for wood, one for metal pipes and plastics and a third somewhat flexible blade for use as a jigsaw. So this is really three saws in one.

The blades can be changed by simply pressing a safety catch on the side, removing the old one and sloting in the new one. The metal and wood blades fit in one direction whilst the jigsaw blade fits in at a 90 degree angle for obvious reasons.

To start the saw you need to press two buttons rather like you do with lawnmowers. Its a safety precaution to ensure it isn't set off accidently. Once the saw has started you can release the safety button and rely on the main button to control the speed. The more you press the faster it goes.

To use the saw you simply make the normal sawing movements (i.e. back and forth) and this combined with the oscillations of the blade allow you to cut through stuff suprisingly quickly. I've managed to put down laminate flooring all around my house and partly boarded up my loft with this machine.

Its a bit on the heavy side as theres a big motor inside and prolonged use tends to make your hands ache. Also because of the fan used to keep the motor cool, you tend to find that dust from the item you are cutting tends to get blown about all over the place.

The jigsaw option is a nice idea but in practice I find that the bulk of the machine tends to obstruct your view of the material you are cutting. So if you are trying to accurately follow a cutting line, you have to bend yourself over the machine at an odd angle to see what you are doing. Its fine for jobs where you just need a hole and are not too bothered about accuracy but if you want a good finish you'd be better off with a proper jigsaw.

The only problem I have with the machine is that the slot where the blade slides in is badly designed. When in use, the vibrations tend to make two screws that hold the slot together come loose. This in turn means that after several months of use (especially on big jobs) you end up with a machine where the saw blades not only move backwards and forwards but they also begin to move from side to side. After a while it gets so bad that I have to send it back for repair. All thats required is to tighten up the screws, but they are placed at such an arkward angle that you'd have to open up the whole unit to do it.

Up and till last year I was lucky enough to have a black and decker dealer nearby and every 12-18 months I'd take the machine to them, they would give me a reconditioned one and repair my saw for the next person to experiance the same problem. I'm on my 3rd saw in 5 years. Unfortunately the dealer has closed and I can see the screws begining to come loose on my current unit. Eventually I guess I'm gonna have to open up the unit myself and try and fix it.

Black and decker have an excellent reputation for producing quality, long lasting products but a silly design flaw in this case has made this saw useful for only the small jobs around the house.

Summary: Electric saw for the smaller DIY jobs around the house