Right off the bat we were a little wary, as this new tool shares the name with one of our favorite 80’s Scy-Fi movies BladeRunner (1982, imdb). Our thought is if you are going to share the name with an awesome movie you better have an equally awesome power tool. We saw it in person at the recent STAFDA show but have not yet had a chance to test it out. The good news is it looks like it does have all the makings of a pretty sweet machine.
1. The Track Record – Rockwell JawHorse – After having about a year with the JawHorse we couldn’t be happier with its performance (included in 2010 holiday gift guide) and overall construction. Rockwell built, marketed and sold these units the same way with cheesy infomercials so they have our attention.
2. Accessory Compatibility – Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for realizing people want stuff to work with other stuff they already have and that is easy to find additional accessories. The BladeRunner works with any brand of T shank Jig Saw Blades. Feel free to use the new Bosch Xtra-Clean Curved Cut or Diamond Grit Blades or another 1000+ other accessories, they all fit!
3. The Numbers – We would have possibly liked to see a little more juice for this unit at 5.5A, no-load speeds of 800-2800/min & 15/16” stroke, it isn’t the most powerful jig saw motor on the market but still pretty respectable numbers.
4. The Work Surface – The stainless steel work surface is 15-3/4” x 15-3/4” and easily set up for miter cuts, rip cuts, inside cuts and any number of scroll cuts. At only 13.2 lbs this would be super easy to take to any jobsite or use around the house where a solid work surface like this would be very handy.
All in all it has a lot of potential and could make a very nice Holiday Gift this season. It looks like these are currently sold mainly through infomercials which makes us a little nervous but for only 4 easy payments of $39 how could you go wrong… You can also purchase it here Rockwell RK7321 BladeRunner with Wall Mount ($179, Amazon) but before that check out the actual infomercial below. Hopefully we will get to demo one at some point for a full review.
