This is the Rockwell Bladerunner. Since this tool hit the market several months ago I have been receiving more and more email about it. Let me start out by saying I have not used the Bladerunner so I am not in any way trying to review it here. I just want to give my observations after reading many reviews and watching several video reviews.The number one question I receive is "Should I buy this instead of a scroll saw?". Rockwell advertises the Bladerunner as an alternative to a few different tools. One tool they mention is a scroll saw. Well, I guess in the broadest sense of the word you could consider it an alternative. The blade runner will make outside and inside scroll cuts. That's about as far as I will go on calling the Bladerunner a scroll saw. It is a jig saw mounted upside down under a table. It uses T style jigsaw blades. That means that the interior hole can be no smaller than the blades which are very large when compared to scroll saw blades. This eliminates the tool from all but the most basic scroll saw patterns. It is not an alternative for anyone who wishes to do detailed fretwork.
Okay now that I have that out of the way let me go on by saying that the Bladerunner might have a home in the crafters workshop. The system is under $200 which seems like a fair price for a consumer level product. It does have some versatility in that it will cut wood, tile, metal and plastic. It comes with a simple miter guide and rip fence. From what I have seen I would not count on very accurate cuts but that's not what this tool is for.
I will try to get my hands on one so I can talk about the quality of the machine for those of you that might consider this for your shop. The video below is the official Rockwell web commercial. As usual they hype the tool a little over the top but is does show what the tool can do.
