While I still have a chance (before returning to work) I have been continuously cutting out the many bulkheads/frames required. I have also been learning about a multitude of things along the way...
I ended up purchasing a Bora Cutting Guide for $40 at Lowes thinking that this would be the end-all solution for straight cuts with my jigsaw...the idea was perfect. As you can see in the images, the guide has a quick clamp with rubber fittings to secure it in place. The first difficulty I encountered was the setup time required for the level of accuracy required. It took quite some time to setup the guide for each cut and with hundreds of cuts looming...I think that I may save its use for very long straight cuts. Also, the guide is limited to angles less than 22.5 degrees. This also made it somewhat cumbersome to use.
I also spent some time learning about jigsaws and jigsaw blades. Turns out that a Swiss engineer by the name of Albert Kaufmann invented the jigsaw/jigsaw blade. He did this while working at Scantilla AG company by simply replacing the needle on his wife's sewing machine with a blade....interesting. Apparently Scantilla was later taken over by Bosch and there you have it.
I am also learning that there are many different types of jigsaw blades...wood, metal, etc. I currently have three different types of blades (Bosch) in my possession...T101BR, T101B and T101AO. T101B and T101BR both have the same number of teeth per inch but the tooth orientation is simply reversed. This allows for nice smooth cuts with less splintering either on the top or bottom of the cut (T101B - bottom and T101BR - top). The smaller blade T101AO has a larger tpi, is thinner and is slightly off centerline. This coupled with orbital blade motion apparently allows for smoother cuts around curves. The teeth on the T101AO blade are oriented straight out.
All of these blades have what is called 'taper ground back teeth' that allow for an almost splinter-free cut. According to what I have read, they cut at a slower speed. This is why I may have seen the splintering in my previous post. I was using full blade speed with a very high feed rate. Interesting stuff...at least to me, the novice.
