wen jig saw blades

[rellett1960]

good day everyone. i recieved a vintage wen jig saw from my dad, it was made in 1968, but for the life of me i cant find replacement blades for it, its model number is WEN model #521. can anyone please help me to find blades for it. thankyou yall very much

[RWalters]

Well, I have a good news, bad news, good news situation for you. The first good news is you have a cool old saw from your dad. The bad news is the old Wen saws used a proprietary blade with a 3/8 shank and they're hard to find, you might keep checking on EBay. The second good news is I have a couple of Wen blades I don't need and if you pm me with your address, I'd be happy to send them to you.

[oldtools]

What does the 3/8 shank look like?

[RWalters]

oldtools, the blades look like any other saber saw blade, except instead of a 1/4 inch wide tang with a hole and a notch at the end, these have a 3/8 inch wide tang with a hole and a little dimple near the end.

[oldtools]

Can it accept an adapter to take up the slack? (1/16" on each side "U" clip?)  so he can use standard blades...
as long as same thickness & blade holes target to the setscrews...

[RWalters]

Very possibly, I've heard of folks making adapters, though I don't know any details. I've also heard about grinding down the tang on sawzall blades to fit, but I would think even the shorter blades would be pretty long to use in a saber saw. I don't have a Wen saw, just these blades I got with some other blades I bought, so I couldn't tell you much about what the adapter would have to look like.

[Toolfixer]

I have a fix for WEN jigsaw blades which have a 3/8" shank but a smaller blade.  I have a model 31 WEN saw, can't find any affordable blades for it on line or elsewhere.  To enable your WEN jigsaw to accept standard 1/4" shank blades do the following:  extend the blade holder piston to a fully extended position.  Remove the blade clamp by unscrewing both set screws to enable it to be removed from the blade holder piston.  I used my drill press, but you can do this with a hand drill:  on the FRONT set screw location on the blade holder piston, drill with a 1/8" drill about 1/8" into the shank to enable the set screw to extend further into the blade holder piston.  (The factory blade holder piston only has a small dimple where the front screw lands).  Drill in line with the side screw hole so that the threaded holes in the blade clamp still lines up.  If the FRONT set screw still needs a larger hole to enter the blade holder piston, drill and test it one drill size at a time.  The blade holder piston is aluminum so it is easy to drill into.  Remove any drilling burrs and re-install the blade clamp on to the blade holder piston.  The larger portion of the blade clamp under the set screw locations will be installed TOWARDS the saw and the end of the blade holder piston and blade clamp will be flush.  The set screw will now extend into the blade holder piston and will contact any 1/4" blade shank.  Loosely snug both the front and side blade retainer screws and only then tighten both with a screw driver.  You should now be able to use a 1/4" blade in this and any similar WEN jigsaw.  So much for proprietary blades at $5 each from WEN, I buy my 1/4" blades for less than $5 a pack of 4-6 at Home Depot or wherever.