advice please guys....re Erbauer

[thecoder]

Erbauer ERB238MSW 254mm Sliding Mitre Saw 230V...does anyone know if these tools are any good please..

dave

 

[JackL]

I've got one and found it OK, though it hasn't done a lot of work in my hands. My son (a joiner) borrowed it when he had his tools pinched - he gave it the thumbs-up and it got some pretty severe use whilst in his hands.

 

[dibs]

This brand often gets slated, but I take as I find.When my son went self-employed as a joiner, 18 months ago, I used a slush fund I'd set up for him, to kit him out. An expensive trip to Screwfix saw him pick out a large range of tools, mostly Makita or Hitachi. He picked an Erbauer half inch router which has done sterling work on many kitchen worktops. I found a 110v Erbauer chop saw on the bay, brand new and delivered, for £40. With a better blade fitted, it has been great for site work, but I don't think it can be tweaked enough for fine joinery. A B & Q Mac sliding saw that was kicking around my garage was, after some fettling, and a new Erbauer blade, gave a good quality cut. 90/45 cuts are spot on. He's had various other hand tools/accessories of the same brand that have served him well. You'll never get a spares back-up service for the power tools, but if you are only a hobby user, I'd give them a go. Screwfix, if bought from them, give a reasonable warranty, and if it goes **** up after the warranty expires, if you've used them regularly, I don't think you can complain at the cost of them. Rick.

 

[dibs]

This brand often gets slated, but I take as I find.When my son went self-employed as a joiner, 18 months ago, I used a slush fund I'd set up for him, to kit him out. An expensive trip to Screwfix saw him pick out a large range of tools, mostly Makita or Hitachi. He picked an Erbauer half inch router which has done sterling work on many kitchen worktops. I found a 110v Erbauer chop saw on the bay, brand new and delivered, for £40. With a better blade fitted, it has been great for site work, but I don't think it can be tweaked enough for fine joinery. A B & Q Mac sliding saw that was kicking around my garage was, after some fettling, and a new Erbauer blade, gave a good quality cut. 90/45 cuts are spot on. He's had various other hand tools/accessories of the same brand that have served him well. You'll never get a spares back-up service for the power tools, but if you are only a hobby user, I'd give them a go. Screwfix, if bought from them, give a reasonable warranty, and if it goes **** up after the warranty expires, if you've used them regularly, I don't think you can complain at the cost of them. Rick.

 

[Pond]

I have an Erbauer 1/2" router, it's brill!

I also have a Trend T5 router, it's terrible!

I have a DeWalt 707 SCMS, I hate it, it's dangerous!

I used to be a 'tool snob', only buying Makita, Bosch, Dewalt, etc. Not anymore! (Although I do still like Makita cordless drill/drivers and Bosch SDS )

90% odd of ALL Tools (and everything else come to think of it) are made in China or Taiwan these days, with different badges and marketing techniques.

One example:

I bought a 'Stoves' cooker hood four years ago, to match my 'Stoves' cooker, cost me nearly £600. I bought one looking exactly the same today from Screwfix without the 'Stoves' badge on it; £129, and that's with 4% inflation per year since!

I would guess that both were made in the same factory, on the same line!

 

[DejaVu]

I've had one for a year and use is it for skirting boards. Very good. I have since used it to slice wood for my wood burner. Had one problem, the head of the Arbor bolt securing the blade sheared off whilst cutting a large branch. Left handed thread M8 x 20 size. Managed to remove rest of bolt but had great difficulty in getting replacement. Finally hit on this firm in Birmingham and West Bromwich. They were £4 each + VAT but worth it. Great company and very helpful.

Go under name of Woods and Hughes or socketscrews

Telephone: 0121 505 7551

Fax: 0121 505 7652 / 2250

Unit 9
Hill Top Industrial Estate
Shaw Street
West Bromwich, West Midlands
B70 0TX

and

360 Farm Street
Hockley
Birmingham
West Midlands
B19 2TZ
United Kingdom

 

[pswallace]

Hi Dave,'can't vouch for the m'saw but I bought a Erbauer reciprocating saw and it was all but useless,however I do own an Erbauer sander and it's ok, also I think for the price they're saw blades are very good ,I have three.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

I may be alone, but I hate mitre saws and chop saws, whatever the brand. They all tend to be noisy and dusty, and take up an entire wall. So I'd buy the cheapest possible, fit an expensive blade and hope for the best! Which isn't very helpful advice, but it's Sunday night and Top Gear beckons!

Nick

 

[Jacob]

My Erbauer router seems to be good value for money. I don't use it a lot but everything seems to work as it should including fine adjustment.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

I bet an Erbauer router is fine most of the time. Chop saws are the sort of machine you want to spend loads on (like a Kapex), for accurate jointing, or relatively little, like an Erbauer or Einhell, for rough cutting to length.

Nick

 

[GrahamM]

Hi
I've just brought one the only problem I'm having is aligning the laser and concerns about the quality of the line it produces, after much fiddling the alignment is almost there, but I haven't used a laser guide before so I don't know what quality I should be expecting from it? some better guidance on adjustment would be appreciated!

 

[mikeyc]

Hi
I have had the same problem as DejaVu with bolt shear and cannot find a replacement. I phoned Woods and Hughes but they no longer stock these bolts (M8x20mm cap screw bolt left hand thread grade 12.9) They had a stock but since Dejavu's post this has steadily dwindled and now run dry.
Seems to be a common problem - another wood working guy had rung the same morning and he too had a sheared bolt and had seen DejaVu's post. If you are reading this did you find one?
I have been pleased with my saw and it will be a shame to bin it for the sake of one bolt.
Help sourcing a bolt would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
MikeyC

 

[blackrodd]

Hi
I have had the same problem as DejaVu with bolt shear and cannot find a replacement. I phoned Woods and Hughes but they no longer stock these bolts (M8x20mm cap screw bolt left hand thread grade 12.9) They had a stock but since Dejavu's post this has steadily dwindled and now run dry.
Seems to be a common problem - another wood working guy had rung the same morning and he too had a sheared bolt and had seen DejaVu's post. If you are reading this did you find one?
I have been pleased with my saw and it will be a shame to bin it for the sake of one bolt.
Help sourcing a bolt would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
MikeyC

I was using one of these, Helping a mate last summer on some landscaping.
When changing the blade, the thread "went" so I just bought a couple of L/H Bolts and fixed the blade back on,
still on there I believe,
I have seen on one forum an erbauer user just sent away on fleabay for some.
Get someone here to get you some, or You could always get one made!
Regards Rodders

 

[Jacob]

If in doubt buy the cheapest isn't always good advice but it works with Erbauer. You get what you pay for - they do the job but not as conveniently and not so nice to use as some very expensive alternatives. The fittings (fence etc) are a bit flimsy on my router and wouldn't stand up to being dropped, but it was very cheap.

 

[Alexfn]

I have this saw. I use it for rough cuts. Timber framing, flooring, its far from accurate. A lot of slop in the rails but mine has been going for years. A real work horse but for finish joinery forget it.

If its going to be your only mitre saw then spend a little more for a dewalt or makita.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I'm morally certain the blade bolt is the same size as that on my ancient Elektra Beckum 300.

Applying lateral thinking to this, mitre saws are probably still made in huge quantities using that size bolt, as the arbour sizes were standardised a long time ago and haven't changed for decades.

You're able to get spares for all the major brands easily, as those blade-clamping bolts are particularly vulnerable to numpties attacking them with gusto, either turning them the wrong way (in which case they'll snap), or applying either Mole grips or a poorly-fitting adjustable spanner, in which case they round off the corners of the head.

Try Miles Tools in Yeovil, or powertoolspares.com (Southampton, I think). Have a look at DeWalt spares particularly (700-series saws, especially the 701, which is basically the old Elu design). It might be M6 tho. All those sites have diagrams on-line. You want a saw with a simlar sized blade on the same arbour diameter.

Also see the Elektra Beckum KGS 300 series (I have one). All that series use interchangeable parts, as did the Axminster induction-motored mitre saw (white-red livery, that they sold up until a few years ago - an EB copy).

That is almost definitely M8 LH, and the correct EB bolt has a wide flange on it, so no washer is needed. I think it's longer than 20mm though, so you might need to cut it down if it bottoms out (if it doesn't and it fits, leave well alone!). For ref, the KGS 300 (and its derivatives) has a stonking 250mm blade, but that's because the motor is quite wide and would block a smaller diameter blade, so it's not as macho as you might think. It does give a really clean cut though, in part because of the diameter.

Tips:

1. The blade bolts are probably always going to be left-hand thread on mitre saws, because those will self-tighten as the saw is used, for safety. This means you do NOT need to over-tighten them when you fit the blade, and that's also important to prevent the saw plate being distorted as it heats up in extended use.

So pinch them up, but gently - they're not cylinder head bolts!

2. Small table saws usually run with the opposite blade rotation to mitre saws (WRT the shaft), and so use right-hand-thread bolts instead. You can remember which handing it will be with this equation:

shaft on the right + cutting below + cutting away from you = LEFT-hand thread.

Change ONE of those conditions and it will be right-handed, change TWO it will stay left-handed, and change all three and you're back to right-handed again.

3. When you find a suitable substitute (e.g. Electra Beckum), buy two bolts at the same time. It's the same principle as the umbrella--a device you leave at home when you want it to rain--if you own a spare you'll never need it. At least that's worked for me so far.
. . .

I'm writing this in my dressing-gown at the breakfast table (would be quite anti-social, but I'm on my own this morning). When I'm tidy, I'll go out to the workshop, check the bolt size on the KGS300 and report back.

Later...

E.

 

[will1983]

i have a couple of Erbauer tools and find like others they are generally ok but i have two 1/2" routers and both are pretty rubbish.

The older model had a cataclismic failure of the spildle lock mechanism resulting in sparks loud grinding nioses and lots of foul language. oh and flying bolts and springs going all over the garage.

The newer model works ok but when trying to take a heavy cut the vibrations cause the fine adjuster screw to unwind and therefore reduce the depth of cut. The tightness of the plunge lock lever has no effect at all on stopping this.

I intend to disassemble the router and put it into a raising carriage mechanism inside a router table.

Will

 

[Eric The Viking]

OK, here it is:

It seems to be M8 (it's certainly not M6!), and it's 20mm thread length, so I'd say it would fit just fine, but I've never seen an Erbauer mitre saw, so use at your own risk, obviously.

In case you couldn't read the pic, the part no. is 1395207098, but i'm not sure if that's a Metabo or retailer number, nor if it came from Miles Tools or Power Tool Spares.

Electra Beckum became Metabo, but kept the model numbering sequence (although the current stuff is a complete change from the KGS 300 series). The last version of the KGS30x series was available until around five years ago, so spares should be easy to find.

E.

 

[Bill Derr]

I bought an Erbauer router to get a job finished when my Bosch router packed in mid way through a job (switch broke, 20 quid fix) it's ok actually (sort of) the base plate isn't truly flat but I can work around that but the most annoying trait of the thing is it doesn't have a spring loaded plunge release lever and despite making sure it's fully engaged the vibration during cutting loosens it and then it will just go down as far as it wants.

Noticed this happening on a worktop last week and just managed to stop in time before the cutter went right through the front of the top.

My Bosch, although now fixed is also due for replacement so this time I am definitely getting a Dewalt 625.

 

[mikeyc]

Thanks everyone for your responses in particular Eric for your detailed response. I spoke to Miles Tools this morning and they are sending a Makita screw that is the same size etc so this should do the trick.
Thanks
Mike