giantbeat":1zmhf5db said:
heimlaga":1zmhf5db said:
There is no need for any support and warranty on a well built stationary woodworking machine.
The electrics can be repaired with standard parts and mechanical repairs are rarely a problem if you are a bit handy and know a local machinist who can turn and mill new parts to fit. What one man can make another man can repair.
700 pounds is roundabout equal to my total cost for a 100 years old 24" E.V.Beronius bandsaw which i bought for little more than scrap value and rebuilt to modern industrial standards and as new condition. I made a motor mount and fitted a secondhand three phase motor instead of the old line shaft setup. Made new wheel guards and blade guards and belt guard. Retyred and reballanced the wheels. Fitted a modern electronic brake. Made new blade guides.
good for you, i love the idea of anyone repurposing & re generating old equipment & bringing it back to life to continue to be used.... but i have not asked anyone to recommend me a old machine to do up... i don't have time, fiddling & fixing up old machines is not what i want.... i have spent 12 months doing that with other machines and don't want to deal with it again.
i have £700 a get a working machine i can use, other than the setup I'm not looking at a project, i have been watching ebay for months nothing comes up close enough to me, i can't travel to wales like YorkshireMartin has, i don't have a vehicle big enough to collect machinery (i have a polo).
I'm going to stick my neck out and at the risk of teaching grandma to suck eggs or sounding like an arse, I'm going to say it anyway, because I'd hate for anyone to go through the crap I did.
Many people recommending a 352 didn't start by selecting such a machine. They started with a chinese made machine. Virtually anything you can buy under say £3k, comes from China. Decent bandsaws start at about £2k but really decent (EU made) ones are far more expensive. Prohibitive for most of us.
I absolutely understand what you're saying about being new and warranty and so on (I'm the same!), but let me tell you a story in brief.
Not knowing any different, I ordered a brand spanking new planer/thicknesser. I'm not going to name the brand again here but suffice to say it's very well known. It cost me over £800 all told and was rated for professional use. I'm not a professional, so I "over specced", on purpose, or thought I had. I had so many issues with it right from the moment of delivery, that you wouldn't believe. Electrical, mechanical, cosmetic. All of which were down simply to shoddy build quality and lack of quality control. Customer service was first class, but still, it took well over a month before I could return it and by that point I had no desire for a replacement. It left me in an awful quandry, I couldn't prepare any stock. Every alternative in that price bracket was chinese made and I had (I think rightly) no reasonable expectation that they would be any better. I couldn't afford a new machine, as real quality was in excess of £5k.
It's true to say some people have good experiences with Chinese machines, but in all honesty, it's a shot in the dark, as many former owners of such things will testify. Ultimately, it depends on what you're prepared to put up with. There's a moderator on here who has a record power bandsaw and loves it. There are others who've had endless problems. YMMV.
In my moment of frustration and knowing I wouldn't trust Chinese made machines, I realised that I had to make a choice. Either get someone else to plane/thickness my stock or stump up. I stumped up. I bought a 2nd hand Sedgwick. It's 10 years old but from the get-go functioned as if it was brand new once I'd properly commissioned it and sharpened the blades. These old machines just need to be looked after and carefully sourced, thats all. Sedgwick are made in Leeds.
Don't think that by buying new in that price bracket and having a warranty, you'll get a trouble free machine that lasts years. It's very likely you won't.
It's your money so you must choose, but the key point here is, *DONT* assume that a brand new chinese made machine will not turn into a long term project, because its very likely it will. Not only that, but the potential for long term issues is far far higher than if you buy a used english made machine of the old school. If you're unlucky like me, your brand new china made machine won't run at all when first delivered. Mine went through 3 seperate starting capacitors and then it ran for about 5 seconds before blowing up again. Meanwhile, the cam chain had worn a groove in the outer casing. It was just nuts.
As I say, far more experienced people than me recommend old english machinery for a very good reason. Any new machine is a project. These are not plug and play items, all need commissioning, all need maintenance.
There are couriers that can collect for you. If you need help locally unloading, then I'm sure someone from here would help you. I have a pallet truck for example.
There is another very good reason for selecting an older industrial machine. Resale. A genuine industrial machine like a Startrite, Wadkin or Sedgwick will ALWAYS fetch good money if you need or want to sell it on. With anything made in China, you'll take a larger hit, especially if you bought new.
Don't fence yourself in because of practicalities, is all I'm saying. We have all been there
PS. Even if you personally hired a van to collect such a machine. If you paid £500 quid or so for a startrite 352 with a cast table and all the accessories and ducting (I had 20 odd new blades thrown in too), you're absolutely quids in vs. a new chinese bandsaw.
