Perhaps I will add to my observations that ply or timber is not the material to use in a mechanical restoration. These
machines are designed in metal to exacting spec's and whilst no one probably can stop amateurs remanufacturing
parts of them in timber, my approach would be 'don't'.
It's just a bandsaw. On a farm they popup as used sometimes for sawing slaughtered carcasses or being part of a
'bundle' in a clearing sale. I used one much larger than this thing in my father's factory and strength and alignment
are of the essence in mechanical safety, alertness and skill in the use. They cut very quickly between the fingers of
'high risk takers' and people in messy surroundings getting off balance a moment. Ok.. Swiss made is a plus but
you'd WANT to restore the thing as opposed to seeing it as a tool for much as I loath "Made in RPC" there is
reasonable DYI gear around if you seek well...or even do to second hand machinery places. eBay considers
itself above us, government and feeds government information about us but it is far from being the only
source of second-hand goods. Expand your vision to see a panorama and support small businesses. Patience
really is a virtue in restoration work....not becoming obsessive.
I'm also circumspect on amateur speed changing for band saws... Speed control is essential in drilling machines
as commonly the wrong drills are used for materials . In an era when (and Foyster was wrong) people use HSS
drills for timber, drilling at incorrect speeds. "sharpening" drills incorrectly, working off the side of
grinding wheels, not 'truing' grinding wheels, deep planing with power planes, forcing blunt tools into materials,
leaning on drilling machines, not uncommonly breaking drills , running drills at speeds which overheat them and
resist cutting, not reading the material coming from the drill, overusing sabre saws, unsafely using handheld
circular saws and so on it seems lost that there are optimum speeds for cutting and drilling various materials.
Varnishing and French polishing are today pretty much a farce. For that reason the exacting tradesman is a
great find.
My denial of 'Foyster' is based on that there are vastly less craftsmen amongst than when hand tools were primary.
What we have more greatly are 'tradesmen' out of touch with materials, learning poor techniques from utube '
experts', and numerous doing poor and incomplete apprenticeships. using power tools and nail guns, no longer
notching noggings into studs for example and working on the fact that 'it all gets hidden'.
I think my summary of the bandsaw in question is that it isn't anything out of the box but that a patient restoration
could give personal satisfation and perhaps some occasional use. As for paying eu3000 for one...are they cretians
or cretins? I wouldn't bank on that as a profit in waiting. That's all from me.
