Kity, Axminster and SIP are all perfectly good. But my understanding is that Kity was made for hobbiests, and they’re all engineered to a price; there was a recent thread on there about SIP saw woes! The top end Axminster machines are a different matter.
Some of the small models from Axminster are popular, particularly amongst those with limited space. However it baffles me how often I see people have constructed big benches and extensions for these machines; that’s time and money that could have been put into a better machine in the first place! And there are some small machines from Startrite, for example.
If I were buying second hand I would look for an SCM, Wadkin, Startrite etc, which will be a better saw and hold their value better than used Kity, SIP, Axminster etc.
Roughly speaking:
c. £500, a scruffy but working machine (give it a little TLC and you’ll have a good machine), or a 3phase bargain
c. £750, a good example, significantly better than a used SIP, Axminster, iTech etc
c. £1000, a very nice example, with bells and whistles such as a slider, perhaps extractor included and so on
You’re going to need to move, (partly) disassemble/re-assemble and adjust any machine, new or second hand, so the investment of time and effort into a used machine isn’t necessarily that much greater than a new machine.
