What actually happened to Elu?

[LFS19]

I had a couple of the first ELU 9.6 cordless drills and they were excellent at the time, I "re-celled" the batteries a few times and only threw them away last year. I remember they were bloody expensive even with the discount I got as branch manager.

I see those pop up on eBay a lot. Presumably the batteries are an issue now?

 

[redhunter350]

I have an original MOF96 however I would at some point like to acquire a 1/2 “ router so would be interested to know what’s the best option / make to buy.
Incidentally I have seen what looks like the Elu MFO96 in the Trend catalogue, any comments on this ?
John

 

[SammyQ]

Don't forget Perles!

 

[large red]

I have a Swiss made 177 the Dewalt 625 and Trend T10 clones along with far too many other routers from Festool to Katsu and if my workshop was burning down and I could only choose 1 it would be without hesitation the Elu, it's a design classic which is enforced by the fact that they are still trying to recreate it today

 

[Benchwayze]

I have an original MOF96 however I would at some point like to acquire a 1/2 “ router so would be interested to know what’s the best option / make to buy.
Incidentally I have seen what looks like the Elu MFO96 in the Trend catalogue, any comments on this ?
John

John.
I see a lot of use for the Bosch 'Professional Blue' range.
If you are a Pro, I suspect you'd plump for a Festool, but I have seen negative reviews even on those.

There used to be a guy on YouTube who stripped Festool's power tools, right down to component parts, gave an in-depth report on them. His commentary sounded as if he knew what he was on about. I'll try and locate one of the vids for you and send you the link.) It was a revealing series! I have a Bosh green upright router wich was the first one I bought. Still going strong too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oezp-_DcUgg

There you go!

HTH

John

 

[Lons]

I have an original MOF96 however I would at some point like to acquire a 1/2 “ router so would be interested to know what’s the best option / make to buy.
Incidentally I have seen what looks like the Elu MFO96 in the Trend catalogue, any comments on this ?
John

OOPs
replied to the wrong post

 

[Lons]

I had a couple of the first ELU 9.6 cordless drills and they were excellent at the time, I "re-celled" the batteries a few times and only threw them away last year. I remember they were bloody expensive even with the discount I got as branch manager.

I see those pop up on eBay a lot. Presumably the batteries are an issue now?

Yes don't think you can get the batteries although not at all difficult to buy cells and fit them yourself however it's really not worth the effort these days as modern battery technology is much superior and many cordless drills are cheap enough to throw away.

When the first Elu cordless were introduced they were a revelation, light and powerful enough for pro use with a price aimed at the pro market. We sold hundreds in a short time following the product launch. Those were significant sales in those days!

 

[José Mota]

Hi!

I’m a Portuguese woodworking hobbyist and we don’t have such a nice second hand tool market as you certainly have in UK.

I was always under the impression ELU branded tools we’re old school professional instruments, but by some of the above posts I realized that ELU tools made in Italy aren’t as good as elder ones?

Going straight to the point, I’m looking to buy my first good table saw (I had a new Ryobi two years ago and it was just no good at all) and an ELU ETS 3151 A2 sawking just appeared. It looks to be in a pretty good condition, but tag says “made in Italy” and manufactured year is 1998. Is this a good tool?

Thank you for you time!

Zé

 

[That would work]

Hi
When I was an apprentice at Berthon boat Co in Lymington back in around 1978 the Joiner I worked with sold me an Elu jigsaw (owned by his neibour) for £40. I have used it heavily over the years and it is still going strong. Enough said?

 

[Trevanion]

Going straight to the point, I’m looking to buy my first good table saw (I had a new Ryobi two years ago and it was just no good at all) and an ELU ETS 3151 A2 sawking just appeared. It looks to be in a pretty good condition, but tag says “made in Italy” and manufactured year is 1998. Is this a good tool?

Depends on what you want it for really. It's designed to be a rough carpentry job-site saw rather than a fine cabinetmaking saw but if all you want to do is rip timber it'll do that fine, just don't expect it to be super accurate and able to do loads of jig work. These like many of the later (90s) Elu equipment has a DeWalt equivalent, exact same machine just different name on the side and different colours. DeWalt even still makes a few of the old machines, these saws included.

 

[Argus]

This is all very encouraging.

I have an ELU MOF 131 from about 1988, all nicely liveried with the two-tone grey and an orange switch. As I recall it was a mighty beast with a kick-back like a mule, but did it work!

I made a lot of bespoke stuff with it..... big Oak solid doors and other heavy one-offs in those days and it did a brilliant job on hogging out meat for a final finish with hand-tools.

I went fully manual and quiet on the tool-side a long time ago and I haven't used it for at least 15 or 20 years...... it's been in the cupboard since, a bit grubby but I'll have to check it out to see it it still works and look at the electrics.

 

[adamwroath]

I know I'm a bit late to this thread but have recently been looking to buy an Elu MFF80 planer, however, I've also seen Elu MFF 81e models which look identical except for the blue trim instead of orange. Based on comments above, am I right to think this model was the same machine but produced following the purchase by B&D? The machine appears to have been made in Italy which would support that theory. Does anyone know if there were any other differences? Or if it was a good machine?
Thanks

 

[KingAether]

Going straight to the point, I’m looking to buy my first good table saw (I had a new Ryobi two years ago and it was just no good at all) and an ELU ETS 3151 A2 sawking just appeared. It looks to be in a pretty good condition, but tag says “made in Italy” and manufactured year is 1998. Is this a good tool?

I have the dewalt equivilent and while its a powerful and quiet saw, i wouldn't buy it again. Dust extraction is not a thing, it takes about 2 minutes to stop due to lack of break, it starts to push on the bottom of the bed at a full 45 degree's angle, the fence is bad. If these arent an issue for you its as i said, great, but for me in a tiny shop and long hair its far to unsafe

 

[Cabinetman]

Jfyi, previous poster re-awoke an old thread from Aug 2019, when people could walk about and talk to each other and table saws were powered by steam engines, twas a wondrous time to be alive.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

There's one safe way to tell the "proper" Elu kit.
Look at the power switches - all the original Swiss made stuff had orange coloured power switches and two tone (dark + light) grey bodywork.
Later Italian manufactured but Elu branded machines carried the Elu logo but the switches changed to blue plastic. The light grey disappeared from the colour scheme too. The Italian made machines just weren't as good.

I don't think that information is correct. Here is a Swiss-made 177e with blue power switches ...

Incidentally, one can fit the Dewalt DW625 dust extraction to the 177e, with a little modification.

I have two of these, one for hand use, and another in a router table, along with a MOF96 and MOF97 ...

Stripped 177e in router table ...

... with Router Raiser and Muscle Chuck for above-table bit-changing and adjustment ...

Dyed-in-the-wool Elu fan ...

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Nick.]

If only at the time when I was working for Elu 25+ years ago I could have pointed customers via time travel somehow to threads like this. A marketing dream for longevity and re-assurance.
Yes it was more expensive, but it was also v good quality - how can you say that at the time to customers looking to save £50 on alternatives..
Yup - I still have Mof97E router / MBH220 SDS / MH80 saw & ST84E jigsaw too - all still going strong after these years

 

[Lons]

If only at the time when I was working for Elu 25+ years ago I could have pointed customers via time travel somehow to threads like this. A marketing dream for longevity and re-assurance.
Yes it was more expensive, but it was also v good quality - how can you say that at the time to customers looking to save £50 on alternatives..
Yup - I still have Mof97E router / MBH220 SDS / MH80 saw & ST84E jigsaw too - all still going strong after these years

+1 Nick
My 96e is still going strong as is my jigsaw, sander gave up the ghost a while ago however (I still have the plate adapter for that somewhere I think) but the worst decision I ever made was sell my 177e as I ended up replacing that with a DeWalt 625 a few years later and it isn't nearly as well built.

I never saw you in the North East Nick, which patch did you cover? I was trying to remember the name of our B&D pro rep but can't, I remember his face from 30 years ago however. I left around '92/93 I think from memory maybe before your time.

 

[TheTiddles]

About 19 years ago I bought a Trend T5 as it was similar to the Elu I had grown up using (but had speed control, huge bonus). The Trend castings had the same identifiers on as the Elu made a decade or so before.

In the next ten years or so someone will say that their Katsu router is still going and that they don’t make them like they used to

Aidan

 

[Droogs]

@TheTiddles Tht's 'cos the on/off switch wont turn off lol

I love my katsii i do

 

[Sideways]

To Derek's info above, my personal experience of their routers up to this has been the Orange switchgear on the Swiss made and blue on the machines made in Italy but I can't argue with the name plate pictures you include so clearly the updated colours did come in before production ceased in Switzerland. Thanks for the correction.
Every mk1 or mk2 variant MOF177E that I've seen to date has been trimmed in Orange and made in Switzerland. Would I be right to guess your blue model is a MOF177E type 3 or 4 ?
Back in the days before Elu power tools were sold to Black and Decker, there was clearly a period of cooperation. You could buy a DeWalt powershop radial arm saw with Elu branding on it. I still own a sabre saw branded Elu that is a B&D design, but excellently built. It runs like a quality sewing machine.
At that time B&D I think still had an Industrial range of powertools that were very well built (back in the 80's), plain dark grey plastics, good bearings, etc. Easy to repair. Far better than the DIY and trade ranges. Sadly also long gone. I think my sabre saw is a B&D industrial model branded for or made under license by Elu.