My new toy...It's been a while since I started this thread so I thought I would give an update about where I am in this process. Shortly after posting my first thoughts on this thread, I almost pulled the trigger on the baileigh miter head bandsaw. The price was right, the specs would meet my needs, and it would fit in my garage. But something kept nagging at me. I was spending a bunch of money on a tool made it china. Now, don't get me wrong, I own my fair share of harbor freight tools, but usually nothing that I would cry over throwing in the trash if it broke or didn't do its job well.
So, back to the drawing board, I keep scouring craigslist, ebay, and auction/liquidation websites. Well, I finally found someone willing to part with an Ellis 1800 for....$500. I almost fell out of my chair and couldn't get on the phone quick enough. We exchanged some pics and settled on a date in late September to pick it up. Spent about $100 on a 16ft penske truck with a lift gate (since this thing weighs in at about 700 lbs) and drove 60 miles to go pick it up. Long story short, I arrive, check out the saw. The phrase, "rode hard and put away wet" comes to mind. this guy knew not a whole lot about this saw or just plain mechanics of a machine, which is scary considering since he had several cars in process of restoration behind him. The Ellis 1800 is a great miter head saw- but it's dry cut saw. Someone did not let this guy onto that and as I tried a couple of pieces of metal to test cut, he proceeded to dump about a quart of used motor oil all over the place. He said, "I'm hell on oil" whatever that means.
Summary: The blade was on backwards, cut awfully, couple of obviously exploded bearings, some missing bolts, and a terrible flat black paint job. Well, I decide that this thing was in rough shape, but parts were still available for it, it was american made, and I would probably never outgrow it. So, against my better judgment, I negotiated him down to $400 and threw it on the truck.
I brought it home and inside my garage, it looks like a big black metal horse just threw up in my house and pissed oil everywhere. I spend about 8 hours cleaning this thing up and putting it back in working order. The coating of oil over everything must have helped since every bolt turned with ease. I also called Ellis and ordered some spare parts. Then I started replacing some bearings. (I got about $100 worth of brand new sealed bearings from the PO, because he said that he thought it cut fine and didn't need to put them in)
Here's some pics after I cleaned up the mess and got this thing working again. I replaced 12 bearings in total, a new blade, chip brush, and a few misc bolts and knobs. I have to say that Ellis' customer service is one of the best I have used so far. I probably have called them at least 15 times, spent all kinds of time having them walk me through the disassembly/reassembly process, and tuning this thing. We finally got it to the point that the saw cuts almost dead on, but the blades keeps slipping off the drive wheel. So, after a bunch more phone calls, I decided to order a new drive wheel. They really tried hard to keep me from having to order a new one, since it's $150, but in the end we both agreed that there was no further adjustment that could be done and everything else was working as it should and in spec.
I'll update after I put on the new drive wheel. If it solves the problem, I'll pull everything apart again and paint this thing properly.
This is what my total cost should be.
Ellis 1800 Bandsaw = $400
Bearings, Blade, and Misc bits = $200
New Drive wheel = $150
Spray paint = $20
Penske Truck Rental = $100
TOTAL = $870
It's a bit more than I wanted to spend. I was budgeting $500-600 before, but if all works out well, I think I got a great saw that would be $3500 new and something that I'll be able to keep using for many more years to come. Enjoy the pics.
Sent from my iPhone using IH8MUD
