Thread: Hobby Bandsaw

Originally Posted by Sigidi

The mill 'frame' is so flexible it lurches forward and backward during cutting in the vertical and while cutting horizontally it also shifts side to side dramatically. I feel this was shown in the boards produced and the gouges the saw made in the surfaces of the timber cut. The variation in the saw marks alone was enough to make the timber ungradeable..

So it's ECO, as in low budget ECOnomical ?

I couldn't guess as to how much money has gone into producing it, don't even know how much they sell for.

I'd have to say the ECO part was an attempt to get the green vote - my vote is Extremely Cr@&&y Ordinance

Down here in sw WA Lewis saws as they were once known really took off in the early nineties and they were everywhere. ther are not so many now or they are hiding in sheds but the guys I do know that have them say they prefer them because you walk outside the rails . I have operatd and offbeared on both the eco and lewis and seeing as they are both worth around the 18k mark, to my mind the lucas wins hands down for the simple reason being that its easyier to opperate alone and aftersales support from lucas is brilliant. Im just doing a deal on a second hand 8-27 for 5.5k and have been speeking to lucasmill about parts support to set it up as a slabbing mill and they are very helpful

Hey Nifty, mate in 5 years I can't fault Lucas for service on anything, there has even been a time when I rang to order a part - happened to speak with Warren Lucas (lovely fella, knowledgeable, easy going, just great) and was pleasantly surprised to be told "that shouldn't break at all, you new one is in the mail, no charge" Warranty was honoured to the extreme, I thought I would get some grumbles about some of the stuff, but no problems, everything is just sorted.

Always able to get hold of someone on the phone, especially when doing something a bit out of the ordinary with the mill (probably like you are finding with setting up the slabbing mill) when I needed to do those 350mm square posts, rang Lucas, got hold of Ian Schulz (another great fella, knows a huge amount about milling and timber) he gave me some tips and off I went...

You know whats coming next...







I love my lucas

im gunna keep outa this but wanna keep track of it.

Now Carl are you gonna say you won't express your opinion on the forum? You've seen the saw working, which way does your vote swing? for or against?

You do more healthy walking with the eco/lewis saw . as the width adjustment is on both end frames . have seen a lot of good timber cut on them though . Bob

Having looked at them pretty closely, I'd say that Arthur's biggest problem with the ecosaw is the fact that he has changed from the original Lewis square section trussed rails to a triangular section, oriented with the one face horizontal and one face vertical, with the bracing side running at 45 degrees or so to the vertical between them. What happens is that when the rails are pushed to one side by the milling forces, they twist due to the assymetric section causing one side to rise and the other to fall. It's exacerbated by the rails being unrestrained vertically on the end-frames, meaning the twisting force is free to act unopposed. If anyone has ever tried to bend a piece of angle iron they'll know what i mean.

He could remove the problem by changing to his rails so that the section is oriented symmetrically, with just one vertical face. It's simple mechanics.

The original design was entirely symmetrical and square, so there was no such reaction induced by the milling forces.

Apart from the concerns about post-sales service, the main reason I shied away from the Ecosaw was the rails.