Thread: Electra Beckum info please.

Hi John

I happen to be in the same boat, I have a BAS 500 WNB 14" machine and am unable to get this thing to saw straight. I am aware that Metabo currently have the license.
They however have no on site service "Thanks for the purchase BUT!"

Anyway let's see who responds and is able to help us further - Probably not the most popular saw, but is capable to do a few things I imagine.

Walter

HI walter k8
Thanks for the reply i have a carba- tek 14" bandsaw its not quite big enough for the work i do with bandsaw boxes i make, and i need some thing a little larger, there is one at auction next saturday i will have look at.

regards john.

Hi all,

the 500 and 600 are advertised as trade grade, the 316 and 250 are meant for the consumer market of spoiled home tool users with a thicker wallet. The 316 was judged "very good" by German consumer products testing organisations and the 250 as "good". The Germans are known as nitpickerish and "very good" can be taken seriously. But then these are consumer products. The 500 and 600 are sturdier machines and on first inspection, all features are there: more than 150 kilograms of weight in spite of the austere steel frame, 1.1 kW motor and ball bearing guide rollers and TCT-guards for the saw blade. But they can't hold a candle to e.g. the large Verboom bandsaw that i'm very fond of. This machine ia larger, twice as heavy, has very intricate veneer settings for blade guiding, much bigger guiding and drive wheel ball bearings and a cast iron work plate almost twice the size of the 500's. The price of one such machine will buy 5 or more of the largest EB types, so i guess it depends on what you expect and how much you want to shell out. Still, it is possible to achieve very precise results with EB bandsaws, by providing yourself what the machine should lack, just by adapting material thickness and workpace and watching the sawband sharpness very very closely. Like with jigsaws, any unevenness in sharpness between the left and right rows of teeth will result in the blade walking away from the intended pencil line. Even with the worst of band saws, you can compensate for lack of "built-in" precision by getting a feel for what the saw wants to do and come up with delicate steering countermeasures by yourself. Forward pressure should be minimal anyway, for myself i try to feel the teeth eating away at the wood by themselves and i just feed forward enough to keep that process steady. Without undue pressure on the guiding and thrust-absoring system of the bandsaw, there will be less compression on the sawblade itself, resulting in less deformation and wobble and a tendency to stray because of it.

As for the brand itself, Elektra Beckum is not widely known outside Germany. The spelling and sound of the brand name doesn't help much for foreign marketing, either. The firm was founded in 1964 by Günter Lubitz and Karl-Heinz Oberdick in the industrial town of Beckum in the western German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen as "Lubitz-Oberdick GmbH". They started off as an electric motor repair shop (exactly the same trade that Makita in Japan started off with in 1954). By 1969 the firm moved to much larger facilities to the nearby town of Meppen, in which there were also large metal foundry works. Here the Elektra Beckum name was used for the first time for tool machines that Lubitz and Oberdick produced themselves: electric bench grinders and table saws. After having set up their own metal plate processing and alloy casting facilities, EB expanded its program with other woodworking machines (routing table, thickenesser, band saw, jig saw table, sanding machine types), electric welding equipment, air compressors, water pumps, high pressure waterjet cleaners, generator sets up to 5 kVA and garden shredders. In such a versatile department EB's direct competitors were Scheppach from Ichenhausen and Hanning from Bielefeld. All of these three firms has the same way of going about their business: they make their own electric motors and much of their own platework and castings, combined with components bought form other manufacturers. The Scheppach-range of woodoworking machines was vaster and slightly better than the EB-range and Hanning water pumps and motors are to be found in more than 70% of all German washing machines and dish washers. Hanning bench grinders and small table saws and tile cutters were aimed at the budget side of pro and semi-pro markets.

EB had two daughter firms. In 1981 it launched the Durotex brand for the manufacturing and trading of shower cabins and bathroom equipment and in 1989 it launched the "Meppener Maschinenbau GmbH" (MMB), which produced a woodworking machine line for the consumer and budget semi-pro markets. In 1989 the Lubitz family purchased all the stock from Oberdick and became sole owner of EB.

In the 90's Metabo wanted a share in the stationary tool market but had never really made products in that league for itself. By that time it had much of its column drill and bench grinder program outsourced to Flott and the experience with stationary setups was limited to the typical accessory mountings to convert Metabo drills into table routers or table saws. Metabo had its eye on Elektra Beckum as the partner with the right size of production facilities, brand reputation and marketshare to incorporate it under Metabo's umbrella. By 1999 Metabo owned 89% of EB's shares and it officially announced total ownership of EB in 2003. By 2006, EB made stationary machines carrying the Metabo brand, were introduced in the now familiar dark royal blue livery.

Metabo has become a bit of a dark horse in the last decade. Established in 1924 by Closs and Schnizler as "Schnizler GmbH", joined by salesman Rauch in 1927, renamed into "Metabo" in 1929 and self-advertised as still family owned, it has some vague alliances today. It also has a plant in Shanghai and some of its present tool models are clearly made by the Hong Kong firm TechTronic Industry's facilities. On a large drill and a mixer/stirrer, Eibenstock gearboxes can be spotted. The brand also shops for existing models to be brand-engineered by others, in Metabo livery. Metabo's stationary machines originate from both Elektra Beckum's pro-line and its former budget MMB-line, as well as their own and hired Chinese lines. So you will have to look closely at each and every Metabo machine to judge its real quality, whereas you only had to read the Metabo name to rely on quality beforehand.

As for the EB-products prior to the Metabo-takeover, there was little wrong with those. They were never top notch because they were not made and marketed as such and they were a lot cheaper, albeit very good value for money. A good example are the EB compressors. The smallest model had a tank, pressostat, couplings, gauges, pump unit and motor all made by others, but these components were chosen well. The pump unit was East-German made and was orginally designed for the IFA truck, where it was bolted to the diesel engine as standard. Not a bad choice at all, since truck compressors turn for the same amount of time as the diesel engines do, so they clock a lot of running hours and get little maintenance. Therefore it was an excellent choice and these EB compressors were very good. The larger models had Italian pump units form equally reputable origins. The same goes for their other machines. Composed of own products and stuff made by others, but as a whole solid machines with impressive value.

greetings

gerhard

Thank you for the info and geneology of these brand firms.

I have acquired new tyres for my 2001 meppen made 500WBN bandsaw, Have unopenned new 3380mm - 6ppi blade. Now we start Co-Planer wheels .........etc
.......... oil, lube, grease...........set tension, close doors - Should cut like knife through butter.
I will comment on Monday

Wal.

Thank you GERHARD for the imformation on elektra beckum bandsaws.i went to an auction today but unfortunatly i missed out.

regards john t

Always a privilege to read your historical information, Gerhard. Just love it!!!!

TA