Nother Kansas Gloat!!

[Chip Lindley]

Kansas City and points a bit further West into Kansas have been very kind to me this year for some major bargains.

My lastest GLOAT came home after a 15hr. round trip to Wichita KS Thursday amidst the Mizzouri Monsoons! Rained on us all the way out and back!! No KC BBQ this trip, but we did stumble onto an excellent Chinese smorgasbord in Wichita! Yummy!

The Makita 2116 resaw was one of the first two dedicated machines offered back in the early 80's. Hitachi's B600A was favored in FWW's 1983 comparison, but for $450 (+ $120 for gas, meals, and a map) I feel I can live with the Makita's *deficiencies*! For a 25yr-old machine, it's in fine condition! That surface rust on the table cleaned up just fine with WD40 and a *red* ScotchBrite pad.

The saw came with a custom phenolic resaw fence and a plethora of decent blades. Among these are two of the 2-1/2" wide resaw monsters with stellite teeth. Yayy!

[Mike Heidrick]

That is a sweet Monster!! Congrats!

[Ben Martin]

Sweet bandsaw, but what are those lurking the background of the last picture??? Wouldn't want to cover them in sawdust!

[Chip Lindley]

Ben, the vintage autos were in the garage of the seller. Was a photo he sent me before the purchase. Seller did all metal work, and hoped he could adapt the Makita to run slow enough to cut metal. He gave up his quest and bought a bonafide metal-cutting bandsaw! His bad luck, My Good Fortune!

[Dan Friedrichs]

Nice saw, Chip. Just to make you feel better about your deal, I'll tell you that I saw one of those saws for sale in Denver recently for $650 (IIRC). Nice score!

[Chip Lindley]

Thanks a lot Dan! I figure with new Hitachi CB75F's going for $3000+, and used ones bringing $1000+, I didn't hurt myself much. I've seen very few Resaws for sale at any price, (none, within driving distance). Big freight charges bust a good deal Fast!

I've looked for a year for a real deal on an 18"-24" bandsaw with 12" resaw capacity. No Luck! If I were independently wealthy, I'd probably have every expensive toy I could cram into an warehouse-sized home shop building! But, alas, I have a 24x24 attached garage crammed about as full as possible. I truly am afraid I may give myself an appendectomy, negotiating too fast from one side of the shop to the other! LOL

[Jay Houghton]

Hi Chip,

I don't frequent this forum much since we have our own club here in Michigan...but I'm looking at an opportunity to buy a Makita 2116 and was wondering if you can share your thoughts now that you've had yours for a while. This one is a little rough and has a 3-phase motor so I'll have to do some upgrades to get it to work. I think I may be able to snag it for as little as $150 so kind of hard to go wrong at that price. However, I've restored a lot of tools and with the base, blade, motor, etc. it can add up.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any thoughts I might benefit from.

Jay
Ann Arbor, MI

[Bruce Page]

Jay, it's been several months since Chip has been on SMC. You might have better luck by sending him an email through his profile.

[Mike Heidrick]

I looked at the pics you posted of the saw and thought man that would be easy to mod for metal with 1.5hp treadmill motor. Enjoy it!