Hi Woodworkers,
I made the big mistake of spending three days at the San Mateo CA show last weekend. And.... am in the final stages of negotiating for a new MiniMax combination jointer/planer and a saw with formating table. Also bought a Delta X series variable speed drill press. This will replace my Robland Combination Machine and Shopsmith. Don't ask me why. I just want to. So, the following is getting spread around the net and ads. The following are two balanced reviews of the Robland and the realistic pros and cons.
- Approximately 13 year old Robland X31. I guess I will have to dig up a serial number to determine exact age.
- Very good condition. Everything works well. Yellow plastic euro guard is missing the little plastic lift lever, but it is not a practical problem. I am using multiple rubber bands in lieu of a spring to fine tune the spring action of the guard. Looks gintchy but works great. Easy to put stock spring on. Missing one 6x6 sheet metal cover to the saw mechanism on the rail side of the saw. Makes it easy to vacuum out sawdust periodically. Minor scratches on flat part of rail.
- Well tuned and aligned. With care on the move it should pretty much stay that way.
- Mobility kit and tow bar.
- Shaper kit with replaceable cutters. Lightly used.
- Short very stiff rip fence for up to about 10" wide rips which works just fine. A centrally mounted (above the mortiser chuck) jointer fence is reversed facing the saw blade and does it for wide rips. Works fine but requires adjusting to parallel miter slot each time it is installed. I just use a perfectly square piece of MDF to get it into initial parallel alignment each time I put the fence on. Once aligned it stays that way for different rip widths. Not as nice as Biesemeyer fence but does the job. Some people have added a Biesemeyer fence very successfully.
- Mortising table with a set of HSS bits in good shape.
- Conventional HSS jointer knives in good shape (no dings), but nearing time for a first sharpening.
- Full documentation and a collection of good messages and ideas from the Yahoo! Robland group.
- All jigs, spanners, tools and accessories. Zero width blade insert.
- Transportation would be the responsibility of the buyer. I moved it fairly easily from San Diego to Grass Valley by removing the rail, sliding table. Three of us muscled it into a low bed U-haul trailer with blocks and ramps. Much easier would be a truck with lift gate. I think a moving company might do it in California for perhaps $500 (cost of a recent piano move to Ojai.) You probably have ideas on this as well.
Let me know what you think on price. If you aren't interested I would appreciate marketing ideas. I have an old Shopsmith 500 with internal upgrades I am going to sell to make room for the J/P and a drill press. The Shopsmith makes a great drill press (variable speed, large adjustable table), an ok lathe, and a super disk sander. The combination of the X31 and the Shopsmith make up a very nice small shop on a limited budget. Perhaps $3000 for the both might be a sweet setup for the right person.
Regards,
Jerry Hall, 530.273.4234, snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobalxxx.net (remove x's)