In late '99 I ordered a Robland X-31 to take delivery in February
2000 (had to get the space for it and the rest of the shop cleaned out, walls skinned in 3/4" ply and floor epoxied). Took three days from the time I called and said "SHIP IT!" to it's arrival. The shipping arrangement was "On the shop floor" delivery. Good thing I called the freight company - they were going to do "curb delivery". A frantic call to LT took care of the potential problem.
Unpacking the X31, found a dinged jointer fence, badly scratched shaper rings and a handful of missing parts for the rip/shaper fence. Took digital photos and e-mailed them to LT with list of missing stuff. Ten days later I got the shaper rings and several days later the jointer fence- the latter once again dinged more than the price tag warranted. More phone calls, more e-mail photos ... Was nearly three months before I got what I'd paid for, despite phone calls and e-mail to Torben, the owner.
I demanded some compensation for all the hassles and got passed up the line - eventually to the bookkeeper who offered me a $50 gift certificate ($25 of out of pocket cost to them - and they don't sell ANYTHING that's $50!) I went ballistic and ended up being transfered to Jim Strain - now a honcho at Mini-Max. He offered an LT16SEC, delivered to my shop floor for $1100 - including tax, license, registration, custom mats and undercoating. He said he'd overnight it to me.
Turned out that "over night" was the name of the shipping company and it took four days to get here. Set it up and found a nasty twist AND dip in the table.- all screwed up right at the front of the blade. Another phone call and e-mail. Three days later UPS delivered a recently ground flat replacement table and a UPS return shipping tag for the bad table. Hadn't planned on getting a bandsaw but find it really handy for all kinds of things.
Now to be fair to LT they a) were opening the New Jersey East Coast facility b) chaning their computer system over to a new system c) there was a west coast dock strike d) the New Jersey facility was shut down e) they moved from Laguna Beach to Irvine f) their business almost tripled but the the number of grunts getting stuff put together, shipped and supported didn't g) some of their grunts and sales people left and started Mini-Max USA in Austin h) somewhere in there Mad Cow hit Europe i) Nine Eleven happened (this all over a two plus year period)
LT also didn't have much competition for the Euro Prosumer market, Hammer being the more upscale competitor - and Felder for the obscenely well to do woodworker. Mini-Max, Rojek and the like were just starting in the USA market.
Hell, I made a trip to the Robland factory in Brugge Belgium just to see how they set up the X31 and wrote my own manual (of a sort but much better than nothing - since the Robland "manual" was more of a parts manual and LT's manual was an embarassing joke)
That trip for those interested
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the Draft Set Up Instructions for any orphanX31 owners out there (all one line so watch the linewrap)
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to LT - the stuff they sell to the hobbyistand small shops is a very small part of theirtotal business so their support is proportional.You'll get more techinical support from a YahooGroup but that's even true for Felders. Bottom line, for a tad over $7K, I'd go with LT for an X31 and LT bandsaw again.
charlie b san jose, ca