On Dec 30, 2020, at 8:40 AM, Jeff <onehpbmw@...> wrote:

?

You've gotten farther than I have.? I've been WAITING to take delivery since March.? The machine allegedly arrived in DE before Thanksgiving.? My "sales rep"--air quotes intended--assured me that he and the company would work with me regarding delivery to my home shop.? I received a notice that the A3 had been shipped AFTER they'd sent it to their? shipping company.? That company has had the machine on the lot for 10 days now, first as a result of the snowmaggedon we had here and now because their drivers have decided they can't drive up my hill--a moving company, and multiple other shippers have had no difficulty doing so, but apparently it's too much to ask of them.? I, not Felder logistics, am currently attempting to arrange to have a piano mover or other moving company transfer the machine onto a second truck, at my expense of course, and bring it to my home.

Adding insult to injury, the dial indicator/handwheel was "backordered".? Multiple calls and e-mails to Felder have gone unanswered.? I have never had to work this hard to spend nearly 6K before in my life.? I've used the machine elsewhere before, and can vouch that, assuming it hasn't been dropped in delivery, it's a great machine.? Felder's customer service is, without question, the absolute worst I've ever experienced in nearly 70 years of shopping.? I can guarantee that when I buy another woodworking machine,? no matter how terrific their products are, the hassle and non-responsiveness of their salespeople will assure that I look elsewhere.

On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 6:32 AM <ppc970@...> wrote:

I took delivery of a new Felder FB 610 bandsaw back in October and encountered the following issues which were introduced during the re-packaging process out of Delaware (confirmed by a Felder tech):

1.) Various gouges and dents on the front upper and middle quadrants of the machine base frame.

2.) Broken adjustment cam on the upper blade guide (for whatever reason they actually tossed the broken cam into another parts bag enclosed with this machine).?

3.) Bent blade protection device and possibly distorted rack for the upper blade guide (covered below).?

I contacted Felder and they sent a service tech out to perform a quick on-site inspection a few days after delivery. We put together a replacement parts list to cover anything damaged in transit. I was told that our replacement parts would arrive within the next 4 weeks. More than 60 days later I still don’t have any updated schedule for the parts I’ve requested. I’ve had to call or email Felder repeatedly (to little success) in order to get information pertaining to shipping for additional in process orders or replacement parts from the service department.?

I’ve spent multiple weeks attempting to get this bandsaw to re-saw straight without success. The rack for the upper blade guide wasn’t 90 degrees from the table nor was it parallel to the blade. I’ve re-adjusted this component nearly a dozen times (my father and I have rebuilt the saw multiple times) and I’ve never been able to get it closer than 1 degree off 90 for a ~1-2” depth of cut and this angle changes by nearly a degree when moving from ~2” to 20” making the bandsaw useless for wide re-saw which is one of my intended use cases. I also feel a concerning amount of play within the gear mechanism so I’m starting to suspect this issue might be a defect somehow introduced during manufacturing. It’s really too bad since I bought a Hammer A3-41 planer / thicknesser combination machine earlier this year and I love it (awesome machine with zero problems).?


I’m starting to find Felder’s service department disappointing since I asked them what the proper torque values are for the two M6 bolts which control the rack adjustment within the upper frame -- I was given the following response: “good and tight but not too much”.

Really??

I’ve verified that the upper and lower wheels are coplanar (they are -- although this shouldn’t matter) and my 3/8” blade is tracking the center of both wheels. I’m at the point where I think I should just request a replacement since I’ve been stuck without a functional bandsaw for the last 3 months and Felder hasn't been terribly motivated to resolve the issues we’ve encountered with this machine. Any advice is greatly appreciated and I apologize for the rant.