15/03/2024
To all reading this post, please do yourselves a favor and save yourselves a lot of wasted time, effort and stress and deal with a reputable machinery dealer this company would be more suited to been extras in a John Wayne Film!
I purchased a Wadkin SP12 Panel saw from them back in June last year and have only just recently got the saw running something like acceptable, and would be happy to upload my invoice as proof of purchase.
The machine was purchased as cleaned and checked, When I got the saw back to the shop and set up on the Saturday after collecting it on the Friday, I did spend some considerable time cleaning inside the saw as it was packed with dust and had clearly just seen a quick flash over with the airline in my view to remove any loose dust.
When I did get the saw all set up I found that the riving knife did not maintain a set distance between the blade knife when winding up and down as per regs.
I promptly phoned Rondean on the Monday who said there must be an issue somewhere with the saw (but let’s remember this saw had supposedly been cleaned and checked pre-collection) and to either return the saw to them or they would call in the next time they were passing or down in my area!
Taking the saw back was not an option for me and felt that I should not be having to return the saw at my cost for their mistakes not to mention the time to strip and then re-build it.
I did some further investigation and found the main casting which carries the main spindle and supports the riving knife was cracked hence when the blade was wound up and down the riving knife pivoted on one fixing bolt.
I phoned Rondean who advise me to strip it apart and take it back to them or send it to them and they would repair said casting! But why should I take my time to strip and return the damaged part when the machine had been sold as cleaned and checked but clearly hasn’t been properly checked.
I was unable to allow anybody to use said saw as it did not comply with regs regards the clearance between the blade and riving knife.
After numerous phone calls to Rondean, Ron Lewis eventually came down to address the fault, he advised that the part would need to be removed and taken away for repair! You don’t say.
Watching Ron Lewis work and try to strip the damaged part out was painful considering he was telling me how long he had worked in this industry and repaired countless machines over the years you could have fooled me!
He duly took the part away and returned a couple of days later with it welded together, once again same old painful effort to re-instate the part.
After been asked to operate the rise and fall operation, the weld cracked straight away.
Mmmmmm, was the response! I have another oner of these machines back at the warehouse so I will have to use that as a doner machine. So once again remove the part and return to their facility in Birtley.
I did request that if a replacement casting was to be fitted would he be indenting to fit new bearings in the casting to avoid any further issues to which he did confirm that this would be done as part of the repair regardless.
Ron Lewis returned once again a couple of days later and fitted the replacement casting, in all this had taken over seven weeks to get to this point after my initial call on the 20th June 2022.
So now the saw is legal to run, but was supposedly up to regs when purchased!
I noticed over the next few weeks how poor the cut was it was so rough; I got a better finish from my ripsaw!
I noticed that when the blade was slowing down that there was a large amount of wobble in the blade resulting in the poor cut in my view.
I once again contacted Rondean with my concerns and explained the situation and they gave me the name of an engineer and advised that I contacted him, obviously it was beyond their playground skills!
Once again, the issue was there for me to address and I promptly phoned the engineer and explained the issues with the saw.
Two week later the engineer finally sent out an engineer, he inspected the saw and determined that the spindle was bent within the replacement casting.
So, strip out again and out of action once again! ten days later the engineer returned with another casting and spindle from another doner machine.
He advised that the spindle in the old casting was slightly bent and that when the replacement bearings had been fitted, they had been applied with heat to get them to fit which had damaged them beyond what was suitable use although they still spun!
Rebuild the machine once again and run it up once again! It was better but still had issue’s so it was determined that the bearings in the motor were also worn and needed replacing.
So, the machine was striped apart once again with the motor taken away for repair! During stripping down the electrical connection box on the motor was found to be rammed solid with sawdust but let’s remember the machine had been cleaned and checked.
Both myself and the engineer commented on how much of a fire risk this was electric and sawdust don’t generally mix in my view when packed together.
Five weeks later the motor returned with new bearings and was rebuilt! The engineer had taken photographs of inside the motor when they stripped it apart to fit the bearings and found that was also rammed solid with dust and advised me that it was only a matter of time until a fire could have started, again I have images which I would be happy to upload.
But again, lest not forget that the saw had supposedly been cleaned and checked!
The saw is running the best it has probably run in years now, all told these additional repairs cost over £650.00 not to mention the lost time and hours spent trying to sort this out as well as the down time on the saw not running.
I have contacted Rondean by email and by phone over the last few months to try and come to some financial agreement over the issues on the machine but Rondean will not even return phone calls or reply to emails but seem to be able to post on social media regularly but can’t reply to customers with issues!
It is somewhat disappointing as when I initially contacted Rondean and there was a potential sale of a machine they could not contact me quick enough or often enough!
I paid what I feel was a substantial amount (£3420.00) for the saw after doing further investigation can find these saws for much less on line in a buy it now state but went to what I thought was a reputable dealer who may give some back up! How wrong I was.
If only Rondean were as good at getting back to customers or addressing issues with sold machines as what they were at social media posts they might do better.
Save yourself the stress and trouble and go elsewhere! Dealing with Rondean was the worst thing I ever did!
