Originally Posted by
Keith Weber
I was told that the replacement cost on my F45 was $35,000. 2001 Model, 7.5hp, 3400mm slider, scoring, digital readouts on the rip fence and crosscut fence, and Duplex angle gizmo. The Elmo, with the CNC fences and stops would surely be in the $40-50K range, as mentioned. I purposely looked for one without the CNC fences because I don't use the saw to generate an income, and it would be very expensive to repair if it ever broke. Mine have digital readouts, but I have to manually position the fence and stops. If a readout packed it in, I could just revert to the manual measurement scales, so there would be no down time.
The F45 is a fantastic saw. They thought of everything on it. If you lay the rip fence down on its low profile side, the saw senses that you did this and adjusts the rip fence digital readout automatically to compensate. The roller at the end of the crosscut fence is so smooth, you'd swear it was turned on a lathe after the bearings were set. It puts a smile on my face every time I use it.
If your door is only 37 1/4", though, I'm afraid that you're not going to get an F45 through it. You'd need about a 46" opening to get it through if you left the slider on (highly recommended, as they're usually dialed in by an Altendorf technician. Even if you took the slider off, the cast base is 38" wide, and you'd have to strip everything including the operator's panel to get it that narrow. Personally, I'd cut a bigger door before I'd pass on having my saw, though.
I'm not sure about Martins, aside from the fact that finding a used one will be next to impossible, and they're probably at least every bit as expensive as an Altendorf. The Altendorf's seem to be more plentiful.