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Ever heard of a "Brobo" cold saw ? (picture)

It looks like Brobo, Haberle and Doringer are all very similar.
I wonder what happened, did the companies drop that particular model and someone else started to manufacture it.
If the saw is built like the Dohringer or better it is probably a well built machine.
Kevin.
 
Try Austrailian?........ any help?

http://www.brobo.com.au/
I'll be damn. Still I wonder if they are like Dorringer in that they (Dorringer) started out German but were sold to an American and now are made in California, USA ?

But I guess my saw could be pure Aussie made, but with a German motor... :scratchchin:

I'll email them a photo of mine and see what they say.
 
I have a brobo, bit newer than that one though, they are an old established Aussie company. Good quality saws, I have used 20 year old versions that don't seem to perform any different to a new one.
 
I have a brobo, bit newer than that one though, they are an old established Aussie company. Good quality saws, I have used 20 year old versions that don't seem to perform any different to a new one.
Did the 20 year old ones look identical to that eBay one ? Mine, being non ferrous, doesn't have the gearbox but the paint color, blade guard, rotating base, fence and pneumatic clamps are identical to the one on eBay...and it's the only cold saw I've ever seen where those features were dead ringer with mine.

Curious that on the Brobo website they mention offering non ferrous saws, but don't actually show one.
 
Mil,

The Brobo website does show a non-ferocious saw -

http://www.brobo.com.au/coldsaws2.html

Brobo (sometimes known here as Brobo Waldown) is quite well-known in NZ, I have always thought the gearbox models were Australian made, not sure about any European connection with the belt-drive type though. I have looked at them over the years when we were looking for saws, for some reason we never bought one. I seem to remember thinking the (manual) vice looked a little light, or maybe I just didn't like their the way the vice looked...its a long time ago now.

I have a fairly poor 2006 catalogue photo showing a NF360C non-ferrous saw, can't post it at present, but could do so later if required. It seems to have a slightly deeper base than the saw on the Brobo website.

Another cold saw you probably won't hear about is the NZ-made "Bramley".
 
Did the 20 year old ones look identical to that eBay one ? Mine, being non ferrous, doesn't have the gearbox but the paint color, blade guard, rotating base, fence and pneumatic clamps are identical to the one on eBay...and it's the only cold saw I've ever seen where those features were dead ringer with mine.

Curious that on the Brobo website they mention offering non ferrous saws, but don't actually show one.

No, the only ones I have ever used where steel cutting low speed ones, but there is a pic on their website of the high speed one also
http://www.brobo.com.au/coldsaws2.html
They also have a US operation, don't know if they are made there, or imported from here.
http://www.brobo-usa.com/machines.cfm
 
Don.

Yours and the one in the EBay link I’m most certain would be Australian made. They have hardy changed in look for as long as I can remember. I’ve done some service work in their manufacturing plant in the past.

Your German motor, that’s probably an AEG? They do that because they also make Bench and pedestal grinders & buffers. They tended to use better quality motors due to balance & run out.

Ventura Saw in Cali and the Brobo – US domain, they are agents. There still made and exported from here

The Brobo name is that well know here, its kind of generic. Cold saws get called Brobo’s whether they are or not.

There have never been cheap. The S350D ferrous, on the stand, two speed (21 & 42), 3 ph is in my recent Hare & Forbes catalog at $4,925 AUD. Exchange rate today is about 91 cents in your favor.

Regards Phil.
 
Well, as it turns out my saw may indeed be German...check out the history of Brobo below ! :reading:

http://www.brobo-usa.com/brobo-parts-legacy.htm

I suspect my saw is pre 1985 as I bought it used about 1990 and it seemed kinda "old" then. Interesting the mention of Haberle but no clarity on why exactly. Actually I now think my saw may be a Haberle after all, as I just found the below photo and mine looks almost identical to that one....even the open base is the same.

http://www.haberleusa.com/Haberle/Al 380/Al 380.htm
 
My understanding is that Brobo traded independently until merging to become Brobo Waldown. They made tool post grinders under both names.

A friend has an older 2 speed 3 phase cold saw which is belt driven and my machine is a single speed single phase with the motor mounted directly into the back of the casting. The casting shown in the Ebay picture looks very much like my Brobo Waldown.

The suggestion that Brobo is nearly a "generic" term for cold saws here is erroneous in my opinion. There are quite a few other brands available here also. I also have a Macc 2 speed 3 phase saw. Made in Italy I think.
 
For shame Limy. You need to be a bit more careful with your spelling. Phonetic spelling is corruption inflicted by other antipedian brothers. There's no need to follow suit.

Ain't it a bitch Damien? being perfect's bloody hard work from this side of the black stump,..... never mind mate, being 1/4 Aus myself is my excuse and I'm sticking to it:)
 
Damien.

The suggestion that Brobo is nearly a "generic" term for cold saws here is erroneous in my opinion

There’s a vast difference between being a generic term and exclusive. In my limited experience as some one that works in a different industrial plant most days of 6 in the week. No matter where I am, from Karratha to Perth on the West coast, and Rockhampton to Hobart on the East coast.

If I’m in a strange plant and need to cut some thing. If I walk up to a bloke and ask him if he has a “Brobo”. He would generally point me in the direction of the steel rack. Beside that will be a machine with a circular HSS blade.

It doesn’t seem to matter if the name on that machine is Macc, Thomas, Hare & Forbes, Herless, Kaltenbach or Kalamazoo. Asking for a Brobo will all ways find it.
Much like asking for a Xerox, that aught to find you a photocopier machine.


Don.

There’s some thing fishy about that history link you posted.
http://www.brobo-usa.com/brobo-parts-legacy.htm

A search of ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission) shows then to be in existence long before that claim of 1972.
Merged new company. Brobo Waldown. Established. 11/03/1975
http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=005_091_574&juris=9&hdtext=ACN&srchsrc=1

The original company Brobo Machinery (Vic) Pty. Ltd. Was Deregistered 5 months later, 17/8/1975
http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=004_484_235&juris=9&hdtext=ACN&srchsrc=1

Official records prior to 1975 are hard to find. Several sources on the net put their foundation as 1947.
http://www.brobo.com.au/about.html

http://www.semma.com.au/MemberDetail.asp?ID=787

“Established as a saw manufacturing workshop in 1947, Brobo Group Pty Ltd, has been progressively expanding their modest saw enterprise to be recognised as one of Australia's leading saw manufacturing companies.”

To the best of my knowledge, they were never a Dutch or German company. So its got me stuffed how they were in Holland in 1972 and Germany in the late 70’s if they were founded and been here since 1947.

Some thing is weird there.

Regards Phil.
 
To the best of my knowledge, they were never a Dutch or German company. So its got me stuffed how they were in Holland in 1972 and Germany in the late 70’s if they were founded and been here since 1947.
Phil, interesting research. I called Brobo USA today (in California) and the guy I spoke with confirmed my saw is probably Haberle. He also said that Haberle made some of the Brobo saws back in the 80's and before...so perhaps the deal is that Brobo was always an Australian company, but more like a distributor at first...such that some of their first saws were actually made in Holland (by Bewo ??), and later by Haberle...and now Brobo is a manufacturer and makes their own saws ?
 
Don.

That could be the case. It just that its always seemed to be one of those companies that was all ways there. I have a vivid memory of my old man looking at those saws when I was a kid. Probably about 10 so 1973 ish. At the old factory when they were at Argus St. in Moorabbin. I’m sure they were making saws then.

Jump forward a few decades. One of the very first jobs I did when I started my company was an up grade on one of their lathes. This would have been 1988. They had this big beast of a German Boehringer lathe. Had it since new, early NC, late 70’s that needed some work and a CNC retrofit.

I spent some time in that plant. Dirty dingy cast iron covered joint from fettling and machining those cast iron housings. It just looked like they had been doing it forever then.

Its probable that yours being the high speed non ferrous version, maybe they did import them. Kind of strange that yours would get a Brobo label on it, if it was made in Germany, but shipped to the U.S. I’d assume that Haberle would have been exporting to the States in their own rite for decades.

Our Trade show, Austech is coming up. But not until the end of May. I’d normally bump into those guys. It’s the one time of the year every one is in the same place. If I remember, I’ll ask.

Cheers Phil.
 








 
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