mikeoleson
Member
Hi all,
I moved to Lisbon, PT from the US relatively recently and have been enjoying browsing around the UKW forums as I put together my shop here. I haven't been able to find able to find much in the way of a Portuguese woodworking community--not online at least, so I've been coming to these forums to get my fix.
After debating over the pro/cons of shipping machines here from the US, I've decided to sell my machines there and ship over smaller power tools that I can use with a transformer here (like the UK, the electric in PT is 230v/50hz). So I've been researching machinery available to me here. As you probably know, there's a lot of difference between manufacturers available in the US and those in Europe, as well as the styles of machines, so I've spent a lot of time just trying to become more familiar with the European system.
Although there is a fair amount of woodworking in Portugal, my options for machinery are fairly limited. Used machines pop up in the classifieds on occasion, but not as frequently as in the UK or US. Also, many of the machines are for industrial/production use--out of my scope as a custom woodworker working alone with a limited budget to boot. However, yesterday I visited a local place which carries both new and used machinery (again, mostly large industrial stuff) and explained my needs as a professional single-person operation. The person I talked to gave me a catalogue for Holzmann Machinery in Austria, and gave me prices for a bunch of machines that are comparable to Jet machinery I've been looking at (the Jet 250cs supersaw and JPT-310 jointer/planer, for example), but for half the price. He also said that in his opinion, the Holzmann machines are very good...and he appeared to be pretty knowledgeable. So I excitedly came home to see what sort of reviews I could find on the internet, and basically found zero information about this company. I was able to find a couple of threads on German forums with other people also wondering about this company, and if their machines are any good. As much as I could discern, most people had not used Holzmann equipment and were dubious about its quality...but I didn't find anything definitive one way or another.
Anyhow, I was wondering if any of you are familiar with Holzmann. They have a decent website and catalogue and seem to offer a full spectrum of machines. And the prices are great--but you know, they seem too good to be true. And the fact that there's so little info/reviews on them on the internet is very curious (in a creep sort of way, I suppose).
Cheers,
Mike
I moved to Lisbon, PT from the US relatively recently and have been enjoying browsing around the UKW forums as I put together my shop here. I haven't been able to find able to find much in the way of a Portuguese woodworking community--not online at least, so I've been coming to these forums to get my fix.
After debating over the pro/cons of shipping machines here from the US, I've decided to sell my machines there and ship over smaller power tools that I can use with a transformer here (like the UK, the electric in PT is 230v/50hz). So I've been researching machinery available to me here. As you probably know, there's a lot of difference between manufacturers available in the US and those in Europe, as well as the styles of machines, so I've spent a lot of time just trying to become more familiar with the European system.
Although there is a fair amount of woodworking in Portugal, my options for machinery are fairly limited. Used machines pop up in the classifieds on occasion, but not as frequently as in the UK or US. Also, many of the machines are for industrial/production use--out of my scope as a custom woodworker working alone with a limited budget to boot. However, yesterday I visited a local place which carries both new and used machinery (again, mostly large industrial stuff) and explained my needs as a professional single-person operation. The person I talked to gave me a catalogue for Holzmann Machinery in Austria, and gave me prices for a bunch of machines that are comparable to Jet machinery I've been looking at (the Jet 250cs supersaw and JPT-310 jointer/planer, for example), but for half the price. He also said that in his opinion, the Holzmann machines are very good...and he appeared to be pretty knowledgeable. So I excitedly came home to see what sort of reviews I could find on the internet, and basically found zero information about this company. I was able to find a couple of threads on German forums with other people also wondering about this company, and if their machines are any good. As much as I could discern, most people had not used Holzmann equipment and were dubious about its quality...but I didn't find anything definitive one way or another.
Anyhow, I was wondering if any of you are familiar with Holzmann. They have a decent website and catalogue and seem to offer a full spectrum of machines. And the prices are great--but you know, they seem too good to be true. And the fact that there's so little info/reviews on them on the internet is very curious (in a creep sort of way, I suppose).
Cheers,
Mike
