One for the record books ? Elu MOF177E

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I noticed today that an old but apparently unused and complete example of this Swiss classic sold on ebay for £525 total.
There are people out there that like them even more than I do !
 
If you go on reliability I guess it's worth it....my old mof 96 is 35 years old and still going strong.
My 1/2 inch router is the trend clone of the mof 177 which I purchased when dewalt destroyed Elu, the armacher lasted just over a year with virtually no use whatsoever and cost a couple of hundred for trend to put right.

Guess the 177 is as good as as anything out there today.....

Sent from my SM-J530F using Tapatalk
 
I have two Elu 177e routers. One is hand-held and the other is in my router table. That one I picked up for a little over £100, and it was a bargain! 2 1/4 hp, variable speed, 1/2" spindle and beautifully built. Plus spares are still available.

Remove the handles, add a router raiser and MuscleChuck ...

Router-Raizer-1.jpg


I purchased my first 177e around 1992, and it is still going strong. I also have a MOF96 and MOF97 ...

Elu-177e-MOF97-MOF96.jpg


Mine are all built in Switzerland. I think some were later made in Italy. These routers are now re-badged DeWalt, and Trend are making copies as well. Most parts are interchangeable.

Regards from Perth

Derek
 
Derek, I wasn't aware Elu made the mof 97....what is the extraction like?
The lack of extraction on the 96 is the only thing that bugs me...

Jonathan

Sent from my SM-J530F using Tapatalk
 
Elu reliability is legendary.

I still use Elu's first ever router, the MOF 11-01 which dates from 1951!
Elu-MOF-11-01.jpg


There has never been a better router for cutting housing joints. In fact looking at the design of the MOF 11 I'm pretty sure Elu's original vision was that a router would be a dedicated machine specifically for housing joints. I suspect that early users of the MOF 11 discovered it was far more versatile, which in turn led to the MOF 177 and MOF 96.

A key characteristic of the MOF 11 was that the plunge mechanism featured this arrangement with two stops,
Elu-MOF-11-04.jpg


This allows you to cut any width housing joint by swinging the router over to the left hand stop and pushing the machine away from you to cut the first pass at the full width of the cutter. You then swing the machine to the right hand stop, lock it off, and pull the machine back to you, which makes the necessary adjustment to the width of the housing joint.
Elu-MOF-11-06.jpg


Another bit of evidence that suggests this was more of a dedicated housing machine than the general purpose router we know today is that there's no collets. The router bits are threaded and screw in. I suspect that this indicates the intention was that you wouldn't have many bits, and it wasn't expected that the user would change bits all that often. Astonishingly Elu threaded router bits are still available for sale.
 

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Some interesting information here gents, thank you !
Custard - it's fascinating to see a real classic in regular and proper use.
Derek, I always associated the change of the router control mouldings from orange to blue with the shift in production to Italy. I didn't realise that some of that colour scheme was Swiss made. Useful to know.
I have three: a type 1 and a type 2 of the MOF96E, the oldest bought new in the late 80's and a MOF177E type 2. All quality Swiss machines that keep going with just the occasional new set of bearings and brushes.
 
Jonathan S":wm3qwm2o said:
Derek, I wasn't aware Elu made the mof 97....what is the extraction like?
The lack of extraction on the 96 is the only thing that bugs me...

Jonathan

Sent from my SM-J530F using Tapatalk

Jonathan, the dust control is exceptionally good on the mid-size MOF96. I added to the MOF 97 the dust control from the Trend or DeWalt (and ditto for the 177e). These work OK.

Regards from Perth

Derek
 
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