BT3K in Japan?

[aquaboy]

Would anybody know where I can buy a BT3K in Japan?
Ryobi Japan used to sell them for just under $2,000 but
stopped selling them a few years ago.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

aquaboy

[jussi]

One of the mods lives in Japan I believe.

[radhak]

Would anybody know where I can buy a BT3K in Japan?
Ryobi Japan used to sell them for just under $2,000 but
stopped selling them a few years ago.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

aquaboy

$2,000!!??!! Whoa! That's some price differential!

I am sure you could book a return-flight to the US and take one from here as check-in baggage for that money !

[RAFlorida]

2K for a BT3K????

Sorry about all the question marks. Why so much over there? Do as Radhak suggest. And you'll have some change left over for lunch and maybe supper. We do have a mod out of Japan if you'd like to check.

[LCHIEN]

Voltage issues, I imagine, might be the issue in importing a US unit.
most common Japanese power is 100V and 50 or 60 Hz depending upon where in the country, 50/60 Hz is not a problem but 100V might be.

I think Hank Lee may have imported his from the USA but not sure how he got around the voltage issue. I'm sure he'll chime in soon.

[herb fellows]

Hey, for 2 grand, I'll sell you mine and throw in a really long extension cord! :-)

[leehljp]

You are right that they are discontinued here in Japan and that they used to cost $2000.00 for the same as the $300 - $400 US one. IIRC, I think they did come with the wide table kit or a few extra items.

The last time I saw one for sale was in a small shop on the main street of DenDen town near Namba. Most of the tool shops are one street over from that main street that is over the Ebisu-cho subway station, one stop over from Nipponbashi station.

Where in Nara do you live? I lived in Ikoma for 14 years, and moved to Toyota 4 years ago.

[leehljp]

Voltage issues, I imagine, might be the issue in importing a US unit.
most common Japanese power is 100V and 50 or 60 Hz depending upon where in the country, 50/60 Hz is not a problem but 100V might be.

I think Hank Lee may have imported his from the USA but not sure how he got around the voltage issue. I'm sure he'll chime in soon.

Japan has 100 volt system that is far more consistent than the 120V of the US during brownouts. I haven't had a problem with my US BT3000 in 7 years here. I have a variac that I used a few times to boost the voltage up to 120 and there is a noticeable increase in power but the 100V is not a problem.

Tokyo and North have 50 cycles and Nagoya and west (including Osaka) have 60 cycle. While I haven't used mine in Tokyo, I did watch a fellow in Tokyo use one on a church construction site. That BT was from the US and it did fine on the 50 cycle.

[aquaboy]

I have never had a problem with 100V although it might be the reason the
batteries in my cordless tools don't last very long.

I live in Nara (western Japan) with 100V/60 cycles.

Also, why did Ryobi stop making the BT3K?

[aquaboy]

leehljp,

I live in Sakurai.
I do know the shop your talking about. I bought my Ryobi 10" bandsaw
from there about 15yrs ago. I have never known the name of the shop ;-)

aquaboy

[LCHIEN]

50 or 60 cycles should make little difference to the universal motor.
However, I'm thinking that electrically, 100V vs. 115v (the nominal point of a 110- or 120V motor) would yield about 87% of the no-load speed so maybe you'll be running a few less RPMs, Lee? Maybe 3900 if the no-load speed is considered 4500 RPM, so you'll still be slightly faster than a contractor saw...

As for AquaBoy's question, why did Ryobi stop making the "successful" BT3 series, technically they still do in the Sears version that is sold thru Sears stores. Why they stopped selling under their own name only their marketing dept can say for sure. the closely-related models BT3000 and BT3100 lasted from about 1992 to 2006 so a product run of 14 years is pretty good by most consumer standards. They sold literally 100's of thousands during that time. Maybe the margins got squeezed, maybe they thought the market was saturated (falling sales rates), maybe the marketing guys wanted to change direction to more profitable/higher margin items like cordless tool sets. I think the BT3 was kind of top of the line for Ryobi and they perhaps took more support than cordless tools.

[mschrank]

Also, why did Ryobi stop making the BT3K?

IMHO, Home Depot killed it:

Home Depot bacame the exclusive dealer for Ryobi.

They weren't educated about the saw, and didn't try to sell it (When I bought mine, the HD employee tried to discourage me from doing so).

Sales went down due to HD ignorance. Since sales were down, Ryobi discontinued it.

[shoottx]

As a capitalist, the question running through my feeble brain is;

If the saws are that expensive in Japan, why don't we buy a bunch of them off of Craig's List, refurb them and ship them to Leehijp to sell in Japan and split the profit

[RAFlorida]

Great idea Shoottx!

I'll let my BT3K go for 1250 US dollars RIGHT NOW. Who else ready to get on board? I'm sure Hank can find buyers and make a profit to boot.

[aquaboy]

LCHIEN and mschrank,

Thanks for the update on the BT3K

I've had my BT3000 since 2000 which I purchased at International Tool
for about $500 & another $500 for air shipping. At first the Switch died.
I'm wondering now if that had anything to do with 100V.
Easy fix. I added a few extra plugs for the router, and whatever else I
might need. Recently the height adjustment has been getting harder and harder to raise...so I open it up & the motorhousing nut is stripped
So I check the forums here, and everyone is talking about a helicoil.
But no 9/16 Got a 12mm, and made a new shaft.
Now I'm thinking what happens when the motor dies?
Does Ryobi Japan sell BT3K parts?

I was looking at HD, and thought that was the same as mine but newer.
Only shipping will be a problem
And another +/- $1000....
Wife says I'm dreaming

aquaboy