Old or Newer?

Never heard of Fay, do you mean Fay and Egan but those would be well over 20 years old.

Old is great if you evaluate them well enough to avoid buying a potential money pit.

If they use and maintain the saw, then it should be great. If not, once you put in the work, you will have a great saw.
You said it is owned by someone that owns a business, hopefully he isn’t trying to get rid of it for a flaw.
If he’ll let you test it out, that would be good.

-- my channel- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRuWi7P7eIcNOckoxBI-ZRA

Fay & Egan has been out of business for a
long time.

It may be heavy and difficult to move, depending
on size. It may require 3-phase and if it needs
new tires, that can be problematic as on some
of those older saws the tires need to be
vulcanized on and it costs like $500 each or
something. For a 30” saw in a busy shop
perhaps the tires are worth the investment
but for a hobby shop the big old saws can
require more restoration than makes sense
financially.

That said, if it works and it’s cheap to get it
running in your shop, it could be fun to own.

When I go to look at it I need to keep my “eyes” open and look at the details. Here is a pic.

-- Bob, Northeast Ohio

Well if by Fair you mean 500 then that “old” is going to be better than anything new period. Most times bearings need replaced or other minor things, but most are solid cast iron and beasts. New decent saw and a 500$ price is not going to be all that much.

I’ve got a 17” HD griz I bought 13 or so years ago thats a fine saw set up for resaw that was around 900 new.

I’ve got an old 1934 delta that weighs close to that steel frame saw, and cast iron thats my go to for curve work. paid a couple hundred for that.

Got an old walkerturner 16’ was going to rehab for a couple hundred and got the bearings for.

So get the old heavy stuff before you get the new unless you got the budget.

-- Sooner or later Liberals run out of other people's money.

That one is interesting, honestly I forgot Fay made some bandsaws prior to their merger with Egan but that was closer to 120 years ago vs 20 years ago…

I have never seen a F&E with square cast doors like those, the ones with bottom doors usually have round bulls eye doors like the top doors on Oliver bandsaws. It is possible the top and bottom guards are both retrofits.

I am really curious what it actually started life as. Note if it is as old as it may be, especially if it is a Fay (no Egan) it may have babbit bearings, if they are in great shape they may last your lifetime, if not you may have to learn how to pour babbit bearings of find someone that can. That appears to be a 36 or 40” BS so tires will run you about $100 and need to be crowned. The bottom line that will be a great saw for someone BUT it also could easily take another $500 to get it perfect so depending on your actual budget and willingness to learn and tune it up yourself it could be a great buy or a nightmare.