"Leon" wrote in message
t...

"Lee Michaels" wrote in message
. ..

"Leon" wrote in message

I bought a Laguna LT16HD, it came with 10 contact point ceramic guides.
All performance and adjustment problems were solved with this saw right
out of the box.
I followed with great interest your experience with the Laguna.

How would you rate the Laguna value wise against its competition? We
know it is a good saw. Just how much of a bargain/value is it compared to
other band saws?

Or is this just one of those things where you just pay for it because it
is a quality, top of the line machine? (Like Festool, etc.)


IMHO most of the popular brands that I have seen, Rikon, Jet, Delta,
Powermatic, Craftsman and Ridgid are a lot of product for the money but
not a lot of quality results. Any of those saws in the $1200 range and
lower simply seem to be attaching parts that fill the first time consumers
needs. I have never seen a Grizzly so I cannot say much there except that
it probably falls equally in that group. The older Delta saws were pretty
darn good but then every one including Delta seemed to go towards the
European style saws.

Anyway the Laguna value is cheap IMHO if you are looking for a saw that
will be passed on to your grand kids as long as you buy the upper end HD
series that are currently being built in Italy. They have a cheaper line
of saws that IIRC are built in Bulgaria and while not as robust as the HD
series are probably better and more closely priced to the brands that I
listed above.

I had an older Craftsman 12" 1/2 hp for about 22 years. I thought I was
stepping up when going to the very much praised 18" Rikon. What I got was
a heavy saw that was a PIA to keep adjusted properly. The Laguna out of
the box stays adjusted and needs darn little tweaking with blade changes.
Upper wheel tilt needs to be adjusted "a little" when going from a 1/4"
blade to a 1" blade. Because the frame and components are so ridged there
is little if any flex when adding tension for larger blades. The Laguna
comes with a rather unique set of 10 contact point ceramic guides that
have 2 on each side contact points on the upper and lower guides and 1
thrust guide on upper and lower guides. The lower guides can be raised
and lowered much like the top guides. This makes adjusting the bottom
guides during a blade change much easier and faster. My saw, the smallest
of the HD series came with a 4.5 hp Baldor motor and has 16" resaw
capacity. Regardless of brand blade, generic, Laguna or Timberwolf the
blades track perfectly with no vibration of front to back wobble. This
was not so with the Rikon.
I guess to compare the HD series Laguna to the usual group of saws in the
"half that price" price range, is like comparing a bench top TS to a
Cabinet Saw.

Laguna's closest competition would probably be the MiniMax line of saws.
I was about 50/50 on preference between the Laguna and the MiniMax when
shopping for a replacement of the Rikon.
MiniMax USA is now based in Austin, TX, I live in Houston, TX. I could
have saved at least a couple of hundred dollars by picking up the saw in
Austin my self over paying Laguna to ship from California.
Both saws are priced close enough that price should not be a determining
factor between the 2. IIRC I was looking at the MM16 MiniMax. I made an
appointment to see the MiniMax and that appointment was confirmed before
my wife and I made the trip to see it. When we got there they only had 1
saw with missing parts to show me. I saw the MiniMax saws 2 weeks later
at the WW show in Houston and 2 were broken.

I do not doubt for a minute that the MiniMax is as good as the Laguna
however the Laguna people delivered as promised and they always had
equipment that in working condition.

After using the Laguna for 1 year now I would not consider a lesser saw
and would not hesitate to buy the Laguna again if that need ever came up
again.

Rating its bargain/value, I put a lot of value on a tool that works like
it is suppose to work with little adjustment. I simply tension the blade
before using, turn it, on and cut.


Thank you.

The hassle free factor is certainly a consideration. I wonder if that is a
factor in the other bandsaw designs? Or is it just costly to produce a
bandsaw that works well?