"dpb" wrote in message ...
Dave in Houston wrote:
...
The new (current} issue of Fine Woodworking has a comparison of 14 inch
bandsaws.
The Laguna took best overall and the Grizzly best value.

Slight correction -- one of the two Griz's took best value, the other was
in the "also-ran" category w/ some defects (although w/o looking again I
don't recall what specifically was the problem with it).

I do remember noting and being somewhat surprised that PM and Jet were two
which rated worst on wheel alignment owing to being out and not having
sufficient upper shaft length to compensate via shimming...

Wrong!!


I always have a real problem in believing some of the details on these
reviews like this, however--they take measurements of some such as runout
and report it. But, there's absolutely no indication of reproducibility
and no way to measure it so you could by the same model and have results
better or worse by a significant amount...or, it could be identical,
there's no way to know.

Caveat emptor...

I have a Jet 14" 1 hp bandsaw. The FW article is B.S.
I had to tune the saw, put an after market tension spring on it and shim the
top wheel to get proper alignment. It does a great job resawing and it is
adjusted to have no blade drift. I am completely happy with it.
It will cut tenons quickly and there is no after work required on the tenon
to make it fit. I use B.C saw blades from Canada. I had very poor luck with
Timberwolf. The saw was made in Taiwan and the fit and finish are what Delta
used to be. I also added the extension block to resaw 12" stock.