RPA_Ukuleles
Well-known member
Woo-hoo finally I bought a new band saw. I have been eyeing the Laguna 14-twelve for the past year. Woodcraft has it on sale so I pulled the trigger. Could not be happier. What a fantastic tool. Like sawing with a Mercedes Benz. In fact the only other tools I have encountered this nice are Festool.
My old 14" Jet was good (with riser) and I did my resawing on that with a Wood slicer blade. But it was always a bit of a struggle. Seems whenever I put a load on the saw, it would not respond well. And getting it really tuned for top performance was an art form. This new Laguna with a basic 1/2" 3tpi Laguna blade took 2 minutes to tweak the setup for perfect resawing. Slices thru mahogany like butter. Big, solid and stable. Nearly 100% below-the-table dust collection. Easy blade change, Nice high/low fence. Fantastic ceramic guides (no bearings). And nearly a 13" resaw capacity. I'm in love.
But, I am kinda pissed about one thing... that I didn't buy this a year ago when I decided I wanted it!!! Arghhh Lesson learned.
It's sitting in the back of the shop while I reconfigure a bit, and sell the Jet. I tried to highlight the new saw from the clutter in the picture. (Photoshoped).
The band saw is my go-to tool in the shop. I think I'd recommend to anyone who struggles getting top quality cuts, or generally struggles to get their saw to cooperate without tons of fiddling. This may be the best $1K investment you could make. And I should be able to get $400 or $500 for the Jet, so for me, this is an amazing upgrade for the money.
My old 14" Jet was good (with riser) and I did my resawing on that with a Wood slicer blade. But it was always a bit of a struggle. Seems whenever I put a load on the saw, it would not respond well. And getting it really tuned for top performance was an art form. This new Laguna with a basic 1/2" 3tpi Laguna blade took 2 minutes to tweak the setup for perfect resawing. Slices thru mahogany like butter. Big, solid and stable. Nearly 100% below-the-table dust collection. Easy blade change, Nice high/low fence. Fantastic ceramic guides (no bearings). And nearly a 13" resaw capacity. I'm in love.
But, I am kinda pissed about one thing... that I didn't buy this a year ago when I decided I wanted it!!! Arghhh Lesson learned.
It's sitting in the back of the shop while I reconfigure a bit, and sell the Jet. I tried to highlight the new saw from the clutter in the picture. (Photoshoped).
The band saw is my go-to tool in the shop. I think I'd recommend to anyone who struggles getting top quality cuts, or generally struggles to get their saw to cooperate without tons of fiddling. This may be the best $1K investment you could make. And I should be able to get $400 or $500 for the Jet, so for me, this is an amazing upgrade for the money.