Laguna 14/BX


Magoo

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Just brought back my new Laguna 14/BX bandsaw.  I initially was up in the air between the 18/BX or the Harvey Alpha 15”.  I just couldn’t bring myself to pay $350 for shipping and then figure out how to get it up my steep driveway, so I nixed the Harvey. Also, there didn’t seem to be a good route in case there was problems.  I ordered the 18/BX from a machinery retailer a couple of hundred miles from me with the intention of picking it up myself. $60 in gas vs $200 shipping. BTW, exorbitant shipping costs are the reason I don’t buy Grizzly any more.  Anyway, I called the place to arrange pickup and they told me, the 18/BX was no longer carried and gee, sorry you have a $3200 charge on your card but it will eventually go away, and have a good day! LOL.  Tried every other place and was finding an alarming trend that many of the outlets were no longer carrying them. Has the bad trunnions and wobbly wheels on the 18/BX finally caught up with Laguna?
 

Anyway, I ended up buying this saw from Woodcraft, about 200 miles away and did a road trip to get it. The folks were really nice but couldn’t tell me why so many places, including their own, were dropping the larger saw. The smaller saw looks like it was a better choice for me anyway. I have a small shop and really would only need the larger saw height once in a great while, if ever.  I ramble, forgive me. I spent over 2 years investigating a bandsaw and I think, in the end, it won’t matter. 
 

My initial opinion of the Laguna is pretty good. The meat of the saw seems to be well made but the fringes seem to be something you find on bargain tools. The magnetically held blade guard is a not so funny joke. It’s a strip of flexible stick-on magnet that fell off when I opened the guard door. It barely sticks because the paint is smooth and the cheap glue on the back of the magnet won’t adhere.  The door stays shut through friction. even if the magnet would stick, it is too week to even hold itself magnetically to the door.  The whole guide rattles like a floppy piece of tin, which it is. The emergency stop, will push in with some effort but it is definitely hard to get to pop back out. It feels like I’m going to break it as I struggle to twist it for it to release. The other controls off/on feel very flimsy. Time will tell.

It’s the 220 volt model and while I haven’t cut a great deal with it yet, what I have, seems to be good. Plenty of power, but you definitely can’t stand a nickel on edge.  Probably marginal shaking, meaning that I doubt if Laguna will take it serious. I installed the mobile base. This took about 15 minutes and, for a tricycle style carriage, it works well.

So, while I’m overall happy with the saw, I feel a little letdown by the fringes. I will echo what others have voiced, why engineer and build a nice machine only to tag on a few pieces of cheap junk that just makes the saw feel like a bargain basement tool?  Probably would not purchase this again but chances are it’s no better or worse than other similarly priced tools. I’ll post more as I get into actually using this to make something.

Comments would be appreciated. Have a great day and watch those fingers.

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On 12/1/2022 at 10:26 AM, Magoo said:

The magnetically held blade guard is a not so funny joke. It’s a strip of flexible stick-on magnet that fell off when I opened the guard door. It barely sticks because the paint is smooth and the cheap glue on the back of the magnet won’t adhere.  The door stays shut through friction. even if the magnet would stick, it is too week to even hold itself magnetically to the door.  The whole guide rattles like a floppy piece of tin, which it is.

I personally have not had any of these issues with my Laguna 18/14.  The mag strip was fine, although I agree with it being unnecessary. As for the blade guard/guide systems I personally haven't had any issues with it. 

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Just trying to give an accurate description of the tool. Some good, some bad, mostly okay. It’s possible that your tools are a little different, depending on where they were manufactured or when. If you saw this flimsy, hobby lobby magnetic strip, the kind you buy for crafts by the roll, you’d be scratching your head in amazement also. It’s okay, not needed until the paint on the hinges wears away, but the rattle of the guard is troubling. It appears to be held on by one screw at the very bottom.  Anyway, not casting any shadows on Laguna, just think that it’s good that other people looking to spend their hard earned money, know what others experience is.  Have a great day and thanks for commenting.

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I have the 2.5hp 14BX but bought mine years ago. I did not have the issue with the magnet on the blade guard and mine functions quite well. Magnet keeps it close and it doesn't rattle. That said it's not a smooth saw, I really don't care though. How much the saw vibrates has has zero impact on cut performance. It'd be really hard to blame this on the saw honestly as any imperfection in the blade is going to cause some movement of the wheels resulting in a lot of shaking. Getting dust on the wheels has made mine shake a lot as well. Flat spots on the tires = shakes. There really are a LOT of areas where ban saws can develop the shakes.

I don't like the tool-less guides and removed the knobs and put in bolts. I bought a dedicated ratcheting box end wrench that lives on the saw and can get the guides sufficiently tight to not move around while resawing. The lower blade guide was the worse offender.

Try twisting the emergency stop to see if it releases easier. I NEVER use mine so i have no idea if mine is stiff. I could have sworn that twisting it was how it was supposed to function.

I'd try scuffing the paint with sand paper and sticking the magnet on with CA glue. It'll probably work better once it's properly attached?

Rockler here had all of the 14" saws lined up at one point. I spent probably 2 hours going over all of them. They all were chips off the same block with the exception of the powermatic. That said $1,500 for a cast iron saw with a riser block was just too much. despite the rough edges of the laguna it's a LOT more performance for the dollar.

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Chestnut, good response.  I like the saw so far. I’m certain it will perform better than I.  I plan on a little emery cloth a some double stick carpet tape. A magnet on both the door and the frame. Maybe they’ll hold together and with high pitched buzz will stop.  I did find the mounting screw at the bottom of the guard had a partner that was absent. Off to CAL Ranch for the proper screw and the blade guard doesn’t look like it’s going to fall off anytime soon.

My point was, good tools that could be great tools with a tiny bit of effort from the  engineers designing or manufactures building. I really don’t get it.  I’m not talking about crappy QC or lazy workers. I speaking of designs that are lowered to being detrimental by using very cheaply made fringe stuff, like the magnet strip or the really flimsy EMO.

I got this at the Woodcraft store and looked at the Rikon and Jet bandsaws. The only one that looked different was the $7000 Powermatic, but even on that I noticed some cheap corner cutting.

I can’t imagine having to EMO this tool but, darn it, why put it there just to look cheap and not work smoothly when I play with it!  LOL. As I said, I think this is a good tool, just kind of put me off a bit. I’m old and will forget about it in a couple of weeks anyway!

Thanks for the comment.

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Interesting... I bought the Laguna 14 SUV about 5 years ago and it is top-notch throughout.  No shortcuts at all and it has been a great tool from day one.  Almost every cut I do with it is resawing hardwoods and it's rare for me to do anything else.  I keep the 1" Resaw King carbide blade on it and that has also been flawless.

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Yeah, it’s almost like somebody said, we ran outa good magnets, run down to hobby lobby and get a roll of green ones, it doesn’t matter if it holds as long as there’s a magnet! LOL. I think this has good bones. Never dealt with the ceramic guides before but they seem fine.

Again, it’s a fine saw, why cut corners? Laguna got a hold of me and gave me instructions on fixing the EMO. I guess the fuse behind it is a sloppy fit so they suggested I take the panel off and see if I could straighten it out in its holder so it wouldn’t bind.  I was an equipment engineer in several Fabs, worked in the nuclear industry, have replaced probably 100 of these things and I’ve never heard of a fuse failing out of its holder. I’m gonna dive into it tomorrow just to see what I can see. LOL.

Please don’t just concentrate on those couple of items. Like I said, it’s a good saw and will be even better once I get to know it.

BTW, my neighbor bought a Jet bandsaw last year and has had nothing but problems with it. Jet is a good brand, like all the middle of the road tools. He just got one that they put hobby lobby parts on, I think! LOL

 

thanks so much for the comments!

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I think China can and does make some fine products; however, it would cost much more and we don’t want to pay for it. That’s why manufacturing has left the US. I almost bought a Harvey but besides the cost of shipping there were some logistical issues so I went this other way.

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Mark J, good idea. I can fix the looseness and minor rattle.  My little jibe turned into a big deal. I was just trying to give a first impression of this saw. I’ve used it a very little because I’ve only had it a couple of days and am still trying to sort out where to use it (300 sq ft shop), get the dust collection sorted out (bought with it a Jet 1.5 hp vortex canister dust collector that rocks) and take another stab a tuning it up. 
 

Good things:

Easy assembly (one person), blade install, table parallel to the blade out of the box, magnetic indicator for blade tension, guide adjustments, power, brake is excellent, nice fit and finish overall, fence overall easy to adjust an works nicely.

Not so good things, 6 ft cord is near useless (either an extension cord or replace it with a longer one), vibrates a little more than I like, table is not perfectly flat but not enough to replace, switches feel really cheap (notice I said feel, they may last forever).

Overall a pretty good machine.  

Thanks for the advice.

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14 hours ago, Magoo said:

My point was, good tools that could be great tools with a tiny bit of effort from the  engineers designing or manufactures building. I really don’t get it.  I’m not talking about crappy QC or lazy workers. I speaking of designs that are lowered to being detrimental by using very cheaply made fringe stuff, like the magnet strip or the really flimsy EMO.

Oh i hear your point loud and clear. To shed some light on the perspective from the engineering stand point, because the engineers are not to blame here. There is a common phrase we use, "50% of the budget will get you to 90%. The last 10% will cost the other 50%".

The same is in manufacturing or mechanical engineering. They can get the core of the tool to function top notch, but then to get the entire fit and finish to be at the same level the price would double. For example look at the 14 SUV or LT16HD. When i bought my 14BX the 2.5 hp saw was $1,300 msrp. The 14 SUV was $2,100 msrp. Currently the 14BX is $2,000 msrp and the LT 16 HD is $5,000 msrp. Let me assure you it's not crappy QC or lazy works, well maybe the lazy worker part, who knows there. Good QA/QC has a cost associated that cost is reflected in the price. Hence why Grizzly and Powermatic may come out of the same factory but the price points are different. PM is paying for 2x the QA/QC. Laguna is paying for the level of quality control for that price point.

Does this suck, Yes it does. Do the Mechanical and Industrial Engineers that make these tools HATE everything that I said above. Yes, yes they very much do. I have MANY friends that work between multiple machinery companies in the US and they ALL have constant battles with the accountants over costs and how they can make the tool cheaper to hit a price point. So my bottom line is don't blame the engineers they were fighting for you. Instead please point the blame at the accountants and business people that make the engineers make a tool cost X because that's all they feel they can sell it for.

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Chestnut, good point. My wife is a retired ME. I spent 30 years in the semiconductor industry and the manufacturing of nuclear safety systems, so I’m pretty aware of how that all works but I’ve never worked in direct retail manufacturing. I ended my career as a business manager, again, not direct retail, and have spent hours pushing back against the higher ups who were trying to cut our nose off to spite our face by super aggressive penny pinching. I can just imagine the decision point to stick a cheap piece of garbage magnet on the otherwise fine tool.

Anyway, I wish I would have bought this 2 years ago and paid $1300 instead of the $2000 but my research cost me, didn’t it! LOL  I think this will last me until I can’t lift a piece of wood onto it, then I bet I can get my money back out of it. The advantage of buying good tools.

Do you have a drum sander or jointer? Those will be my next buys. I’m leaning toward the 1632 Jet belt sander but probably get a bench top jointer if I get one at all.

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate them.

 

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23 minutes ago, Magoo said:

Anyway, I wish I would have bought this 2 years ago and paid $1300 instead of the $2000 but my research cost me, didn’t it! LOL  I think this will last me until I can’t lift a piece of wood onto it, then I bet I can get my money back out of it. The advantage of buying good tools.

I bought mine 10 years ago now. I never paid much attention to the price but i suppose most of that increase was in the last 2 years.

23 minutes ago, Magoo said:

Do you have a drum sander or jointer? Those will be my next buys. I’m leaning toward the 1632 Jet belt sander but probably get a bench top jointer if I get one at all.

I have the supermax 16-32 (laguna now) and it's good. I bought mine before the Laguna take over but reports for the machine still seem favorable. I don't know anything about the jet unit.

I have a PJ882HH so no where near the price point of bench top. If it were me I'd get a used floor unit before a new bench unit. All I've ever heard about bench units is their questionably accuracy. With a jointer that's not something I'd want to compromise on.

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Chestnut, prices on tools, especially larger tools, have increased by about 55% in the last 3 years. It started about 5 years ago with our war on China imports but took about 2 for the surplus to run out. Covid-19 was blamed but, although that contributed to the issue, it was the US policy to increase tariffs on Asian countries.  
 

Thanks for the information on the drum sander. My choice is really between the Jet and Supermax. My issue with a floor mounted jointer is space and power requirements. I’m interested in the drum sander because I do small items like jewelry and sewing boxes and resaw to 1/8 pieces. My planer won’t plane very thin wood, especially marbled, with tearout sometimes occurring. I have a Dewalt 735 but it doesn’t have the helix head. I would like to be able to work with the thinner boards without having wooden shrapnel come out at various times. LOL.  I’ve been pretty successful getting boards jointed using other techniques. Hence my thinking I might not even get a jointer.

im just an old hobbyist but have made a few bucks selling my items locally. My next big job is doing kitchen cabinets for the in-laws, but I won’t make money off that. I thought the sander would be a good investment and I’ve read quite a few opinions that the 10” drum sanders are pretty useless. Just don’t have any experience with them but the 1632 placed on a rolling stand will max out my space limits.

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