I have always seen Laguna bandsaws advertised in Fine WW and they sure
look pretty nice with a price to match. I have not met (in person) one
person who owns one so I pose a few questions to owners:
1. What has been your experience in dealing with Laguna? (shipping,
support etc.)
2. Are you happy with the quality of the bandsaws? Are replacement
blades and parts easy to come by?
3. Comments comparing Laguna BS and other brands, namely, Delta BS's...
I guess what I am really trying to garner is "are these Laguna's the
Rolls Royce of the BS world or are they more like a Nike... paying for
the name.?"
Thanks for your input. It is appreciated.
Brandt
works fine here
"Bob" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Link gives "Error: cannot read file".
>
Here's a link to a review you might find useful...
http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/readarticle.pl?dir=reviews&file=articles_206.shtml
Denny
"brandt" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:200409181022358930%babymakesfour@telusnet...
> I have always seen Laguna bandsaws advertised in Fine WW and they sure
> look pretty nice with a price to match. I have not met (in person) one
> person who owns one so I pose a few questions to owners:
>
> 1. What has been your experience in dealing with Laguna? (shipping,
> support etc.)
>
> 2. Are you happy with the quality of the bandsaws? Are replacement
> blades and parts easy to come by?
>
> 3. Comments comparing Laguna BS and other brands, namely, Delta BS's...
>
> I guess what I am really trying to garner is "are these Laguna's the
> Rolls Royce of the BS world or are they more like a Nike... paying for
> the name.?"
>
> Thanks for your input. It is appreciated.
>
> Brandt
>
>
Maye you can navigate to it. If you can get to http://www.woodcentral.com
and find the article "Bandsaw Comparison: Minimax vs Laguna" the Minimax
comes out on top.
"Bob" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Link gives "Error: cannot read file".
>
<< 1. What has been your experience in dealing with Laguna? (shipping,
support etc.)
2. Are you happy with the quality of the bandsaws? Are replacement
blades and parts easy to come by? >><BR><BR>
I have heard bad things about Laguna's service, but I have also heard good
things, so I guess it balances out.
<< 3. Comments comparing Laguna BS and other brands, namely, Delta BS's...
I guess what I am really trying to garner is "are these Laguna's the
Rolls Royce of the BS world or are they more like a Nike... paying for
the name.?" >><BR><BR>
Laguna and the standard deltas you ar ethinking of is not comparable. You have
to go to the upper end industrial Deltas at thousands more for the equivalent.
The real competition for Laguna is MiniMax, Aggazani and maybe Felder. The
Rolls Royce of bandsaw is probably Northfield and tannewitz. They are not
pretty to look at, but each saw they make (and even more the Northfield
jointers) contain half the cast iron ever made on planet earth).
Minimax had it much more over Laguna than many people realized. Laguna's fit
and finish were better, but Minimax was always more heavy duty, and frankly,
better made. One biggie MiniMax used to enjoy was the motor, far superior to
Laguna. Laguna now uses Baldor, and they don't come better. However, here are
MiniMax's advantages:
1. Better customer service--just check out the MiniMax group on Yahoo, you will
see.
2. More weight--the equivalent MM weighs 50 pounds more, and it's all in cast
iron and even better, in the steel arm
3. As a result, you can apply more tension with the MM, a big factor when using
carbide blades
4. The bottom guide for the MM is better, you can adjust it closer to the
underside of the table. The Laguna has the ceramic guides which are also
excellent.
None of this applies ot the 24" and up, where both machines are terrific, but
to the 16"
In truth, you would be happy with either, and would never know. I got the
MiniMax and am happy.
brandt wrote:
>
> I have always seen Laguna bandsaws advertised in Fine WW and they sure
> look pretty nice with a price to match. I have not met (in person) one
> person who owns one so I pose a few questions to owners:
>
> 1. What has been your experience in dealing with Laguna? (shipping,
> support etc.)
Laguna Tools had a period where customer support was pretty poor.
At the time, they were moving from Laguna Beach up the road to their
current location, opening an east coast site in New Jersey AND
changing
their computers, operating system and business software. Any one of
these would cause disruptions in service but combined - well it took
them
over a year to have things settle down.
> 2. Are you happy with the quality of the bandsaws? Are replacement
> blades and parts easy to come by?
>
I have the LT 16SEC made by Meber, an Italian manufacturer. The 2.5
HP
TEFC motor has never bogged down on me or heated up as described
in the WoodCentral review. It HAS a 4" dust port under the table at
the
lower guides AND a 4" dust port at the back of the bottom wheel
cabinet
(the WoodCentral review model lacked the upper port). It originally
came
with euro guides but I've since replaced them with the Laguna Tools
Ceramic
Guides. The Euro Guides were ok for 3/4" and wider blades but not so
good
for narrower blades - the rear thrust bearing was useless for the
narrower
blades. The foot brake stops the blade in much less than the 5
seconds
mentioned in the Wood Central review. Hell, my power disc brakes
won't
stop my car with only 5 pounds of pressure.
Here's more about the LT16SEC
http://home.comcast.net/~charliebcz/BandSaw.html
> 3. Comments comparing Laguna BS and other brands, namely, Delta BS's...
That would be an apples to oranges comparison, or more
appropriately - a half ton pick up to a duece and a half.
> I guess what I am really trying to garner is "are these Laguna's the
> Rolls Royce of the BS world or are they more like a Nike... paying for
> the name.?"
LT has several bandsaws at different price points, aimed at
different types of users. The lower end models are marketed
for the weekend warrior's occassional and limited use. The
high end stuff is aimed at the pro who needs the power,
capacity and long duty cycle. Aggazzini makes The Rolls
Royce of bandsaws.
charlie b
I looked at both last year and was totally put off by the pushy Laguna
sales folks. Even though I requested the video, only Laguna had the
gall to call me on my company phone to give me the hardsell, and when
I mentioned MiniMax, I got a lot of (erroneous) negative comments
about the competition.
Bottom line, I shopped at a woodworking show where they BOTH were
setup, and the guy at MiniMax NEVER said a bad thing about Laguna,
only suggested that I actually look at the 2 machines and make up my
own mine
Bottom line, the MiniMax was not as "PRETTY" as the Laguna as to the
paint job, but the GUTS were significantly beefier/heftier. That plus
the MM folks were always there (via phone or online) to answer my
questions, and I never got the feeling that they were "pushing" to
make the sale, but rather were more interested in ME getting the best
saw for my money
Bottom line, I bought the MiniMax and love the saw.
Of course, your mileage/experience may vary, but I truely feel the
MiniMax is the BETTER BUILT saw, and that Laguna is more driven to
make the sale no matter what
Frankly, as to blades, you buy the blades from just about anyone, the
major brands/companies all will make custom blades to fit ANY saw you
can imagine, and even some you probably cannot, so blades are not a
concern. I have the Lennox Carbide blade on my MM24, and it is superb
for resawing. I have NOT tried the Laguna carbide blade, but I CAN
tell you that Laguna does NOT manufacture the blade, same for MiniMax,
both do NOT manufacture bandsaw blades, they just resell or rebadge
and then resell blades.
John
On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 11:28:10 -0700, "Denny"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Maye you can navigate to it. If you can get to http://www.woodcentral.com
>and find the article "Bandsaw Comparison: Minimax vs Laguna" the Minimax
>comes out on top.
>
>"Bob" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> Link gives "Error: cannot read file".
>>
>
I have the Laguna HD16 that I purchased about 6 months ago. I am
delighted with the saw and have had no problems with Laguna shipping
or customer service. I read all of the reviews, the Laguna bashing
and the comparisons to the Minimax. I went to a local show and bought
the Laguna because I felt that the saw was much more user friendly
than the Minimax - easier to change blades, better and easier to
adjust guides and had a hi-low drift adjustable fence. Both saws are
expensive and well made and the religious arguments over internals are
irrelevent because they do not affect usability or quality of cut. I
had a Delta 14" prior to the Laguna and there is no comparison. After
using the Delta I wanted a saw that had much more power for resawing,
one that could tension a larger blade properly and one that didn't
take 15 minutes to change a blade and set up the guides. I would
recommend that you go to a show and work with any machine you are
thinking of purchasing.
PR