Opinion on Laguna 14SE

[email protected] (Mark) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I just got back from the Wood Show in Costa Mesa this last weekend.
> Stopped by the Laguna booth and took a look at the 14SE. Wow! They had
> it set up with a 1" resaw king blade and were able to slice 1/16"
> pieces (8-10" thick) of burled maple and ash like butter. Having
> recently struggled with resawing with my 1 hp Delta, I'm ready to put
> it into the paper and fork for a Laguna.
>
> Everything I've read on the wreck is positive about Laguna bandsaws
> for resawing, but can some of you owners give me some feedback on
> smaller cuts like with a 3/8 blade with lots of corner cuts.
>

Fine Woodworking had a capsule review of that saw, maybe a year and a
half back, that would be worth tracking down. IIRC, gist was that the
unit they received had a couple of rough edges but was beefier in some
useful ways than the standard 14 inch Delta or clone. I wonder how
much of an upgrade this particular Laguna model would really be,
though. I have the same saw as you and find the resawing ability okay
for my needs, which is domestic hardwoods up to around jointer width,
8 inches. More power would be fine sometimes, but I feel that
improving on the basic functionality of the 14 inch Delta also would
require getting more throat capacity and especially table
size--neither of which the 14 SE provides, according to the spec
sheet. Seems like Laguna's 16 inch model or maybe one of the bigger
Taiwanese versions could be a lot more bang for just a few more bucks.



> And how bout blade changes from big to small and back again?
>
> If I sell the Delta I want to make sure the Laguna can fill it's shoes
> and give me the big resaw capability.
> Thanks
> Mark