Official Luthiers Forum!

I have finally saved up enough to buy a nice bandsaw and have decided the best saw within my budget is between the Laguna 14" SEL, or their standard 16". I am sold on Laguna for their resawing capabilities, but wont be doing anything huge, just fingerboards, mahogany for necks, etc. I am wondering if you guys think there is any reason to spend the extra dough for the 16". Is there any need for a 16" out of all lutherie applications? Both saws have the same resaw height of 12" so basically the 16" is a bit more throat clearance and 1 more HP. The only other things I plan on using it for is for making bandsaw boxes and possibly a cedar strip canoe some day (but thats far down the road). Any opinions appreciated.

It's always nice to have more saw then you need.
Down the road you may decide to cutup sides of beef !

Really if you have the room ,a big saw sure is great.
I have a 14" Rikon that I love !!!
It'll cut through 6 " of Cocobolo with no problem and it's very well made & accurate.

Laguna makes greattools.
I have roller bearing guides top and bottom and for the thrust .
I would never buy a bandsaw without them.

Mike

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Mike Collins

Cant see that happening in the near future, im a vegetarian .

I really am split between the two, on one hand I like the compact size of the 14" so it can be moved around easily, and its unique features, but the power of the 16" does appeal to me. Do you ever find yourself limited by the 14" clearance?

Edward, I don't own a good resaw yet, but, like you I am about to get one. I have been using a friend of mine's Laguna 14" with a 3 h.p. motor. It seems unlikely that you would be limited by the throat capacity. I would be more concerned about the h.p. I cut a billet of granadillo recently (very dense/hard - think cocobolo) and it bogged it down pretty good. I had to go slower than I would have liked. There were some burns and I was worried about wandering. On walnut it cut an 8" billet like butter. I'm with Mike on thinking that it's better to go a little over what you think you'll need. I have bought more than one tool in the past only to turn around later and upgrade it. This is all if your budget will allow it, of course.

The Rikon 14" Bandsaws are on sale at woodcraft today and tomorrow - priced $719.99. I am trying to figure a way to buy one without having to also spring for the divorce lawyer ....

Glenn

Howdy Edward,

If you have it in your budget for the 16" Laguna, I'd go for it. I have an Ultimate 17" Grizzly with a 16-1/2" throat depth and width and am extremely happy and satisfied with it. That said, had it been in my budget, I'd have gone for the Laguna of the same size class just because the Euro units are so finely built. I also have a Jet 14" with a riser block giving me a 12" depth but it is a dog for resawing and perfect for smaller stuff. The Griz has not failed to satisfy me yet as far as the class of machine that it is and I do a lot of resawing..

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

I have a Grizzly Extreme series 19 inch . I can tell you that if you can , get the biggest one you can get. Also if you plan on resawing , pick up the ceramic guides with it. One more point. The Laguna is a great saw but even I , with some commercial interest , I picked up the Grizzly on sale at $700 on a whim to see if there was a business return. The Grizzly did surprise me. It works very well for me. I use the carbide tooth 1 2/3 tooth per inch blade from lennox the Woodmaster CT. Maybe the Grizzly will save you money over the laguna and free up some cash for the wood.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I have to correct myself, I said I have the 17" but I have the 19" Griz. One day I'll learn not to post things when I'm tired and ready for the sack. Like John and Todd said though, if you can do it, get the biggest you can and you'll only have to do it once. Like mentioned above I've also found Grizzly's customer service to be second to none!

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Thanks for your opinions guys. I had never given grizzly any thought but their 19" extreme series does look like a fine machine. My main concern here is quality and although I would love to save money on a grizzly the Laguna saws just seem to be so finely built. I could be wrong though, thats just my impression. I really hate these kinds of decisions, I just want to build guitars.

Don't be fooled by a name Edward. The Grizzly products pride themselves in machine quality. I am very happy I opted for the Grizzly over the Laguna because at half the price I have a machine that has satisfied me 100% of the time. They have cheap stuff too and some of it is just that, cheap! But the 19" Extreme is a fine well built precision piece of equipment.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Bill, I am glad to hear your so pleased with your saw. Have you found any things you dont like on it? Does it take alot of setup to get a nice straight resaw cut? Are you using the stock guides or did you upgrade to ceramic guides? If you really think its as good as a machine as the Laguna I would love to save the $600 to put towards a jointer.

Howdy Edward,

I use the stock Bearing guides which I personally prefer over the ceramic guides. I have tried ceramic guides in the past and personally don't like them because of the sparks they produce. There are measures you can use to counter the sparks but those measures present their own problems. The 19" Ultimate comes with a very nice resaw fence as well and it like the table are precision ground. With the rack & pinion (R&P) table and blade drift adjustment capabilities on the fence, I have been able to easily adjust and make consistently accurate resaw cuts in everything from cedar to ebony. I have accurately sliced veneers so thin you can see through them, all the way to max capacity blocks (cants) on my machine. The key is learning to perform good setup for every project and to check it regularly! This is necessary whatever brand you use along with sharp blades. The Laguna has some nice bells and whistles and if those are your desire, it's a great machine. And they use Baldor motors now which IMO are the best of the best.

That said however, my Grizzly gets extremely heavy usage in my shop and is the heart and soul of my shop mechanically. It takes maybe 2 to 3 minutes longer to set up than the Laguna and that's about it. I also like the fact that it has the dual dust collection setup because that really cuts back on the mess that band saws tend to make. I opted for the model with the motor brake on it. I have no regrets in purchasing the Grizzly. I almost bought the Laguna and really wanted the Mini Max (like Todd said the best of all of them). My decision to buy the Extreme was based not only upon cost comparison, but a lot of research into the features as well as the reviews of other owners. It afforded me the opportunity to get another piece of equipment (also Grizzly) with the savings. Some folks don't like Grizzly and that's a choice each individual has to make. Overall, my experience with them has been great and they've earned a lifetime customer as long as they continue to do business the same way and maintain the quality they are always striving to achieve. IMO if you take away the fancy toys Laguna has, the Griz is on the same plane of reliability but that's just my opinion. I like the R&P table on the Griz best out of all of them because it has the least deflection under a load out of all the woodworking band saws in this size class according to FWW. To me this is extremely important in being able to maintain consistent cuts without constant re-adjustment.

When I first got my Griz, it sat in my garage for about 2 months while I remodeled my shop for it to fit and added the 220V dedicated to the saw. Once I moved it from my garage to the shop and began to unpack it I noticed that the trunnion was broke into several pieces. I didn't notice that upon initial inspection when it was delivered because I unloaded it with my forklift and moved it to the garage for storing without thoroughly unwrapping it. I called Grizzly customer service after having the machine stored for 2 months expecting them to tell me "tough luck pal"! But they didn't. On the contrary, though they didn't have a spare trunnion in stock, they took one off a machine and sent it to me FeDex 2nd day at no charge. That, my friend is stellar customer service! Ultimately the choice is yours, and I believe you'll be happy with whatever machine you choose if you do some home work on owner satisfaction regarding not only the machines available, but also serviceability, and most importantly, customer service. Even the best machines made can break down right out of the crate. If customer service is lame, then so is the product. Happy shopping!

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Wow, a great review Bill thanks. Unfortunately I just noticed a problem
Grizzly Site:
"Do you have dealers or branches in Canada?
No. At this time we do not ship to Canada."
I wonder if there would be any other way to get my hands on one.

Hmmm, a problem I hadn't considered. Given the fact that it may cost more than the extra $600 a Laguna would cost in order to get a Grizzly into Canada, looks like the Laguna would be your best option price wise. Unless someone else has a better option?

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

I am considering driving down to their showroom in PA, on mapquest it shows it as about 6 hours from here. Would have to deal with duties and everything, might end up cheaper just to get the Laguna but I will call a friend who works for customs first. Its a shame they do not ship to Canada, I have been looking at their stuff and reading reviews and it looks like a great brand.

I'm pretty happy with my 14" but have found times when 2 more inches would have been nice (non lutherie projects and such). I think the biggest thing I regret is not getting the bearing guides yet...if it were up to me, and it comes down to the final cost, get the 14" with the bearings, instead of the 16".

-Matthew