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Does anyone have any experience with Laguna jointers? There are literally 2 reviews online for the 6" version. Woodcraft ordered it for me today so it's a little late but I'm hoping that someone can give me a little re-assurance here. I did do a bit of research comparing the Laguna, Jet, Powermatic and Grizzly 6" jointers and Laguna got the best score in terms of the specs that I was interested in. However, I have heard some say that there's been a recent decline in the quality of Laguna tools of late and with their no return policy I'm a little worried about getting hosed. I will say that I recently ordered a Laguna dust collector that I've been really happy with so far.

Secondly- it's pretty tough to judge the quality of rasp/file handles without touching them and I hate buying things twice, waiting for shipping twice etc. Any recommendations on a quality rasp/file handle? I need a couple and I'd like to get it right the first time.

I have a used Laguna with sheartec cutters I bought on Craigslist and it's great.

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It will probably be alright.

MY chiu ting jointer is over 35 yrs old , need an upgrade ? what are sheartec cutters ??? thanks

I really like the Lie-Nielsen handles that come on their Auriou rasps. They have a similar feel to the handles on Blue Spruce chisels. Lie-Nielsen sells them separately in different sizes, but I can't say whether they will fit your particular rasps. Take a look:

https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/file-rasp-handles-lie-nielsen-rasp-handles-

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sweat the small stuff.

It's their take on the Shellix style cutterhead with square shaped, canted carbide steel mounted on a spiral shaped cutterhead. Compared to a 3 knife cutterhead it's less likely to tear out, especially figured woods just like a Shellix cutterhead.

Similar to shellix with slight differences, both are nice. This has built in casters and and another 1/2 HP compared to the other 6" models. A couple other reasons too but I doubt anyone cares lol.





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For those who have one , how does the lagoonie compare with the griz ?? I think todd stock has one thanks

My Laguna will be here next week so I can let you know then. The Grizzly has a nice price but if I went that route I'd get it with the 3 knives and upgrade to a Shellix cutterhead. Grizz doesn't cant their cutterheads on an angle in their helical cutterhead model which is a little less insurance against tear-out. I've used several Grizzly's and own a Grizz bandsaw, just decided to go with laguna for the jointer after a lot of spec reading and comparisons.

I got the Grizz benchtop with spiral cutterhead. Blades were 1mm higher than the outfeed table with no provision that I could find (or their tech) to adjust it. The cutterhead is has many more cutters than the Rikon which I liked. Sent it back and adjusted my old ShopSmith for now.

I have a 12" Laguna. It's awesome. I did have a 6" Laguna briefly before upgrading to the 12", and it was great also. Shear Tec II is a very good blade system.

Kelby can you please tell us why you like the 12in lagoonie, and what kind of difference it makes to the work thanks

Sure, Ernie.
1. I've had no chipout. Ever. Even in the most figured woods. The strategy of cutting on the shear angle works.
2. Hardly any noise. Three-blade jointers scream when face jointing. This is very quite.
3. The blades last forever. When you get a nick in straight-blade jointers, you have to sharpen/replace the whole blade, and setting them all to the same length is a hassle. With a ShearTec (and I'm sure with any spiral cutterhead) I just turn the affected blades 90 degrees, and the built in stops make that super simple. When I get another nick, in all likelihood it will be in another spot on the cutterhead, so I'm turning a different set of blades. And since you can turn each blade 4 times, a blade set lasts a lifetime.
4. Related to 3, the shearing action and the carbide blades mean everything stays sharp forever. I had to rotate a line of blades due to a nick once, but I've never had to rotate due to dullness.

I haven't used the other spiral systems like the Byrd, but I suspect they are very similar. Upgrading my planer and jointer to spiral systems (ShearTec for both for me) was a huge improvement in my shop.

Thanks for the detailed explanation kirby. my rexon 16 in planer is 32 yrs old leaks oil like a sieve, but is extremely heavy duty, needs a gasket replacement. I will have to check laguna/s specs / The 12 in jointer and the sheartec system . I also have a fondness for wood that has some figure

I concur, the Laguna cuts figured wood like butter.

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It will probably be alright.

I'm glad you are happy with your purchases. You should leave a review on the Woodcraft website. There is one 1 star review and one 5 star review. I was hoping to read something more like your post. Some of the other things that led me to the Laguna over the Powermatic, Jet and Grizz were:
- it's the heaviest @ 388 lbs.
-most cutter heads with 42 (Jet has the fewest with 27)
-extra 1/2 HP over the others
-56" bed (only Powermatic is longer at 66")
-built in casters

I hope I'm as happy with my purchase as you are with yours.

We have a Grizzly G9860ZX - 12" Z Series Jointer w/ Spiral Cutterhead. It's been in use for almost 9 years and I love it. Plenty of power and super smooth cut. We've rotated the blades that have nicked over the years. No complaints.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
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The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

I just left a review on Woodcraft of the 12" version (or at least I tried to). That was a good suggestion.

I hope your machine works out as well as mine has.

I finally got the Laguna jointer this morning (10% off sale) and oh boy what a nice machine. The sheartec cutter head and the extra half a horse cuts figured hard maple like butter. I'm very pleased with the purchase.

As mentioned, we have the Grizzly GO490 with Byrd Shelix cutterhead in the shop. With the sale price on the cutterhead, the standard GO490 and Byrd head was about $200 less than the GO490X with Grizzly's own spiral (versus helical) cutterhead. One of our local luthiers has GO656X with the Grizzly spiral head, and the results on figured or abrasive stock seems to me to be similar - true surfaces without any tearout, and the ability to plow through ipe, anigre, teak, and other steel blade killers.

The range of available Byrd replacement cutterheads is quite wide, so another approach is to find a fine old Powermatic 60 jointer and upgrade from straight steel blades to helical cutterhead. We see these old rock-solid PM-60's on Craigslist and listed on used industrial tool vendor sites routinely, as well as American-made 8" Deltas from the golden years of US manufacturing. Given there has been little in the way of design improvements for 8" jointers beyond the cutterheads, a used Powermatic or Rockwell/Delta 8" machine can be a real bargain at $600-$800 or so, plus the $400-$450 or so for an 8" Byrd replacement head...$1000-$1300 for American made 8" jointer goodness.

Most files and rasps in the shop end up with Lutz Skroo-Zon handles, which come sized from T-1 to T-8, with the T-1 for small files, and T-2 through T-8 corresponding with 4", 5", 6" 8", 10", 12" and 14" file lengths. We order these in quantity of 6 -12 in each size and usually see a good tang fit going no more than one size up or down. Skroo-Zon handles from specialty woodworking vendors are grossly over-priced...we've seen $8 pricing from some vendors on handles that usually run between $2 and $3 per unit from our vendor. Here are a few links for both Lutz's Skroo-Zon and standard handles:

https://www.wttool.com/index/page/category/category_id/13146/category_chain/12652,12664,13146/name/Lutz+Skroo-Zon+File+Handles/

https://www.wttool.com/index/page/category/category_id/13142/

https://www.wttool.com/index/page/category/category_id/13142/

https://www.gesswein.com/c-133-file-handles.aspx

Bare wood handles seem to me to be the most comfortable, but the curly maple Lie-Nielsen handle on one of the student's Aurious is quite pretty and still very comfortable. Bare maple or beech handles take a while to patina, and that rather disgusting gray color in the short term will yield to the more familiar patinated brown that makes older wooden tools so lovely with age and use.

Recently, I've thought seriously about making up some olive wood handles for my growing set of mismatched, odd girl out chisels, as my very well used Italian marble mortar and olive wood pestle is a lovely old thing that squats on my kitchen counter begging for the last of the summer basil to be made into a nice pesto alla genovese...totally keto! Raw olive wood takes such a nice polish from a working hand that I have to think it would perfect for chisels and similar. The problem with olive is finding the well seasoned timbers which will not check once turned...I will have to look again to see if Exotic has any more in stock.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

In reply to your query about file /rasp handles. I have made many handles from a variety of different woods. My problem with commmercial handles is that they dont fit my hand, or the way I use them. My favorite handle wood is ash, it can be threaded for making clamps. used for chisels, and tool handles . Beech and white oak for tools that will be struck, and hard red oak for paring tools, . My favorite shape is an elongated ovoid.

I guess I could see a good 12" jointer if you were doing a lot of re-saw of rough lumber. I had a 6" Grizzly and frankly, I hardly used it for instruments.
What the heck are all you guys using jointers for anyway?

I agree with Woody on the Scoo-Zon. Got some flea market files a long time ago and there were a couple in there. I now have a couple dozen that I have picked up with rusty files and such over the years. They are re-usable and tightenable, and they are a nice shape (the very smallest size is too small for me). Also, look for those interesting shaped files and sharpen them and you can grow your file arsenal for next to nothing.

Woody - would you finish those handles with Olive Oil? I have made some out of a used Ipe 4X4. They take a lovely polish, are a nice color, and you can beat the snot out of them. I have a couple made from the neighbor's very old boxwoods and they feel the best.

Ed

The olive wood seems to have a lot of oil in the wood, but I treat the pestle with oil every few months in any case...I've had this one for a few decades and have never seen anything quite the same in shape and heft outside of a few photos of vintage Italian kitchen scenes. As a finish for the Skroo-Zon handles and other bare wood, olive oil might speed that transition to that silky, worn surface that feels so good as well as provides a good grip...I may give that a try!

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Truing up neck blanks after they are roughed out and tensions in the wood release. Makes short work of truing up 3-5 piece necks too after glue up as well. I find a lot of rough cut stuff around here and sometimes I find nice downed trees that are millable with the stuff I have. Re-sawing is very difficult without a decent jointer and this will get a good bit of use for that, especially if I find a decent priced small saw mill (the trailer sized variety) sometime down the line. After Michael there was so much free lumber laying around that it probably would have paid for itself that week alone.