opinion on new bandsaws

[DME72]

looking to upgrade my old delta 14 inch band saw. been a good saw but i would like something bigger. main reason is for resawing hardwoods. if you had a budget of about $1000-1200 or so  to spend would you get a laguna, rikon or grizzly. all the specs look great on the g0513 series grizzly saws. dont know anybody who owns any grizzly tools.laguna tools look good also, they are on the upper end of the price range.then there is rikon bandsaws. again i dont know anyone who has any rikon tools. although they have the best warranty out of all 5 years. i have resaw on a friends old delta 14 with  a riser block the saw never felt that strong. what brand and size of bandsaw does everyone else use for resaw. 

doug

[OCtoolguy]

I see folks using a Laguna from time to time. I think in 16" but not sure. Too rich for my blood so I don't pay that much attention.

[WayneMahler]

The Laguna 14/12 has had great reviews . It's on my list of things to purchase in time.

[Gonzo]

I've been looking at bandsaws for re-sawing for quite awhile and if I had that budget, I'd go for the Laguna. Rikon second, and the Grizzly a distant 3rd. 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Gonzo

[BadBob]

If you have time I would watch a the used market in your area for awhile. High end band saws show up on craigs list from time to time that are very lightly used.

As a company I like Grizzly, if there is a problem their customer service is top notch. I would go there first and unless there was a compelling reason to go somewhere else I would buy from them. If I'm going to spend my money for something that expensive customer service, parts availability, and support are at the top of my list of must haves.

[Rolf]

My nephew bought the new Rikon 14 inch saw, A very impressive machine, with lots of great features.

Regarding Grizzly , a good friend bought a 8 Jointer, a brand new model,  vibrated like crazy, hard to believe considering how heavy it is. Grizzly was never able to resolve it. He basically ended up changing everything that moved and still no go. he even ordered the helix head from Grizzly for it only to find out from them that "oh yeah" it doesn't fit this model.

I am not sure what the final resolution was since I have not seen him since this Corona crap.

Bottom line not impressed with how Grizzly handled this. The machine is sitting on a concrete floor absolutely level and solid.

 

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Rolf

[kmmcrafts]

I bought a new 14" saw from Grizzly 3-4 years ago.. Not had any issues with it.. My biggest regret is that I didn't get a bigger saw.. By the time I bought the riser block and other things to use as a resaw saw.. I had about as much money invested as a bigger saw would ave cost.. Other than that I've not had any issues.. I've heard a lot of good reviews from all three brands you mentioned.. 

I bought it specifically to re-saw because the power company came through and took a lot of trees down from around the lines.. I was planning to make myself some free lumber from the 3 foot sections that they left for me.. I quickly found out by the time I cut-dry-plane all this to size.. I had many more hours invested and my time was worth more than the lumber I created.. I did make a lot of board foot with this.. but I also had a whole lot of wood.. and ended up giving most of it to my neighbor to heat his house, LOL  From a hobby standpoint it's fun to do and make your own lumber.. but from my business standpoint.. it was cheaper to just buy ready cut lumber and milled close to size..

[browders]

I own a Grizzly G0457 band saw. Initially it worked great, until it didn't. It might have been something I did, or not. I'm not avoiding responsibility here. My problem with the brand is that there are no locally authorized repair shops. They have two service centers one in Bellingham, Wa and one in Missouri. The saw weighs about 300 lbs. so shipping would be prohibitive from a cost standpoint. Their customer service is accommodating, but have been unable to help. Until I have a reason to be in either one of those locations, I guess what I have is a heavy expensive coat hook.

Jim

[Oldmansbike]

Anyone have an opinion on a Jet bandsaw?

[DME72]

dont know anything about the jet bandsaws. alot of them look very similar though to other brands. i think for what they cost  laguna could give more than a 1 year warranty, same with grizzly. my main reason to get a bigger saw is to resaw thick lumber for my scroll saw projects. mainly 8 inch or less in  walnut,cherry, and oak. one thing i do know is all bandsaws have terrible dust collection, at least the ones i have used. grizzly is having a very nice sale right now, but all of their bandsaws use a oddball size blades it seems. i would not want to have to order blades and wait  or have them custom made. although i do know a guy that has a blade welder. the rikon has alot a features for a great price. maybe i should look at them. it also looks like the rikon 10-326 does not take up much more space than my old delta saw. also has a decent resaw height capacity.

doug

[Wooden Lace]

I have a Grizzly and we've had no trouble with it for the past 8 years or so that we've had it.  Really great for resawing hardwood.  It's the GO636X, 17" 5 hp with the resaw fence.  It's not in the price range you're looking for,  but my son has the 14"  and it works great as well.  Sometimes people have heard bad things about Grizzly tools  and don't want to try them, but they've come a long way since they first came out, when the price was good but quality wasn't the greatest.  I also use their table saw,  jointer and planer and love all of them.

I live about 20 miles from the Grizzly store in Bellingham, so it's very convenient if I need to ask questions from the guys in the shop.  This beast has a shipping weight of 784 pounds, so it's not something we can just throw in the back of the van and take in for service, but they can generally talk us through any adjustments that need to be made.  Actually we did bring it home, in the crate, in our van, but it's not something I would EVER do again!  They put it in with a fork truck, but we didn't have one at home and it took us forever and about killed us both.  Next time I'd pay for delivery.

[Davevand]

I have 2 bandsaws, a 14 inch Delta clone that I keep a narrow blade on for freehand work and a Laguna 14|12 that I keep a wide blade on for resawing and slab work. I really like the Laguna and I think the biggest difference is in the guides, the Laguna uses the ceramic guides.  It seems people either love the guides or hate them, I have never had any problems with mine.  The only reason I bought the Laguna is I only have 110v power in my shop and at the time the Laguna was the best saw I could buy at the time, I wish I could have bought a 17" 3hp saw but I can't.

[grandpuppies]

I had used the Laguna 18" at work and when It came time to buy a saw I went with the Laguna 14" SUV. I've been very pleased with it. It was not cheap I agree, but It has

proven to be a stellar saw. And it handles Bandsaw box glueups like a champ. I did not have room for a table saw and I find I'm able to do many of those cutting functions

on my bandsaw also. Just take some thought and ingenuity and preplanning.

[OCtoolguy]

I just my Woodcraft flyer in the mail today and they have Laguna tools at 10% off. Might be worth looking into.

[Gonzo]

On April 26, 2020 at 10:46 AM, Oldmansbike said:

Anyone have an opinion on a Jet bandsaw?

From what I see, the Jet is damn near identical to the Shopfox.  I've had my Shopfox, oh I'd say 6 or 7 years. I use it a lot. The only trouble I've had is the on/off switch. Piece of cake to replace it.  I have zero complaints and I like my saw, it does what it's suppose to do. 

[dgman]

The Jet has a unique upper blade clamp that clamps down on the blade as you tension it. And it has a lower blade clamp that is not fixed like a hawk. This design is great for bottom feeding only. You can not top feed. For this reason, I would never own one.

[Karl S]

19 minutes ago, dgman said:

The Jet has a unique upper blade clamp that clamps down on the blade as you tension it. And it has a lower blade clamp that is not fixed like a hawk. This design is great for bottom feeding only. You can not top feed. For this reason, I would never own one.

On a Bandsaw??

 I think you have the wrong thread Dan

[dgman]

Just now, Karl S said:

On a Bandsaw??

 I think you have the wrong thread Dan

Yup, I think you are right! That’s what happens when I’ve had my medicinal libations!

[OCtoolguy]

13 minutes ago, dgman said:

Yup, I think you are right! That’s what happens when I’ve had my medicinal libations!

I've been using a spray bottle of Smirnoff as an antiseptic spray. It really works well.

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by octoolguy

[Oldmansbike]

19 hours ago, Gonzo said:

From what I see, the Jet is damn near identical to the Shopfox.  I've had my Shopfox, oh I'd say 6 or 7 years. I use it a lot. The only trouble I've had is the on/off switch. Piece of cake to replace it.  I have zero complaints and I like my saw, it does what it's suppose to do. 

Does the ShopFox resaw okay? Resawing is the main reason I want to get a bandsaw.

[DME72]

i am still looking, but looking at grizzly and shop fox saws the blades are not standard length. 131 1/2 for the grizzly 513 and 120 for the shop fox 14 inch resaw saw. i have read way too many bad reviews of laguna to think about one of them. mostly bad customer service after the sale and a lack of checking machines before they leave for shipment. apparently they have some QC issues going on from what i read about, sad considering how much they cost. i guess i am to critical of stuff but if i pay $1500-2000 for a bandsaw it should be right and already tested by the seller when i get it. i am looking at the rikon 10-326. so far circle saw in houston has the best price i have found.i dont need anything over 13 inches of resaw and my delta 14 inch saw has the carter guides on it which i really like. i assume the rikon guides would be the same thing.plus rikon has the BEST warranty out of all of them, 5 years! i also like the grizzly  g0513x2 saw but not being able to go to rockler or woodcraft here in town and pick up a new blade kinda stinks. because it will break at 10 oclock at nite i like being able to go either store and get a new blade the next day.if i had a blade welder, which i dont, i would buy and cut and weld my own. it is looking more and more like rikon for me. now to convince my wife i need a new saw!

doug

[rjweb]

Doug, have you ever bought from "Circle Saw ", they always seem to have the best price, but never heard any positive or negative  about them, RJ

[DME72]

never bought anything from them, or heard any bad about them. also acme tools in grand forks has really good prices too.

[Gonzo]

4 hours ago, Oldmansbike said:

Does the ShopFox resaw okay? Resawing is the main reason I want to get a bandsaw.

Yes it does.I bought the riser block and that opened up more ability. However, I'm not a fan of the fence for re-sawing. 

Resawing is quite the challenge.  You just don't grab a piece of wood and slice it in to thinner pieces. Not only the fence, or the choice of blade, but the ability to "read" the grain is just as important. Also, how green the wood is.  I've scrapped a lot of lumber resawing because of not reading the grain and the wood cups. I've also saved a lot of money when everything worked. I've re-sawed 2" thick X 10" wide walnut into 1/4" pieces and not had any problems. I've also taken a 3/4" thick piece of maple and slice it in half. And the SOB cupped big time. Beats the hell out of me why, but it did.  For me, resawing  is a whole new dimension of woodworking and a challenge that I enjoy.

If I may add, it is so awesome when you resaw a piece of lumber and you realize how cool the grain is "inside". If ya know what I mean. 

My apologies for rambling. For what it's worth, if I were to do it all over again, I'd buy the Shopfox. 

PS

 enjoy the challenge of resawing 

[kmmcrafts]

3 hours ago, DME72 said:

i am still looking, but looking at grizzly and shop fox saws the blades are not standard length. 131 1/2 for the grizzly 513 and 120 for the shop fox 14 inch resaw saw. i have read way too many bad reviews of laguna to think about one of them. mostly bad customer service after the sale and a lack of checking machines before they leave for shipment. apparently they have some QC issues going on from what i read about, sad considering how much they cost. i guess i am to critical of stuff but if i pay $1500-2000 for a bandsaw it should be right and already tested by the seller when i get it. i am looking at the rikon 10-326. so far circle saw in houston has the best price i have found.i dont need anything over 13 inches of resaw and my delta 14 inch saw has the carter guides on it which i really like. i assume the rikon guides would be the same thing.plus rikon has the BEST warranty out of all of them, 5 years! i also like the grizzly  g0513x2 saw but not being able to go to rockler or woodcraft here in town and pick up a new blade kinda stinks. because it will break at 10 oclock at nite i like being able to go either store and get a new blade the next day.if i had a blade welder, which i dont, i would buy and cut and weld my own. it is looking more and more like rikon for me. now to convince my wife i need a new saw!

doug

Hmm, Just curious where do you buy blades local that are any good?  maybe I should ask... what brand blades do you buy local?

I have the 14" grizzly.. and before that I had a cheap 9" Ryobi and with the Ryobi I couldn't find a blade worth buying locally.. Someone on a woodworkers forum somewhere turned be onto Timberwolf blades.. I had to custom order them but it was certainly worth it and then some, LOL When I got my grizzly set up the blade it come with was junk as well.. I placed an order for several types and widths of the Timberwolf blades but in the meantime I bought a couple Olsen brand blades at a local supplier.. I wasn't impressed with them either.. and I can't seem to find any "Good" blades locally.. I don't mind ordering... I get more frustrated in spending money on junk blades.. 

The Timberwolf blades I have been getting at PS Woods