2 14" bandsaws on sale woodcraft

[Dan Masshardt]

Be been thinking about looking at either the Rikon 14" bandsaw and the Laguna 1412. Both are on sale at woodcraft this month.

The Rikon is $700. And the Laguna just shy of $1000.

Does anybody here own the Laguna? Is it worth $300 more than the Rikon?

Any Rikon owners have complaints. I want to find the best 110 bandsaw I can and I'm attracted the the resaw and motor HP on these.

Fence is important to me as is blade guides that hold pretty solid.

 

[Fish30114]

Dan, my best buddy has that Laguna, it is a very nice saw. Notably it ran a lot quieter/smoother than the other saws I have been around. Newton likes it a lot, he mainly uses it for re-saw work, he actually cuts a lot of veneer with it. My knowledge is that Laguna makes quality stuff--he has been well pleased with his.

 

[Mengtian]

I highly recommend the Rikon. I got mine on sale at Sears a few months ago for 649.00. Super easy to change out blades and align.

If you read complaints about the Rikon, check to see if they were the older "Green color" model. Very few folks complain about the new Blue model.

I was looking at the Laguna at the same time...but the price difference was too much. I resaw hard maple (12 inches) with no problem.

Dump the blade that it come with and get a quality one like Timberwolf.

 

[bobleibo]

Wow Dan, new monster Jet lathe, now a bandsaw. Lucky you!
I've heard a lot of good things about the Laguna products. I use their blades on my Jet bandsaw and have no complaints. Even better is their customer service in my opinion. I had a blade come apart at the weld once - my own fault - and called Laguna to order a new one fully expecting to pay for it. When the girl heard about the weld, she didn't even hesitate, sent me a new one for free even after I told her it was my fault. She didn't even ask for the old blade, just took my word on it. To me, that says a lot about the company and is worth consideration.
Good luck either way
Cheers
Bob

 

[Gus Jr]

Dan, I have the Laguna and love it. I first purchased the smaller Jet and needed a larger cutting bandsaw so I purchased the 14" Laguna. I have had it about three months and it works great! Gus

 

[Dan Masshardt]

Dan, I have the Laguna and love it. I first purchased the smaller Jet and needed a larger cutting bandsaw so I purchased the 14" Laguna. I have had it about three months and it works great! Gus

How do you like the guides? I understand they are totally different style from other bandsaws?

 

[Edgar]

I bought that Rikon last year when Woodcraft had them on sale & I'm very happy with it. My only complaint is with the manual - after using it a while, I couldn't get the blade tight enough & the manual was no help. I finally figured out that I needed to give a hex nut on the tensioning bar a couple of turns. I may be a little dense, but I can't even find that nut on any of the parts diagrams or parts lists, let alone any mention of its purpose. No complaints at all on the saw's performance though.

 

[jttheclockman]

If i were buying a bandsaw the Laguna would be my choice hands down. Rock solid saw.

 

[endacoz]

I bought the Rikon, it is great, cuts like butter, easy to set up. No regrets on buying the first new tool in my shop, this bandsaw.

Second New tool is the Nova comet 2

 

[hdtran]

I just got the Rikon from Sears. Primary use will be rough-cutting blanks to round (the Rikon comes with a resaw blade, so I'm planning on buying Highland WW's turner's blade). I've seen both the Laguna and the Rikon. At the AAW symposium in Pittsburgh, one person said "stay away from both--go with Jet or PM". One person said "both are good." One person said "I have both--I prefer the Rikon."

I've had no problems with the Rikon so far. The assembly instruction manual is a bit weak. I like that the Rikon uses a rack-and-pinion for adjusting table tilt (Laguna is just wrestle the tilt into place), but I can see the attraction for the ceramic guides in the Laguna (basically, very high tech cool blocks).

The Rikon fence is very solid. No issues there.

There's a couple of adjustments I haven't made yet--one is the bottom wheel adjust (I'm not sure I need to, anyway). The other one is table-fore-and-aft-tilt (at full height, the current blade I have installed is off by ~3/32" from perpendicular). This adjustment looks to be a bit painful to do; I'll probably wait until I've got a skinny blade for doing curves installed, then, optimize the alignment on that blade, and let everything else be a bit unoptimized.

Hope that helps.

 

[Gus Jr]

Dan, I have the Laguna and love it. I first purchased the smaller Jet and needed a larger cutting bandsaw so I purchased the 14" Laguna. I have had it about three months and it works great! Gus

How do you like the guides? I understand they are totally different style from other bandsaws?

Guide works good, much better then my Jet bandsaw.

 

[Mengtian]

I've had no problems with the Rikon so far. The assembly instruction manual is a bit weak.

If anyone buys the Rikon I have an idea what parts of the assembly manual are weak and have a thread on in it on WoodworkingTalk in case anyone needs the hints. Once you know the hints it is super easy.

 

[Dan Masshardt]

I'm not hearing any complaints about either - that's good.

 

[hdtran]

I've had no problems with the Rikon so far. The assembly instruction manual is a bit weak.

If anyone buys the Rikon I have an idea what parts of the assembly manual are weak and have a thread on in it on WoodworkingTalk in case anyone needs the hints. Once you know the hints it is super easy.

So in fact, I would love the hints; please put a link in. I finally discovered how to put in the little brass shoe (the picture is utterly useless!). I sure would like to know if there's an easy way to adjust the fore-and-aft tilt on the table, or whether if I adjust the bottom pulley tracking, that will make the back of the blade square with the table. Those are fairly minor nits.

The fence moves nicely smoothly; it is nice and tight when you lock it. It's sort of stupid to have the tools in the back, and the lamp where they put it.

One plus with the Rikon is the storage cabinet in the foot. (Wasted space on the Laguna).

I think the Laguna has spec'ed a 1.75 HP motor, and the Rikon, a 1.5 HP. That won't make a difference.

Neither of them has a brake. You may want to keep some sacrificial 2x4's to help make the saw come to a stop

 

[Mengtian]

I'm not hearing any complaints about either - that's good.

Honestly...like anything else, you are going to buy it and then want somthing bigger or better anyhoo! That is why I have been struggling with buying a lathe......I just need to get one and be done with and be happy. Like your decision with Rikon or Laguna...you can't lose.

 

[nava1uni]

I had the older Rikon 14" bandsaw (not deluxe) for 7 years and just upgraded to the new 14" Deluxe because of its deeper throat for cutting logs. It is a very good saw, runs quiet and true. I haven't found any manual, of any tools, to be very good. I had a question and called Rikon and they were great and walked me through what I wanted to know. Great customer service on all of their tools. I have their 70-100 lathe and their disc/belt sander. All work great.

 

[Holz Mechaniker]

Be been thinking about looking at either the Rikon 14" bandsaw and the Laguna 1412. Both are on sale at woodcraft this month.

The Rikon is $700. And the Laguna just shy of $1000.

Does anybody here own the Laguna? Is it worth $300 more than the Rikon?

Any Rikon owners have complaints. I want to find the best 110 band saw I can and I'm attracted the the resaw and motor HP on these.

Fence is important to me as is blade guides that hold pretty solid.

Only issue I had with mine was that the Light sucked. wouldn't stay where you wanted it. This was a 14" Deluxe that I got 2011.
Other than that, I never had an issue. I enjoyed mine until I had to sell it to pay for heating bill.

 

[Mengtian]

Be been thinking about looking at either the Rikon 14" bandsaw and the Laguna 1412. Both are on sale at woodcraft this month.

The Rikon is $700. And the Laguna just shy of $1000.

Does anybody here own the Laguna? Is it worth $300 more than the Rikon?

Any Rikon owners have complaints. I want to find the best 110 band saw I can and I'm attracted the the resaw and motor HP on these.

Fence is important to me as is blade guides that hold pretty solid.

Only issue I had with mine was that the Light sucked. wouldn't stay where you wanted it. This was a 14" Deluxe that I got 2011.
Other than that, I never had an issue. I enjoyed mine until I had to sell it to pay for heating bill.

That is true about the light. My workshop is setup so my router table is next to the BS so I use the light for the router table......which actually works quite well LOL