Am I crazy or just "trained"

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Joebobber

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Sep 24, 2018
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I've been casually looking at getting a new lathe for awhile. Yesterday I noticed the Revo 12/16. What a beautiful lathe. It's a 12" lathe made by Laguna that also has an outboard capacity of 16". It checked every box for what I wanted and then some. My wife actually told me to buy it. She litterally begged me to. Here's the problem, I DIDN'T BUY IT! What is wrong with me? It was $999. That's ALOT of money. Plus I figured I would probably never need to turn a 16" bowl. But seriously what is wrong with me...
 
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sorcerertd

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Sep 30, 2019
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North Carolina, USA
I've wanted this one, too, but just don't have the money right now. It was $800 last year, but everything has gone up considerably. I'v e been watching prices and the Jet 1221 went up the same amount. The 1216 has been recommended here quite a few times. So... let's see, you want it, your wife begged you to get it, and, presuming you can afford it... hmm... I'm with you on the what is wrong with me part. :D

As an aside, I have seen very few sales on things lately. Even the Halloween store hasn't sent coupons this year, which is very strange. Makes me wonder if Black Friday this year will be lackluster.

Let me be the first to say "Do it!" Also, I will jealous if you do.
 

KenB259

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Dec 24, 2017
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Michigan
LOl nope you're not crazy it's the old...well you spent $1,000.00 last month on a new lathe so now I want new deck furniture and that's only $900.00.
 

SteveJ

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Jul 11, 2012
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Grand Junction, Colorado
I recently went through a similar debate. I ended up with the Jet 1221. The company I went with had carried the Laguna as well as the Jet but had decided to drop the Laguna line due to quality control and parts supply issues. Also note that the $999 price doesn't include the stand which (assuming you don't build your own) will set you back another $350 (about the same as the Jet).
 

EricRN

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May 16, 2019
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I've been casually looking at getting a new lathe for awhile. Yesterday I noticed the Revo 12/16. What a beautiful lathe. It's a 12" lathe made by Laguna that also has an outboard capacity of 16". It checked every box for what I wanted and then some. My wife actually told me to buy it. She litterally begged me to. Here's the problem, I DIDN'T BUY IT! What is wrong with me? It was $999. That's ALOT of money. Plus I figured I would probably never need to turn a 16" bowl. But seriously what is wrong with me...
Yikes. That is expensive. Don't hate me, but I think I paid $750 all in for the lathe AND the 10 inch bed extension. Great lathe though. Really love it and plenty of machine for my abilities and then some.

I should add that this was pre covid, summer of 2019.
 

Joebobber

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Sep 24, 2018
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Erie, North Dakota
Yeah its spendy. I didn't know they had quality issues. Thats too bad. Its a beautiful lathe. It's probably more lathe than i need. Im sure there is something she wants since i mean when does that happen. I've been married 21 years and NEVER has she insisted that I buy something
 
Joined
Jul 1, 2021
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Fayetteville, North Carolina
Laguna is the Lexus pricing of lathes and in this size range of lathes it honeslty isn't any better than say a Jet or Rikon. For the midi sized lathes the name brands are all pretty much equivelant and it comes down to brand preference. I would get another model/brand that is cheaper for small proects. Even the WEN and Grizzly models in this range will do everything you need and more for a lower price point.

Yes, Laguna is an amazing tool brand with great products but they like their tools a lot also.
 

moke

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Dec 30, 2009
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Cedar Rapids, Iowa
I have a revo 18/36. It is a great lathe, as Sabertooth said, they are pretty proud of their lathes, price wise. Like I said it is a great lathe, but has had some issues. The speed control was easy to bump, needed some minor modification to "stiffen" it up. The tools rest receiver needed some work, I turned the tail stock "tighter" around for easier use....beyond these three mods it has worked flawless, and was my first "big" lathe and I love it.....I am on two blogs and have heard varied things about their CS, ranging from awful to awesome.

I bought the wheel set and two lights, all of which were overpriced but again, awesome. I would do it again. I had a Delta 460 prior to this and this is a much better built machine.
 

Joebobber

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Sep 24, 2018
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Erie, North Dakota
I have a revo 18/36. It is a great lathe, as Sabertooth said, they are pretty proud of their lathes, price wise. Like I said it is a great lathe, but has had some issues. The speed control was easy to bump, needed some minor modification to "stiffen" it up. The tools rest receiver needed some work, I turned the tail stock "tighter" around for easier use....beyond these three mods it has worked flawless, and was my first "big" lathe and I love it.....I am on two blogs and have heard varied things about their CS, ranging from awful to awesome.

I bought the wheel set and two lights, all of which were overpriced but again, awesome. I would do it again. I had a Delta 460 prior to this and this is a much better built machine.
Yeah any add ons are quite expensive. I don't feel so bad not about not buying it on a whim. At least i know getting my wife to agree to a lathe upgrade is going to be easier than i thought.
 

jrista

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Aug 12, 2021
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Colorado
Laguna is the Lexus pricing of lathes and in this size range of lathes it honeslty isn't any better than say a Jet or Rikon. For the midi sized lathes the name brands are all pretty much equivelant and it comes down to brand preference. I would get another model/brand that is cheaper for small proects. Even the WEN and Grizzly models in this range will do everything you need and more for a lower price point.

Yes, Laguna is an amazing tool brand with great products but they like their tools a lot also.

When I was looking at a midsized lathe, I checked out Jet, Laguna, and some others. For the most part they are pretty close in terms of what you can get, both in the lathe itself, as well as extensions and the like.

The one thing that got me with the Laguna Revo 1524 that I bought, was the way you could do outboard turning with the lower-hung bed extension, and also had the tailstock riser option. With BIG items, say big platters, I have always been worried about turning outboard, and mostly wrote the idea off...but being able to bring in the tailstock to support a huge platter totally changed things for me. I'm not up to that size yet, but I like the idea that I could turn an 18" platter.

This is something I've been finding with Laguna. They seem to have those niche little nice to have features, that you usually cannot find on other similarly-priced lathes (you can usually find something similar on higher end lathes, but then you are spending 2-3x the cost of a Laguna, or more.) Their table saws have this small but intriguing feature, a sealed base cabinet so that the dust collection won't suck in from anywhere but the saw itself... Seems trivial, but it helps focus the power of the dust collection system. Haven't found that on any other tablesaws yet. Laguna has these little things that seem trivial, that often end up being rather important or just particularly useful. ;) I am happy overall with the lathe, excited about the features, and the PWM definitely helps the lathe power through tougher wood...

They do have some QC issues, though. I read about some before I bought, and then sadly I've had an issue with my headstock motor, and after replacing it another issue cropped up. So I had to trade out the headstock. Their customer support is good, and they do what they can to resolve issues and they don't seem to make a fuss about things (my experience with Nova/Teknatool customer service was RADICALLY different...and significantly worse...) I have some Jet equipment as well, and so far it seems to be a bit more reliable...at least, in the relatively short period of time I've had all my equipment (just coming up on a year at the longest).

I am hoping that with the headstock being replaced, that'll settle the issues and this will be a lifetime machine unless I really get much more serious about turning a huge volume of wood, in which case I'd probably trade up to a high end brand. For what I do now and what I can see myself doing in the future, though, the Laguna and its features are really great, I love the black and red style, and for its size and price, its a powerful lathe.
 
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