Page 4 of 5 FirstFirst 12345 LastLast
Results 46 to 60 of 65

Thread: Laguna 18bx ?

  1. #46
    I did a just a little resawing with it and it seemed to be powerful enough. I believe I cut slices off a 10 or 12' high chunk of maple if memory serves. I'll be in the all around user category as well. I don't have the benefit of having used a 5HP saw but though not "speedy" it seemed just fine in terms of how it ate up the resawing work. I can't recall which blade was on it but we used a dedicated resaw blade (not the Laguna one though).

    Quote Originally Posted by Victor Robinson View Post
    I need to try to get my hands on one, or at least the 14bx to get an idea of fit&finish and whether I'll be left wanting. I'm basically down to the 18bx if I stay budget-conscious vs. the FB510/MM16 if I decide to blow it all on the bandsaw. Might be my last bandsaw purchase for many, many years though.
    On paper, aside from the 3HP motor (probably sufficient for me since I'm more of an all-around user than resawer), the 18bx is impressive with a good table size and throat (also why I'd opt for it over the PM15). But then a lot of the difference between the Asian saws and the Euro ones is less about the specs on paper...

  2. New member to the forums. My 18bx is being delivered to the house tomorrow. Super excited - I also bought the Resaw King blade (not sure why it's SO expensive) but looking forward to resewing some 8/4 walnut lumber that I purchased from a local mill two weekends ago. Also, the 18bx apparently uses the same mobile base as the 14bx, so I'll need to order that as well.

  3. #48
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    1,408
    Quote Originally Posted by James Maccubbin View Post
    New member to the forums. My 18bx is being delivered to the house tomorrow. Super excited - I also bought the Resaw King blade (not sure why it's SO expensive) but looking forward to resewing some 8/4 walnut lumber that I purchased from a local mill two weekends ago. Also, the 18bx apparently uses the same mobile base as the 14bx, so I'll need to order that as well.
    Welcome James! Really looking forward to your impressions of the machine.

  4. #49
    Quote Originally Posted by Alex Gauthier View Post
    I did a just a little resawing with it and it seemed to be powerful enough. I believe I cut slices off a 10 or 12' high chunk of maple if memory serves. I'll be in the all around user category as well. I don't have the benefit of having used a 5HP saw but though not "speedy" it seemed just fine in terms of how it ate up the resawing work. I can't recall which blade was on it but we used a dedicated resaw blade (not the Laguna one though).
    5 Horse wouild be better with a bigger saw if you were going to do any sort of production re sawing I think. As it is, it should give satisfactory eprformance with a 3 Horse.

  5. Also look forward to hearing your opinions. The resaw king is expensive (about $320usd in australia) but it is awesome IMO and if the saw is set up well it leaves an extremely smooth finish (for a bandsaw).

    Have you had a bandsaw before this one? Did you get the 1" or 1 1/4" resaw king?

    I had a cheap 14" before I got the lt18 3000 series that I guess the 18bx is a replacement for and it was such a huge upgrade. Night and day. I'm excited for you. Take your time to set it up properly. Enjoy!

  6. #51
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Vancouver
    Posts
    85
    Quote Originally Posted by James Maccubbin View Post
    New member to the forums. My 18bx is being delivered to the house tomorrow. Super excited - I also bought the Resaw King blade (not sure why it's SO expensive) but looking forward to resewing some 8/4 walnut lumber that I purchased from a local mill two weekends ago. Also, the 18bx apparently uses the same mobile base as the 14bx, so I'll need to order that as well.
    Hi James, have you had a chance to try out your new saw? Any initial impressions you'd like to share?

  7. #52
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kang View Post
    Hi James, have you had a chance to try out your new saw? Any initial impressions you'd like to share?
    Yes, curious of your impressions.

  8. Hi - I just joined this community. I recently got my 18BX and if you are curious, check out my review at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psD_ayGS05o . I hope you find this useful. Happy to answer questions you may have.
    Greg

  9. #54
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Alberta
    Posts
    2,162
    Greg started to watch your review. I was wondering does the saw work well. I know the table sucks for now but is the rest of it a good machine or would you buy different if you had to do it again ?

  10. #55
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    1,408
    Quote Originally Posted by Greg J. Anderson View Post
    Hi - I just joined this community. I recently got my 18BX and if you are curious, check out my review at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psD_ayGS05o . I hope you find this useful. Happy to answer questions you may have.
    Greg
    Greg, welcome to the forum and thanks for the video review. Watched it with my morning coffee. I'm glad Laguna finally got you squared away with the table and fence.

    I'm curious which other saws you considered and a little bit about your decision-making process? This saw compares to the others I'm considering very, very favorably on paper with a substantial savings to boot, though it could be argued you paid for that with your time and frustration getting Laguna to make it right. Did you consider going with the higher-end Euro saws (either Laguna's own or other brands?)?

    PS. Sweet shop space!

  11. Quote Originally Posted by Mike Kees View Post
    Greg started to watch your review. I was wondering does the saw work well. I know the table sucks for now but is the rest of it a good machine or would you buy different if you had to do it again ?
    Yes I would buy it again. I am happy with the way it performes ,I have resawn a fresh log {ash} with no problems. If you have a chance to watch the video, I go through all the neat features. (I'm still learning the video part, it will get better.)

  12. Quote Originally Posted by Victor Robinson View Post
    Greg, welcome to the forum and thanks for the video review. Watched it with my morning coffee. I'm glad Laguna finally got you squared away with the table and fence.

    I'm curious which other saws you considered and a little bit about your decision-making process? This saw compares to the others I'm considering very, very favorably on paper with a substantial savings to boot, though it could be argued you paid for that with your time and frustration getting Laguna to make it right. Did you consider going with the higher-end Euro saws (either Laguna's own or other brands?)?

    PS. Sweet shop space!
    Victor, thank you for the warm welcome and kind words, and your patience watching the video, I'm new to all this.

    I always wanted a laguna and the other Euro saws were out of my price range. I was told that the table on the Italian saw would be thicker and therefore less chance of warping, which drives up the cost of the saw. I was just hoping that the quality control would be as good with the bx series. After all, the bx line has a good track record coming out of that factory (non-italian).

    I did look at the Rikon but kept coming back to Laguna. I still believe it to be a good saw, the saw is heavy in every way, the ceramic blocks are legendary, in my opinion. There aren't too many parts to a bandsaw. What you want is weight, well balanced heavy wheels, properly machined table and fence. The Shanghai motor was a dealbreaker on the 14SUV for me: you want to trust the manufacturer of the motor. The bx line has a good history of the motor.

    I did know/expect that issues could come up with the table and fence, but those are easy to replace. The rest you cannot replace (unless you replace the whole saw). However, fit and finish of the rest of the bandsaw is top-notch, and now I have a good fence and table.

    Hope this helps.

    Let me know how you decide or if you have more questions.
    Greg

  13. #58
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    1,408
    Quote Originally Posted by Greg J. Anderson View Post
    Victor, thank you for the warm welcome and kind words, and your patience watching the video, I'm new to all this.

    I always wanted a laguna and the other Euro saws were out of my price range. I was told that the table on the Italian saw would be thicker and therefore less chance of warping, which drives up the cost of the saw. I was just hoping that the quality control would be as good with the bx series. After all, the bx line has a good track record coming out of that factory (non-italian).

    I did look at the Rikon but kept coming back to Laguna. I still believe it to be a good saw, the saw is heavy in every way, the ceramic blocks are legendary, in my opinion. There aren't too many parts to a bandsaw. What you want is weight, well balanced heavy wheels, properly machined table and fence. The Shanghai motor was a dealbreaker on the 14SUV for me: you want to trust the manufacturer of the motor. The bx line has a good history of the motor.

    I did know/expect that issues could come up with the table and fence, but those are easy to replace. The rest you cannot replace (unless you replace the whole saw). However, fit and finish of the rest of the bandsaw is top-notch, and now I have a good fence and table.

    Hope this helps.

    Let me know how you decide or if you have more questions.
    Greg
    Thanks for your thoughts! I know you had to produce and send Laguna a video to prove the table and fence were out - how long did it take them to send the replacements? Would you say they were responsive or was it a drawn-out frustrating experience?

  14. Quote Originally Posted by Victor Robinson View Post
    Thanks for your thoughts! I know you had to produce and send Laguna a video to prove the table and fence were out - how long did it take them to send the replacements? Would you say they were responsive or was it a drawn-out frustrating experience?
    OK, since you asked. Customer service: slow, unresponsive, and frankly at times I felt they were dodging me. It took a long time to get my problem resolved. Let the dates speak for themselves:
    Feb. 26: purchased 14SUV at tradeshow.
    Mid-March: 14SUV arrived with all kinds of issues.
    Late-March: we agreed on upgrade to 18BX, with expected delivery by mid- June.
    Late June: I was told there is a delay and I would get my saw in mid-July, first of August the latest.
    Aug.18: the saw finally came in. Only because of an intervention by the sales rep.
    Due to work etc. it took some time before I put the saw together and noticed the issues with the table and fence.
    Sept. 4/5: called customer service
    Sept. 28: I’m told both the table and fence are on backorder and expect another 4-6 weeks.
    Sept. 29: the fence shows up!
    Nov.3: table arrives.

    In between there: customer service argues, (“nobody else has had a problem with the table/fence”), doesn’t want to honour my real warranty dates (wanted to backdate the warranty to mid-July), and tried to avoid my calls and did not return messages. On one occasion when I called, before I could open my mouth to introduce myself, the person answering the phone addressed me by my surname and quickly updated me on the status. You would think this is good service, but she did not let me get a word in edge-wise, and did not want me to speak to the rep I had dealt with previously. Who, by the way, by this time would never come to the phone, he was always “busy”. It’s not like I called daily, but I did call repeatedly when they would not pick up, which happened a lot. I felt I deserved answers since they had had my money for so long and I wasn`t getting any updates.

    So not happy with customer service, but the Laguna sales rep has been going out of his way to help/support me.
    In contrast to Laguna: King, my previous shop equipment vendor had a tech guy that would come out in person to help with things. Laguna expects you to solve everything on your own. For a higher end saw, you would expect more pride and support. If it wasn’t for the sales guy, I would have thrown in the towel by now. He is now sales, customer service and tech support all in one person.

    My two cents: this should not be expected as the norm, so in general should not deter anyone from buying this bandsaw. As I said, great saw. Just not great customer service. Perhaps just growing pains. I’m sure there are way more positive experiences than negatives, and perhaps the geography is an issue. Being in Canada vs. the US. Less hands-on opportunities. Laguna is a great name and I am sure they’ll figure this out.

  15. #60
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Vancouver
    Posts
    85
    Hi Greg, thanks for putting this video together and sharing an in-depth assessment of its fit, finish and performance. I'm considering buying a laguna but your comments about their customer service give me pause. In this day and age product and service issues are quickly socialized and negative reviews will stick around for quite some time. I do wonder how much market share they've lost due to being deaf to this feedback.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •