Van Huskey
06-14-2010, 4:13 AM
Some of you know I am a PM fan but always buy a specific tool not a manufacturer that said I had never considered PM for my upcoming BS purchase until now. I have a friend who bought a PM1800 during the PM 15% off sale last year. He replaced an older Laguna LT18 and told me he was very happy. He lives out of state and I just happen to be in his neck of the woods so I dropped by for some shop time this afternoon, and spent most of my time with his PM1800 18" bandsaw.
For those that don't know it is/has 18 1/2" wheels, 18" resaw, weighs 800lbs, 5hp, poly V drive. The first thing you notice is it is a substantial saw for a 18"er. The next thing you notice is the chrome, so much I was looking for a Harley Davidson sticker, but the only HD here is heavy duty!
This thing ticks about every box I have for a bandsaw in the size range, along with the above mentioned stats it has a blade tracking window, a big easy to use quick release, with partial tension for tracking. It has crowned wheels apparently with some high tech design, dunno about that but I changed blades three times and must say it tracked easily and held very well. The tracking lever also locks. The guides are absolutely the best I have used outside the Laguna ceramics and has a built in stabilizer similar to the Carter stabilizer. It will run anything from a 1/8" to 1 1/2" without doing any guide switching. The guides are tool-less and are very user friendly. The thrust bearing has three different "guides" built into it for different widths and techniques. It has a large table and a handwheel rack and pinion tilt. The fence is by far the best stock fence I have seen on a band saw much like you see on a table saw, it has a high low aluminum extrusion which is a full 6" tall.
He had a Lenox 1" Woodmaster CT in the saw for resawing, a blade that I have not used. The quality of the resaws were amazing but since I had not used the blade on anything else it is hard to say.
The interesting thing is I had not even considered the PM, it only made sense to spend that kind of money on a Italian saw. The rough street price is almost exactly the saw as the Agazzani and the Laguna 18" saws (shipped) but it has advantages to both of them. All I can say is I am even more confused than ever, I can't wait for IWF at a minimum I can get hands on with the Felder, Minimax, Laguna and PM, alas I doubt Agazzani will have anyone there. In the end this will probably be moot and I will give up an inch of resaw and take my own advise (20" wheels are minimum for a serious resaw BS) and just get the Agazzani 24" for about the same price as the 18x18 saws, but I must admit this saw really surprised me and though I do not think it merits the list price it is certainly a viable option at its street price.
Sorry for the stream of consciousness post, its late...:cool:
For those that don't know it is/has 18 1/2" wheels, 18" resaw, weighs 800lbs, 5hp, poly V drive. The first thing you notice is it is a substantial saw for a 18"er. The next thing you notice is the chrome, so much I was looking for a Harley Davidson sticker, but the only HD here is heavy duty!
This thing ticks about every box I have for a bandsaw in the size range, along with the above mentioned stats it has a blade tracking window, a big easy to use quick release, with partial tension for tracking. It has crowned wheels apparently with some high tech design, dunno about that but I changed blades three times and must say it tracked easily and held very well. The tracking lever also locks. The guides are absolutely the best I have used outside the Laguna ceramics and has a built in stabilizer similar to the Carter stabilizer. It will run anything from a 1/8" to 1 1/2" without doing any guide switching. The guides are tool-less and are very user friendly. The thrust bearing has three different "guides" built into it for different widths and techniques. It has a large table and a handwheel rack and pinion tilt. The fence is by far the best stock fence I have seen on a band saw much like you see on a table saw, it has a high low aluminum extrusion which is a full 6" tall.
He had a Lenox 1" Woodmaster CT in the saw for resawing, a blade that I have not used. The quality of the resaws were amazing but since I had not used the blade on anything else it is hard to say.
The interesting thing is I had not even considered the PM, it only made sense to spend that kind of money on a Italian saw. The rough street price is almost exactly the saw as the Agazzani and the Laguna 18" saws (shipped) but it has advantages to both of them. All I can say is I am even more confused than ever, I can't wait for IWF at a minimum I can get hands on with the Felder, Minimax, Laguna and PM, alas I doubt Agazzani will have anyone there. In the end this will probably be moot and I will give up an inch of resaw and take my own advise (20" wheels are minimum for a serious resaw BS) and just get the Agazzani 24" for about the same price as the 18x18 saws, but I must admit this saw really surprised me and though I do not think it merits the list price it is certainly a viable option at its street price.
Sorry for the stream of consciousness post, its late...:cool: