Laguna Platinum 10" J/P SCH vs the Grizzly 12" J/P SCH

[Mike Kearney]

I currently have this on back order with Grizzly:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-Planer-Jointer-with-Spiral-Cutterhead-Replaces-G0634-/G0634Z
I was originally told that it would be available 1/21/11. They are now saying 3/11/11 at the earliest. That got me looking around for other options again and I came within an order confirmation of buying this:
http://www.lagunatools.com/combo/combo-platinum10s
Before I pulled the trigger, I decided to see what the forums and reviews were saying about Laguna Tools. It wasn't pretty - the machines were of decent quality but the customer service not so much. I emptied the cart and resigned myself to waiting. This was last Friday.

Yesterday, I get a call from Laguna assuring me that they've made improvements to their customer service and emails me some great quotes on their 10" and 12" J/P machines. The 12" quote was over my budget but the 10" quote is very tempting and a decent amount less than the 12" Grizz.

I'm right in the middle of some projects here at home and could really use the jointing/planing capability right now (I just sold my old jointer and planer). What do you all think? Take a chance on the Laguna? Or wait on the Grizzly and hope it's not longer than mid-March?

I understand that they aren't apples to apples but the Laguna looks to have the better cutterhead while the Grizzly looks to be more of an industrial quality machine. At 3/4 of ton I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get the Grizzly up my driveway into my garage and onto a mobile base. The Laguna would be easier to manage.

[Matt Meiser]

I just got a Jet JJP-12HH delivered with liftgate delivery for about $200 more than the delivered price of the Grizzly. The driver backed the truck right up to my shop and deposited it inside. I was easily able to walk the machine off the pallet onto boards set across my mobile base, then down into the base from there. Your math is a little off--they aren't 3/4 ton--more like 1/3. I got mine from Toolnut and it was a very positive experience. They quickly resolved what was a mistake on Jet's part in marking the shipment for liftgate delivery.

I wouldn't give up the 2" of capacity, especially based on promises from a salesman.

[Mark Henshaw]

Mike,
I have the Grizzly J/P that you currently have on order and, although I have only had it for 2 months, I am quite happy with it. Although I am happy with the machine, the customer service/communication with Grizzly was very poor and much worse than I had received with previous purchases from them. I came very close to cancelling the order after the last delivery extension. The final word I heard was that the supplier of the spiral heads was having high scrap rates and were not meeting their delivery projections.
I personally would not look at spending a couple of thousand dollars on a machine with only 10" capacity as I need more then that to plane some of the wide boards i have in stock. The Grizzly machine is worth the money if you can wait.
By the way, I too was worried about getting the 700lb machine up my driveway and into my shop. The guy who delivered the machine was very helpful. I have a long, steep driveway that would not allow us to simply pull or push the pallet jack. We finally put a tow strap onto my truck and through the handle of the pallet jack and slowly pulled the machine, crate and all, up to my garage.

[Mike Kearney]

Matt, you're right my math is more than a little off. I can only hope I will get a delivery driver as helpful as yours. If I knew they would back up to my garage would that would alleviate lot my concern. You got the Jet for $200 more than the delivered price of the Grizzly? My delivered price will be $2373. Right now the Jet is priced at $2999.99 with free shipping on Amazon although it doesn't say anything about lift service.

Mark, did the driver help you get it up your drive? I don't have a long driveway but there is a pretty good incline. I was planning on renting or borrowing a pallet jack and have a couple of guys help me push it up the driveway into my garage.

[Van Huskey]

Matt, you're right my math is more than a little off. I can only hope I will get a delivery driver as helpful as yours. If I knew they would back up to my garage would that would alleviate lot my concern. You got the Jet for $200 more than the delivered price of the Grizzly? My delivered price will be $2373. Right now the Jet is priced at $2999.99 with free shipping on Amazon although it doesn't say anything about lift service.

Mark, did the driver help you get it up your drive? I don't have a long driveway but there is a pretty good incline. I was planning on renting or borrowing a pallet jack and have a couple of guys help me push it up the driveway into my garage.

CALL all the big Jet/Powermatic dealers and see what they can do. Equipmentsalesandsurplus , tools-plus , tool nut, toolzone etc etc. You missed all the big Jet sales but you can definitely get it for less than 2999 how much will take calling, again I said calling.

[Matt Meiser]

My delivered price will be $2373.

OK, $267. Amazon might have been the most expensive place I checked. I dealt with Sean at Toolnut. Everyone else was higher, BUT I placed my order before Jan 1. and there were rumors of a price increase after.

[Van Huskey]

OK, $267. Amazon might have been the most expensive place I checked.

The current Amazon price is MAPP, which is usually the highest price you will ever have to pay.

[Eddie Darby]

Have you considered this 10" machine from Grizzly?

http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-Jointer-Planer-Combo/G0675

[Victor Robinson]

Have you considered this 10" machine from Grizzly?

http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-Jointer-Planer-Combo/G0675

Looks like he wants the spiral cutterhead...

[Mike Kearney]

Yep, I'm leaning towards the spiral cutterhead. As far as I know, Laguna is the only company that offers a spiral cutter on a 10" machine.

[Rick Fisher]

I would go at least 12" ..

As far as Laguna goes, I have bought from them a couple of times and they have been good.. I had a J12 Jointer delivered .. one of the casting was broken.. Small piece.. I emailed a pic of it to Benny, he ordered a part to be shipped from Italy, to me.. The day it showed up, Benny called to ask if I got it okay and was happy..

Funny.. Laguna reminds me of the companies that sell European machinery.. they are more serious and more likely to disagree with you, but they want you to be happy.. So much of it is communication and acting in a business like fashion..

I would buy from Laguna again tomorrow .. but I have no space left :( lol.

If I where you, I would call Laguna and tell them your concerns. They are good with machinery.. have a lot of product knowledge and import some really fine equipment. They seem to be transforming from a strictly Euro machinery company to more " retail " type of product.. which will mean being more geared to dealing with " retail " customers.. lol. I bet you will be happy..

[Rick Fisher]

On the spiral cutterhead.. I would not hesitate.. its the best improvement to planers and jointers since... They where invented.. lol

[Peter Aeschliman]

I'm going to provide my honest feedback on the Laguna 10" spiral cutterhead jointer planer machine. Moderators, if you have a problem with open criticism of a sponsor, I'd be happy to take this offline with the original poster... but I think others might find this useful. It's not my intention to slam Laguna... my intention is to answer the OP's question as I know there aren't many people who own this machine...

I have had a number of problems with the machine. It works okay, but I feel for the price it shouldn't have required as much work as it did to get it running okay, and I still have some problems:

-the motor was very poorly aligned when I got the machine. Aligning the motor is normal for any new machine, but the machine didn't have enough adjustability from the factory, so I had to remove the motor, file out the motor mounting holes to get the adjustability I needed, and shim the motor in order to get the cutterhead and motor pulleys aligned correctly. It took some work, but I was able to get it aligned. Before I did this, the machine vibrated significantly and I could smell the belts burning. There was a fine black dust all over the place inside the machine from the belts.

-I still have more vibration that I would like; the machine doesn't pass the nickel test. The Jet 6" jointer it replaced was much smoother. I can tell it's coming from the cutterhead. I suspect the slot mortiser chuck, which threads onto one end of the cutterhead, is causing an imbalance. By design, it's not symmetrical. I haven't figured out a way to remove it, since you can't lock the cutterhead in place in order to unthread it. I'm sure there's a way to do this, but I haven't spent the time to figure it out yet.

-The jointer beds were not aligned when I got the machine, but it was really easy to get them right... I consider this a plus.

-The biggest problem I've had with the machine is with the planer feed rollers... when I first got the machine, it worked fine... but now, workpieces won't feed completely through... they get stuck and I have to pull and push them through. It's really hard to do without causing snipe... I've tried re-waxing the planer bed and it didn't help. So I had to adjust the feed roller pressure. Problem is, the owners manual provides no instructions on doing this... If you're mechanically inclined, the poor owners' manual isn't that big of a deal... but it is a little unsettling that they didn't spend more time on the manual. I figured out how to adjust the infeed roller and one end of the outfeed roller. Problem is, the pulley/sprocket side of the outfeed roller is essentially not adjustable. The tension on that end of the roller is basically controlled by the spring that tensions the chain that turns the outfeed roller. You can't reduce the tension on the outfeed roller without changing out that spring... and even then, you may reduce the chain tension to the point where it may not work correctly...

-the dust collection isn't great while in jointing mode. If you run a lot of boards through, you have to clean off the planer bed because there are a lot of wood chips down there. It's not fine dust, so it doesn't bother me that much... but it seems to be a design issue.

And for the customer support... the sales people were really friendly. I worked with a guy named Jerry... he was great. Not pushy, and gave me a good deal. I always expect some setup time for a machine, so I didn't call CS immediately. In fact, the first interaction I had with Laguna after that was when I called them to place an order for slot mortiser bits. The salesman (again, super friendly) asked me how I liked the machine. I told him about the vibration problems and he apologized and said he'd put a note in their system to have the technical support guys call me.

They never did call... since then, I solved some of the problems myself (which I expected to have to do anyway; not the end of the world, but not fun either). Recently, another member created a thread that was critical of Laguna customer support... that thread was deleted, I think. I shared this experience in that thread, and I got a call from Laguna. It was a nice gesture. Unfortunately I was busy at work and couldn't answer. I called the guy back the next day and left a message. I still haven't received a return phone call, more than a month later.

I'm not really mad. I haven't exactly jumped out of my seat trying to get in touch with them, but they don't seem to make return phone calls a priority. I don't think I should have to hound them.

End of the day, I'm going to have to make the adjustments myself, with or without their phone calls. I don't want to hassle with returning the machine. I'm sure I'll eventually get the problems sorted out... it's a machine afterall.

As for the good things about that machine:

The slot mortiser attachment is really sweet. When I was choosing between the 12" grizzly and the 10" Laguna, price was certainly a consideration. I got free shipping and they knocked off a lot of the slot mortiser price. So it was clearly cheaper. The second most important decision point for me was the slot mortiser. You can't get that on any other machine in this price range. So far it has made mortise and tenon joints much easier. I haven't figured out whether the mortiser chuck is causing my vibration problems, but it seemed that tightening down the jaws of the chuck helped a little bit... so I guess the jury is still out, but I love the functionality and can't believe Jet and Grizzly hasn't put this on their competing machines.

The spiral cutterhead is really fantastic. It's not a sand-free finish, but it's very nice. I love the fact that I won't have to bother with knife-setting again, and the machine is significantly quieter. If I can solve the vibration problems, it might improve the finish quality.

The reduced footprint and extra capacity are also really nice... I had a 6" jointer and a 13" planer before; never used more than 10" on the planer so giving up the 3" didn't matter at all.

End of the day, my advice is to buy the Grizzly unless you want the slot mortiser attachment. The price difference isn't significant enough to have to deal with the adjustment issues I've had and the Grizzly is more of a known entity... I haven't seen any major complaints on this forum, but obviously you'll want to do your own research. I don't completely regret my purchase, but I'm not exactly thrilled with it either. I feel like I should be happier with something I spent more than $2k on.

Good luck, feel free to PM me for more information if you want.

[Scott Haddix]

Last week I purchased the floor model workbench Laguna had posted for sale on this site. A few days later, I was looking at the picture they'd sent me of the floor model and realized it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, in that it was more of a hybrid of their 7' workbench and their Signature Series workbench, than being a standard Signature Series workbench they offer now. I went back through the conversations I'd had with Laguna on the workbench and realized that this was an honest mistake on both parties sides, but the floor model workbench didn't end up meeting my needs. I contacted Laguna literally an hour before the workbench was set to ship. David Spoon (Laguna salesman) recognized the disconnect, stopped shipment on the floor model, and got me an awesome deal on a new Signature Series workbench to make it right, as well as gave me some nice discounts on a Resaw King and some other accessories. I was very satisfied with the customer service I received, and wouldn't hesitate to purchase from them again in the future. So far, that's my only experience with their customer service, but it was a good one.

[Jeremy Greiner]

After watching videos about several Jointer/Planer combo machines, one thing jumps out at me and just bugs me. The grizzly combo machine requires the fence to be removed when switching to planer mode. The laguna requires the fence to flipped over. Both of these situations loses square with the jointer beds and just my OCD nature I'd have to check the squareness of the fence when returning to jointer mode every time which would increase the time it would take to do the change over.

The Rikon 12 inch combo machine keeps the fence square with the outfeed as it moves. And the the Jet both beds and fence flip up still maintaining the squareness with the beds.

This is just my perception from the video but I thought I'd bring it up in case this may be an issue for you.

-jeremy

[greg a bender]

I'll throw in here with my experience's with J/P combos.

I had, and loved my Inca 550 10" jointer planer. Great little machine. If you can find one, and can appricciate it's values and accept it's lack of support great. It is/was a great little unit.

That said, I just replaced my Inca with a Jet JJP-12. Why? Longer tables, 5 year warranty, 3 HP and, Its new:cool:.

I could not be happier!:)

The changeover takes about 15 seconds, the quality of the cuts is equal to the Inca (this is not even a spiral head).
Yes, I did catch it on the last round of sales. Do I miss the spiral head? Don't know, so far, Brazilian cherry, Purple heart and Birdseye maple have come out just fine.

Plus, it just looks cool! (IMHO, of course).

HTH

Greg A

[Scot Ferraro]

I would consider the Hammer in the mix too -- it is not that much more money than the other choices and it is a great machine. I have had mine for a few years now and have put hundreds of board feet through it with no issues whatsoever. This is not to discount or discredit the other options that are out there in any way, but I would make the same choice again. You can also get a spiral for the Hammer for a little bit more money and they will install it for you in the Delaware facility before shipping it or you can opt to install it yourself. I have the standard quick-change knives and it makes great cuts, even in highly figured wood and personally do not think it is worth the upgrade for my use, but it is another option.

Scot

[Alan Lightstone]

I have the 12" Laguna SCH J/P. A few points.

1.) The fence doesn't lock in at 90degrees on the jointer and needs to be swung out of the way when converting. Not a big deal, but annoying in that you need to re-square it every time you convert back and forth between modes.

2.) Dust collection in jointer mode if awful. It just drops oodles of chips on the planar bed. I modified the dust collection chute, enlarging it to 6" instead of 4, but that didn't help. The issue is that the dust collection chute is about 1 inch shorter than it needs to be to catch chips off the right side of the blades.

3.) Customer service was just fine with me. I just don't like the dust collection at all.

4.) The European blade guard takes getting used to. Just different than the swing away type.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I have the 12" Laguna SCH J/P. A few points.

1.) The fence doesn't lock in at 90degrees on the jointer and needs to be swung out of the way when converting. Not a big deal, but annoying in that you need to re-square it every time you convert back and forth between modes.

2.) Dust collection in jointer mode if awful. It just drops oodles of chips on the planar bed. I modified the dust collection chute, enlarging it to 6" instead of 4, but that didn't help. The issue is that the dust collection chute is about 1 inch shorter than it needs to be to catch chips off the right side of the blades.

3.) Customer service was just fine with me. I just don't like the dust collection at all.

4.) The European blade guard takes getting used to. Just different than the swing away type.

Btw, Alan... I definitely have the same issue as you with dust collection. I've found that the dust collection works better if you use the middle of the cutterhead as much as possible... so when I edge joint, I slide the fence out. It seems that the chips escape around the ends of the cutterhead. Even then, it's still not very effective.

[Mike Kearney]

I have the 12" Laguna SCH J/P. A few points.

1.) The fence doesn't lock in at 90degrees on the jointer and needs to be swung out of the way when converting. Not a big deal, but annoying in that you need to re-square it every time you convert back and forth between modes.

Actually, that sounds like a pain. Take a look at the new G0634XP - it similar to other european J/P designs for the fence. It connects on the end but looks like it would maintain square when re-attaching it. I understand that the fence will deflect but still maintain square to the jointer table.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-Planer-Jointer-with-Spiral-Polar-Series/G0634XP

I may change my order to this machine as opposed to the 634Z unless someone out there with 634Z says something to convince otherwise.

I also have to mention that my comfort level with Laguna hasn't reached the point that I would be comfortable ordering from them.

[Eric Sayre]

I bought a Laguna LT18 Bandsaw 3 years ago and received very good service and support. A switch was damaged in transit, so they sent me a new switch at my request and talked me through the wiring procedure. (I didn't want to send the machine back.) I had heard of poor customer service but received excellent support.

The Laguna saw is top quality.

Going forward, I plan on purchasing Grizzly equipment as well. I don't think you will go wrong with either company.

[Matt Meiser]

The fence was one advantage to the Jet--it stays in place during changeovers.

[Curt Harms]

The fence was one advantage to the Jet--it stays in place during changeovers.

Another advantage is that the Jet fence can be easily modified to tilt 45* in or out. I don't know how important this is but it's easy to do. From the factory the top of the fence tilts away from the jointer bed. I wanted the top to tilt toward the jointer bed. Now it does:).

[Van Huskey]

Another advantage is that the Jet fence can be easily modified to tilt 45* in or out. I don't know how important this is but it's easy to do. From the factory the top of the fence tilts away from the jointer bed. I wanted the top to tilt toward the jointer bed. Now it does:).

Just curious what are you doing you want it to tilt "in". I am one of those that only uses the jointer to edge and face plane but always interested in others interesting techniques.

[Mike Kearney]

OK, $267. Amazon might have been the most expensive place I checked. I dealt with Sean at Toolnut. Everyone else was higher, BUT I placed my order before Jan 1. and there were rumors of a price increase after.

Okay, I took you up on that. Called Toolnut and they came within $276. That is very, very tempting. I know Matt's opinion - what do the rest of you think of the Jet 12" J/P with Helical Head compared to the Grizzly 12" J/P with spiral head. The Jet definitely wins out win it comes to changeovers but the Grizz is a heavier machine with a 5 HP motor. Net weight for the Jet is 500 pounds, Grizz net is 672.

[Bas Pluim]

Okay, I took you up on that. Called Toolnut and they came within $276. That is very, very tempting. I know Matt's opinion - what do the rest of you think of the Jet 12" J/P with Helical Head compared to the Grizzly 12" J/P with spiral head. The Jet definitely wins out win it comes to changeovers but the Grizz is a heavier machine with a 5 HP motor. Net weight for the Jet is 500 pounds, Grizz net is 672.
I have the JJP-12HH, and I've seen & used the Grizzly. Both are fantastic machines. The reason I went with the JET is because the Grizzly is 18" deeper, and you have to remove the fence before you can change the machines to planer. I rarely have enough uncovered surface in the shop to stash a tape measure, let alone a 5' fence. The 18" of depth also really cuts into the space savings you normally get with a combo machine. I like the rack-and-pinion fence system of the Grizzly slightly better than the JET's, but not nearly enough to justify the larger footprint.

The Polar Bear version has a different mounting mechanism for the fence, and the machine is only 24" deep (vs 41 for the Grizzly). I've never seen the machine though, or looked at the fence mechanism.

Does the extra HP matter? I can hog quite a bit off with the 3HP motor, I've hogged 1/8" off an 11" board of QSWO and the machine wasn't even close to running out of oomph. But if you want to process a lot of lumber...it's always nice to have extra power. As for overall weight/ sturdiness, I have no complaints. The JET is built like a tank, whereas the Grizzly is built like a bridge laying tank.

Personally, I like the Euro-style guard much, much better than the pork chop, so that was another reason for me to go with the JET. But I think I would have liked the smooth table of the Grizzly better than the ribbed table of the JET. Maybe I just miss the shine.

Considering the overall cost, and how close they are in price, I wouldn't let $275 dictate what is probably going to be the last J/P you'll ever buy. If I had to do it all over again, I'd still buy the JET. But I'm also a satisfied Grizzly tool owner, so basically I don't think you can go wrong. I forsee some more agonizing in your near future. Enjoy it :-)

[Dick Mahany]

A little late to the party here, but I have the JET JJP 12JP with non HH. I really like it as I don't use use it for finished boards, so the straight knives work just fine for me. Like Matt said the fence stays in place during change overs, and I'd buy it again.

[Curt Harms]

Just curious what are you doing you want it to tilt "in". I am one of those that only uses the jointer to edge and face plane but always interested in others interesting techniques.

I was thinking about it if for instance I wanted to build a column with no edge grain showing like 45* bevels on thick stock. It seems like trying to do a cut like that where the stock could ride up the fence would more difficult than having the stock trapped between the fence & jointer bed. Does that make sense? Am I nuts? Be nice now :p. I know there are other ways to accomplish this like a tilted table saw or chamfer bit in a router table. A jointer sure does create a nice clean uniform bevel though. I did try some cuts on scrap after I did the mod and it seemed to work pretty well.

[Mike Kearney]

Okay, I called Toolnut today and pulled the trigger on the Jet J/P HH. Shipped price - $2649. Best deal by far that I found. Now - new question - what mobile base have you guys put under it? I have the super heavy duty Shop Fox mobile base ordered from Grizzly that was supposed to go under their unit - will that work? Also, from the pictures of the Jet the base on it looks slightly rounded - is that an optical illusion? If it is slightly rounded, was their a problem getting a base for it?

Matt, what base did you use?

[Matt Meiser]

Yes its somewhat rounded but isn't a problem for a base. I made my own base

179235179234

But if I couldn't have done that I'd choose one of the universal bases that don't use the kickstand wheels. I think those jar a heavier machine too much. Or put locking casters under the machine. There are 4 existing holes (where they bolt the machine to the pallet) that you could use.

The thing I like the most about my custom base is being able to move the machine in any direction. The casters would do the same. I'm not aware of a commercial base that will do that.

[Mike Kearney]

Wow, Matt, that's an awesome base. Can I place an order for one? Paypal okay? :)

I really like the Shop Fox base but only two of the wheels swivel. It would be nice if all four casters would be multi-directional.

[Alan Lightstone]

The fence was one advantage to the Jet--it stays in place during changeovers.

I had originally ordered the Jet one, but after ordering, I was told that they were back ordered for at least 4 months. Then, once I got a good deal on the Laguna, I changed my order to that.

I'm switching to a Oneida cyclone for DC. I'll be curious as to whether DC with the Laguna in jointing mode gets better with my modified 6" input on the Laguna with the bigger DC. Until then, it's not acceptable to me to just shower down chips to the planer bed.

[Dick Mahany]

Okay, I called Toolnut today and pulled the trigger on the Jet J/P HH. Shipped price - $2649. Best deal by far that I found. Now - new question - what mobile base have you guys put under it? I have the super heavy duty Shop Fox mobile base ordered from Grizzly that was supposed to go under their unit - will that work? Also, from the pictures of the Jet the base on it looks slightly rounded - is that an optical illusion? If it is slightly rounded, was their a problem getting a base for it?

Matt, what base did you use?



Here's an option for a base. I used a Shop Fox base, but upgraded the casters to the WC Urethane type. Fixed casters on left, locking swivel on the right. Works very well.
179381

[Mike Kearney]

Dick - what was your source for the casters?

[Dick Mahany]

Dick - what was your source for the casters?

Mike,

The 3" casters are from Woodcraft. I've used them a lot and they make rolling heavy loads a breeze and don't develop flat spots. They go on sale every couple of months.

Regards,

[Mike Kearney]

Thanks - I'll check them out. How's the base holding up? I've seen some complaints about sag. The one I had on my old Grizzly 8" jointer was great but it was more than 10 years old.

[Dick Mahany]

Thanks - I'll check them out. How's the base holding up? I've seen some complaints about sag. The one I had on my old Grizzly 8" jointer was great but it was more than 10 years old.

My base is 2+ years old and still as solid as new.

[Mike Kearney]

Took delivery of the Grizzly G1023RL and the Jet J/P HH today. Here they are:

180079
Got them both uncrated and got the mobile base under the Jet. Tomorrow I'll get the base under saw and hopefully start getting them set up. Slow going working by myself. Thanks for everyone's help and comments.

[Van Huskey]

Nice!! Did they both come on the same truck?

You are about to have a lot of fun!

[Mike Kearney]

Nice!! Did they both come on the same truck?

No. The Grizzly came from their Springfield, MO facility and the Jet from the east coast somewhere. I originally had appointments set up for both. The G1023RL was supposed to come yesterday afternoon and the Jet J/P this afternoon. I've worked in shipping for a couple of different companies for the past several years and should known better than to expect the deliveries to be when they were scheduled.

The Grizzly (Saia Frieght) showed up at 10:30 AM yesterday so I took an early lunch and hustled home. The Jet (Estes Trucking) showed up at 2:45 PM so I had to leave work a little early. It worked out okay - both drivers were great (I actually knew the Estes driver). I purchased the liftgate service for both machines and the drivers used their pallet jacks to push the machines up my driveway into my garage. It's been mentioned in a thread somewhere that the Jet comes on an odd shaped pallet that doesn't work with a standard pallet jack - the driver anticipated the problem and had it placed on a regular pallet so he could get his pallet jack under it.

[Van Huskey]

No. The Grizzly came from their Springfield, MO facility and the Jet from the east coast somewhere. I originally had appointments set up for both.

I was wondering, it would have been too weird had they ended up on the same carrier much less the same day of delivery.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I'm going to provide my honest feedback on the Laguna 10" spiral cutterhead jointer planer machine. Moderators, if you have a problem with open criticism of a sponsor, I'd be happy to take this offline with the original poster... but I think others might find this useful. It's not my intention to slam Laguna... my intention is to answer the OP's question as I know there aren't many people who own this machine...
[snip snip]
End of the day, my advice is to buy the Grizzly unless you want the slot mortiser attachment. The price difference isn't significant enough to have to deal with the adjustment issues I've had and the Grizzly is more of a known entity... I haven't seen any major complaints on this forum, but obviously you'll want to do your own research. I don't completely regret my purchase, but I'm not exactly thrilled with it either. I feel like I should be happier with something I spent more than $2k on.

Good luck, feel free to PM me for more information if you want.

I wanted to be fair to Laguna and follow up on my situation with this machine and their customer service. I know the ship has probably sailed on this thread, but I didn't think it was fair to leave this post hanging out here without providing a proper follow up.

I eventually did get Laguna on the phone and they were very polite, knowledgeable and articulate. Jason, their CS manager, walked me through some potential solutions to the planer feed problem and the vibration problem. His solution for the planer bed worked out well, but our hypothesis about the cutterhead vibration (that it was caused by the mortiser chuck) didn't end up panning out. With the mortiser chuck removed, the cutterhead vibration was just as bad as before.

In addition to these problems, the motor on the machine failed on me a few days ago. Mind you, I've only put about 4-5 hours on this machine. It's a 2HP leeson motor and I wasn't pushing it all that hard. The conclusion is that the motor was a lemon.

I just got off the phone with Jason and he didn't even hesitate to offer a replacement machine. Based on other customer support experiences I've had with other companies, I was expecting a fight... I got no resistance whatsoever.

They're going to send me a brand new replacement machine FIRST so that I can use the crating material from the replacement machine to package up the old machine. They're going to pay for the liftgate service and everything. The only downside for me is that I have to take a total of 2 days off of work to meet the freight company for the delivery and shipping.

Anyway, I know there was a hint of sourness in my previous post. I'm still frustrated that I received a defective machine, but given the circumstances, Laguna stood behind their product in a very professional manner. They turned a bad situation around for me. Given this experience, I'm back to recommending Laguna to others. Based on my experience, even if you get a bad machine (which is no fun), they will make it right... so my perceived risk of buying from them has been reduced dramatically.

Maybe I'll consider one of their bandsaws now. ;)

Thanks.

Peter

[Rod Sheridan]

Good news Peter, please let us know how well the replacement machine works................Regards, Rod.

[mreza Salav]

Great to here they are coming through and thank you for coming back and posting this.
I will likely buy a good bandsaw in this year or so and surely their bandsaws are at the top of my list.

[Douglas Clark]

Thanks for your follow up, Peter, on your Laguna experience. It appears that I may have an opportunity to purchase a J/P combo in the near future (originally, I was expecting to have to wait a year) so I've been wrestling with who to go with, Jet vs. Grizzly vs. Laguna. I just went through this process a couple of weeks ago as I was weighing my bandsaw purchase and was going back and forth between a new Grizzly and used Laguna saw I'd found. During my research period my dad informed me that my uncle just purchased the Laguna J/P combo and had hinted that my uncle had gone through an experience of having to switch out his initial purchase with a different model because of some defect in the one he'd purchased, but my dad seemed pretty nebulous on how easy Laguna had been to work with on the issue. If I understood my dad right, my uncle had to go down to So Cal to resolve it. Luckily we all live about 3-1/2 hours from Irvine, so it isn't as difficult to make that connection to corporate if you are motivated. Anyhow, long story short, he did eventually get it resolved. But like I said, the whole story made me feel kind of ambivalent about looking any closer at anything Laguna.

With your post, It's got me wondering whether or not I should re-consider when choosing the J/P. Unfortunately, my uncle and I aren't on the greatest of terms but maybe finding some common ground over our love of woodworking can thaw that ice a little bit and I can take a closer look at the Laguna before I abandon them as an option all together. In the meantime, I hope Laguna is truly serious about getting their customer service competitive because it is clear that they have some catching up to do. But they are a lot closer to me than Grizzly and that could be a big plus. On the other hand, maybe Grizzly could consider a fourth warehouse somewhere in CA or at least somewhere along I-15 between Utah and San Diego. I travel the I-15 corridor a fair amount, so I'd like that too!