Upgrade from Ag B18 to Laguna 24LT worth it?

[Christopher Charles]

Hi all,

I have an Agazanini B-18 that I bought new in 2008 and use for making veneer and as a general use bandsaw (i only have one bs). Has been great and no real complaints.

I do have an opportunity to buy a Laguna 24 for a good price and figure I could swap saws for ~$500-1000 if I sold mine. One trick is the Laguna is from 2002, which is right before they went from 15 3/4" to 17 3/4" resaw. New Lagunas do 24". My B-18 does 13 1/2". Would go from 3 hp to 5 hp. Would have to pull a new 40 A circuit, which would be relatively straightforward for me to do. Both saws are Italian.

I'm looking for some feedback on how much of a jump there is in performance going from a 3hp 18" to a 5 hp 24" saw.

Thanks in advance,
Chris

[Andrew Hughes]

The only pro I would consider is the longer blades on the 24. Longer blades cost a bit more but last a lot longer.
I have the B20/20 I hardly ever resaw above 8 or 10 inches. Too much cupping
I do resaw for Bent lamination
Good Luck

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks AJ. I agree about the rare need for deep resawing. I can count on two hands the number of times I have actually needed to resaw more than 10” or so. But when you need it, sure is nice to have.

[Andrew Hughes]

Another plus is the 24 has a bigger table.