Originally Posted by
Dean S Walker
Thank you fellas for all the input. I have been out of town for the last 10 days for work and just now getting back to this. The fella who had the Min Max couldn't or wouldn't get the saw on a pallet. If he could have I would have sent a truck. So, Now back to this. I like the GO514 they have two versions I'm looking at on with a foot brake and one with the motor brake, they are 100 bucks apart so basically not enough for me to squabble over. They do have two different fences as well both have the extra heavy tilt mechanism. Does anybody have any pros/cons about these two. At normal price these will take up the better part of 2000.00 so here we go what else should I look for in this price range and why? Ill take 16 and up as long as its at least 12 in height. I really don't see re sawing over 12 but you never know.
Van the min max was a 16 with a 3.6hp I believe to be made in 2003. I would love to have a nice min-max or other high end but I just can not find a logical justification for it.
If you are running at 2K then the Laguna 18BX and the Rikon 10-347 are IMO better values and better saws than the Grizzly 514 series. Grizzly used to completely own the value proposition between 1k and 2k but they haven't updated their saws in this range (save for adding the bigger 14" steel saw at ~1.5k) in years. Rikon and Laguna have really put a lot of effort into this price range and have several really great saws. There is nothing wrong with the 514 series, it is just as good as it always was it has just been eclipsed in the price range, and fairly handily at that. The Rikon has 19" of resaw and 4hp AND a 5 year warranty along with much more user-friendly guides. Now as a turner the Laguna has the advantage of ceramic guides which IMO are the best guides for cutting wet/pitchy wood plus 16" of resaw.
Also never expect non-dealers to pallet or crate used machines, that is just rarely going to happen. 99% of the time you deal with all the logistics.
Of all the laws Brandolini's may be the most universally true.
Deep thought for the day:
Your bandsaw weighs more when you leave the spring compressed instead of relieving the tension.