Laguna v Hammer - which should I buy?

[Evanism]

I love my Laguna SUV.

The Resaw king is amazing. It's really nice to use with a 1/2" and 1/4" blade for fine work.

My only criticisms might be the lower bearings are hard to reach with my meaty hands. I'm also making an after market dust collector, so this removes a negative that is common to all bandsaws....

I've the DriftMaster too, but I haven't really given it too much work.

[GarethR]

In my opinion, Wood Slicer from Highland Hardware is the best resaw blade at a reasonable price. . . . (Under $100)

Agree 100%, great blade.

[Bendigo Bob]

can't offer any great wisdom, but inspected both at the Melbourne wood show (was anyone else disappointed in how small it was compared to previous years?)

The Laguna has all the bells and whistles for sure and is well built but getting inside and under certainly reveals the Hammer to be far more robust (don't think the reps really appreciated me twisting and tugging at things)

Realised how much there is to learn watching Matthais Wendel explaining the physics of bandsawing, oh, and still saving and still tossing up between those two choices

[dalejw]

I've got the Hammer N4400 and know nothing but what I've read on these pages about the Laguna.

There are a couple of minor niggles with the Hammer but nothing you can't work around. As you tighten up the guide post screw the top guidepost rotates a fraction but it's easy to work around this if you set it up and tighten it to the same pressure each time.

It has flat wheels so I run the blades at the front of the tyre. It has a stupid amount of power, I've never even heard the motor note change when ripping huge chunks of old Jarrah.

One thing I will say is try not to get too hung up on the marketing behind the drift master fence and the resaw king blades. I'm really just starting to come to grips with my saw after owning it for a year but one thing I have found is if I haven't taken the time to set it up correctly it will drift all over the place and no amount of changing the fence angle will get it right. Conversely, if I've taken the time to set the guides up correctly, I have the fence dead square to the table and it cuts dead straight, every time. I struggled with drift for ages, I even considered buying a drift master fence for it but one day I pulled it all apart and set up all the guides from scratch and really thought about it. No drift problems since and it's now my opinion that changing the fence angle is probably bandaid to a poor setup.

I'm sure the resaw king is a great blade but there's others like the Lennox wood master CT which are nearly half the price and will happily peel off 3mm veneers ready to glue up to whatever your substrate is without any further work.

Just my 2c worth.

[danlei]

well my new 14SUV is here. It took me quite a few months to finally make a decision but i did, and ended up going with the Laguna over the hammer. In a nutshell, i had narrowed it down to the hammer and the laguna. There were both good and not so good reports for both brands, but after hearing reports from pretty reliable sources on both bandsaws, i settled on the laguna. A huge thank you to Trend for their service and assistance. Both my woodworking buddy and myself purchased the 14SUV at the sydney wood show. With 2 bandsaws going from sydney to canberra Trend gave what i thought was a reasonable deal on freight.
I managed to get mine set up on my own although 2 people would certainly make the job a bit easier. Took me not much over an hour to have it going. I will try and put some pics up shortly. What impressed me was the accuracy right out of the crate. Adjusting the ceramic guides is a little bit fiddly, but it did not take much to have this machine cutting 1mm veneers and even a tad thinner. And that was with the barest of tinkering required.
An awesome machine, and certainly worth consideration by anyone in the market for a bandsaw, top job Laguna and Trend Timbers.
Cheers

[Evanism]

photos!

[Pearo]

I might just tack on this thread because I had narrowed down my selection to Laguna and Hammer also, however I was looking at the 18" machines. FWIW, I ended up buying the Hammer N4400. Cant use it yet though, still waiting to get power to the shed!

[Bendigo Bob]

Way to go Pearo.
I ended up pulling out of the race for a new high qual bandsaw. Was never going to get there with the budget. I did pick up a near new but 2^nd hand Ledacraft 14” for $500. It serves the purpose in my little shed for occasional use, and came with a Kreg fence to boot.
Oh well, can only “look over the fence longingly”

[GraemeCook]

Good Morning Danlei

Would be interested to hear how your new machine is settling in....

Derek mentioned that he is very satisfied with the service that he is receiving from the Perth agents for Hammer, and I think this is a critical issue. Both the agents for Laguna and Hammer that you consulted are in Sydney, quite a distance from Canberra.

I am now retired, but years ago I worked for an organisation that had a very large vehicle fleet, Australia wide. The cost figures for Holdens and Falcons, Australia wide, were virtually identical - but the quality of the dealerships varied widely - both had excellent dealers, both had duds and both stuck with their duds for years. The average costs of running a Holden from dealer A could be 30% higher than a Holden from dealer B - due to poor service and extended downtimes. Similar variance with Falcons.

Although we had nation wide contracts with both Holden and Ford, we directed staff to buy Falcons in one area and Commodores in another. All because of the dealers.

Later, we largely switched to Toyotas because they seemed to have better and more consistent dealerships.

It is difficult when there is no dealer in Canberra - I am in Hobart and we face the same issues - but it might be worth you consciously cultivating a relationship with your dealer's service personnel, so that you become a known friendly person, and not just another complaining customer. If all is going well and you are in Sydney, pop in and tell them it is going great. If you have a minor problem, ask for their expert advice.... Phone calls and even emails are useful, provided the service people already know your face! Service is a relationship, and relationships are two-way.


Enjoy; I am envious.


Graeme

[Pearo]

Good Morning Danlei

Would be interested to hear how your new machine is settling in....

Derek mentioned that he is very satisfied with the service that he is receiving from the Perth agents for Hammer, and I think this is a critical issue. Both the agents for Laguna and Hammer that you consulted are in Sydney, quite a distance from Canberra.

I am now retired, but years ago I worked for an organisation that had a very large vehicle fleet, Australia wide. The cost figures for Holdens and Falcons, Australia wide, were virtually identical - but the quality of the dealerships varied widely - both had excellent dealers, both had duds and both stuck with their duds for years. The average costs of running a Holden from dealer A could be 30% higher than a Holden from dealer B - due to poor service and extended downtimes. Similar variance with Falcons.

Although we had nation wide contracts with both Holden and Ford, we directed staff to buy Falcons in one area and Commodores in another. All because of the dealers.

Later, we largely switched to Toyotas because they seemed to have better and more consistent dealerships.

It is difficult when there is no dealer in Canberra - I am in Hobart and we face the same issues - but it might be worth you consciously cultivating a relationship with your dealer's service personnel, so that you become a known friendly person, and not just another complaining customer. If all is going well and you are in Sydney, pop in and tell them it is going great. If you have a minor problem, ask for their expert advice.... Phone calls and even emails are useful, provided the service people already know your face! Service is a relationship, and relationships are two-way.


Enjoy; I am envious.


Graeme

FWIW, I have made the decision to buy the Laguna Jointer ( although I have not informed them yet). If I was buying a 14" bandsaw I would have gone with the Taiwanese Laguna model. To be honest, I walked out of Gregory Machinery wondering if I actually needed an 18" bandsaw, so I want home to measure some of the stuff I would be resawing to make sure I was making the correct decision. Now I am now also wondering if I should go for the 12" jointer!

Graeme, I have also had the same issue with car dealers. I had issues with Nissan and Toyota, but the local Mitsubishi dealer was brilliant. Its all about the dealer. In saying that, the local Nissan dealer has sorted out a lot of issues and is now good. I am sure the local Laguna dealer is good, but I did get the feeling they are more sales oriented. The hammer/felder dealer is the opposite, he is more service and less sales. The dealer makes all the difference.