Thread: What Bandsaw

You won't do much better for your budget than a Laguna 14SUV. Get Lennox CT Blades for resaw work. The Kings are good but very expensive. I had this model and it was the absolute ducks gutz. Never had a problem and only sold it because I moved into a tiny unit with no shed.

I second Shedhand's recommendation. I love my Laguna Bandsaw. Much better than my old Powermatic.

Thanks Guys ill have a look, do you know of any good shops that sell laguna.
also what makes them better? is it just overall build quality or better quality components.
what type blade (tpi) would you guys recommend for desert hardwoods, haven't had any thing to do with bandsaws since highschool woodwork,
Bodie

This is the Model I owned. Bought when AUD/USD had parity. So it was cheaper to buy back then. Early 2014 I think from memory. I also purchased about $400 worth of blades including a $240 Carbide tipped King Resaw blade which was a very nice blade, a couple of skip-tooth and smaller general purpose blades. When I couldn't find anyone to resharpen it I bought a Lennox Carbide tipped 32mm RESAW blade. It cut like a hot knife through butter and was half the price of the 32 mm 3 tooth/inch (I think) King C/T ReSaw.
I bought it from Henry Bros in NSW. Whatever saw you end up buying - but with a 3 HP single phase motor, the Laguna LS SUV14 will do what you want with the particular dense hardwood species you'll be working with. I strongly recommend it - give Henry Bros a call and ask them what they recommend for your blade requirements. They're very helpful and excellent'people to deal with.
DISCLAIMER: I have no commercial relationship with Henry Bros, Laguna retailers or Lennox other than a very happy customer of their products.
Good luck with it all.

I have just bought a Laguna 1412 bandsaw through Gregory Machinery in Brisbane and Im very happy with it.

This one is quite nice
Laguna 14 BX Bandsaw - Gregory Machinery

Laguna will soon be distributed by Carbatec but they are not expecting stock for a little while. August i believe the newsletter stated. Gregory Machinery still has some stock based on my conversations with them a few weeks back.

I cant cant give 1st hand experience with the Leda saws but they are very popular in high schools in Adelaide so they cant be too bad to put up with that abuse.

I have a Metabo BAS 505G bandsaw sitting in my shed unused, but you will need access to 3 phase power. I'm asking $1900 for it. In excellent condition would suit new buyer. I can post photos.

Also Rikon 10-326 is an excellent bandsaw, similar $$

I love my Laguna 14BX

Second vote to the Rikon, I’m mightily impressed with mine.

I maintain 2x Laguna 14BX machines for the WoodCraft Guild of the ACT. They both get a right old flogging from a couple of hundred members. I can attest they are a very good machine, but if you are working with dense desert timbers, I would say go for the 3HP SUV. The BX will probably handle the job, but I think a little extra power would not go astray. We buy all our blades from Henry Bros because they are a quality product and if there is ever any problem, I can ring up and they sort it right. We bought all our machines off Gregory's in Brissy, and I plan on continuing that relationship.

We got this load of well seasoned desert acacia/gidgee in from a deceased estate on Tuesday. I will have to process it over the next 2 weeks into turners blanks and box kits. I will be using a 3/4 1.3TPI Lenox woodmaster to divide those logs into 2 billets on a fairly substantial 3HP Wadkin. I'm hoping to be able to re-saw a few boards for box kits on one of the 14BX machines with a brand new out of the box 1/2" 3TPI Lenox Woodmaster. I am hoping the smaller blade will give me a finer re-saw cut. I will let you know how it goes for power,or whether I have to invoke Plan_B. I presume this is the sort of thing you will be looking at doing...

thanks for all the info guys , i was just comparing the laguna 14suv and the leda BS-470, there is roughly $800 difference, both have similar features both 3Hp motor, the laguna has bigger depth of cut by about 3" but leda still big enough with 11". is there anything else that makes the laguna that much more, i am of the mind of buy once cry once, but with the leda being in adelaide the freight will be a bit less for me than the laguna, i suppose my main question is is the laguna $1000 better than the leda and would someone really notice.

I have no experience with the Leda, but I do like the style of guides it sports, which I prefer to ceramics. Having said that, there is less to go wrong with ceramics... I have not heard anything bad about the Leda, In the end its all a punt, try starting a new thread to find owners and ask their impressions

B

As promised, I tried our one of those little logs on a Luguna 14BX with a (fairly well used) 3TPI 1/2" woodmaster bi-metal blade. It was as predicted a little under-powered on desert acacia. We could stall it out without forcing anything. I tried it out on the president of the guild, to eliminate me as a factor. Identical result. He got me to change the blade to one I had re-sharpened. Same result.

We then tried our the woodfast 3HP horizontal with a 3/4" 1.3TPI woodmaster on the same logs, but a bigger diameter specimen. It handled the job reasonable easily at a reasonable consistent feed rate. The quality of cut was good. I put a straight edge on the cut face, and I was actually rather impressed. No waves in it at all

Those logs were godawful hard, seasoned well over 10 years from what I understand, so the Laguna result is by no means any criticism of it. It was just not designed to chew through timber that makes brick look a bit soft.