Thread: Bandsaw choice of 3

I bought the hafco bp355 recently. it has served me well without any issues. I see it as a cheaper alternative to the laguna 14/12. The main differences I see between the 2 machines is the table tilt trunion on the bp355 is kinda crappy, on the laguna it looks to be a much better engineered component. lucky for me, i have not needed to tilt the bandsaw table...ever. also the blade guides on the bp355 are cheap, but they are just blade guides...fancy ones just cost more without any great added benefit apart from slightly easier adjustment...meh

I just bought the hammer N4400, but I checked out all the bandsaws in the 14" to 18" range. I think you would be hard pressed finding a better machine than the Taiwanese Laguna 14". There is 2 14" Laguna's, one chinese and one taiwanese. Whilst I thing the chinese machine is still pretty good, when comparing the 2 the Taiwanese machine looked much better quality.

FWIW, I have a mate who is a professional cabinet maker (I am talking fine woodworking, not mass manufactured chipboard) and he reckons the carbatec gear is fine. As I understand it, the quality of most is the same, and once the saw is tuned properly they all cut the same!

I bought my Laguna 14/Twelve about 18 mounts ago with re saw king blade very happy with it

The newish Laguna at my local Men's Shed doesn't have a motor brake so it runs on for some time after its switched off It now has had a flashing light and a buzzer fitted that indicates that it's still turning after switch off.

Don't know if this is standard for the Laguna but not a good feature I feel.

I have a 14/12 and use it not quite every day but close. the majority of the time I use a 10mm 12 tpi blade on it for cutting out the armrests on the chairs I make and hasn't missed a beat, its cut almost a couple of thousand arms so far. when I do swap over blades I have found that there has been no change in tracking
and I'm up and running in minutes whereas on my previous bandsaws it could be up to 10 -15 mins maybe more.
the only pains have been a slight wobble on start up which I fixed by a couple of timber wedges under the base and one knob on the bottom guide is a pain for my hands to get to.
at the time I was buying I did want to get the Laguna lt14suv but it was out of stock and they had the 14/12 on the floor so I bought it thinking that maybe I would upgrade further down the line but I don't think I will as I'm getting good results with no issues.
also the resaw King blades have my vote you get an incredible cut from them.

Originally Posted by Pearo

I think you would be hard pressed finding a better machine than the Taiwanese Laguna 14". There is 2 14" Laguna's, one chinese and one taiwanese. Whilst I thing the chinese machine is still pretty good, when comparing the 2 the Taiwanese machine looked much better quality.

Thanks - I guess the 14/Twelve is the bottom of the Launa range so it is likely to be the Chinese version?

Originally Posted by Mehrdad

I bought my Laguna 14/Twelve about 18 mounts ago with re saw king blade very happy with it

Nice to hear your positive experience.

Originally Posted by Lappa

The newish Laguna at my local Men's Shed doesn't have a motor brake so it runs on for some time after its switched off It now has had a flashing light and a buzzer fitted that indicates that it's still turning after switch off.

Don't know if this is standard for the Laguna but not a good feature I feel.

Interesting - I had not considered a foot bake at all, so thank you for bringing it up.

Originally Posted by fubar

I have a 14/12 and use it not quite every day but close. the majority of the time I use a 10mm 12 tpi blade on it for cutting out the armrests on the chairs I make and hasn't missed a beat, its cut almost a couple of thousand arms so far.

Thank you fubar -another positive for the 14/twelve.