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Hello all,

I'm looking for band saw recommendations. I'd like to be able to do a little resawing when necessary. Maybe in the $2,000 range, but not a requirement.

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If you’re looking for something with a smaller footprint, the Laguna 14SUV is pretty nice. I resaw with it frequently and it does a great job, if paired with the Resaw King blade. The downside is that the blade is 250$ and is basically the only blade available that will effectively run on its for resaw. Other blades can’t handle the 14”wheels without fatiguing. Rikon makes a similar saw, but the Laguna has ceramic guide blocks.

If size is not an issue I would certainly look for a bigger one…

I have an 18 inch JET that I've used for years--I put Laguna ceramic guide blocks on mine--the stock guides were pretty bad. I'm quite happy with it. It resaws fine--I use a 3/4 inch Infinity Rip blade. I don't do a lot of resawing though.

Edit--I'll add that for me, moving from a 14" saw to an 18" saw was more about throat depth than it was resaw capacity. Banjo pegheads are cut perpendicular to the fingerboard surface, not the peghead face. I needed more throat depth to cut some of these without running the shaft of the neck into the other side of the saw while cutting pegheads. A couple of buddies of mine have the high end Laguna 14" saws, and they're really nice. If I didn't need the extra throat depth, and if they had been available at the time, they would have probably been my choice.

Dave

I bought one of these used, and I like it:

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/jet- ... LEQAvD_BwE

It’s a Jet 14” bandsaw with extra features, like a riser block and bearing blade guides, already on there, so you don’t have to add them. It does fine for anything I do that is guitar related. I resaw neck blanks with it, but I don’t try to resaw tops or backs. Maybe it could handle those, but I haven’t tried. It’s a decent quality bandsaw. There are better ones out there, but they cost more.

I have a first generation Rikon 18”. It didn’t receive good reviews due to its tensioning mechanism but after 15+ years I’ve had no issue with that. Not sure of their customer service today but when I bought the saw it was not starting without making a humming noise like it was straining to start. I contacted their CS who transferred me to an engineer. He listened to it start (over the phone) and diagnosed it as a bad capacitor. Within three days they sent me an entirely new motor. I bought and changed the capacitor and the new motor still sits in my shop unused.
I have resawn many a side and back set using a Lenox Woodmaster 3/4” blade. Cuts like a champ even after all these years.

+1 on the Rikon 18” with the Lenox Woodmaster blade. I’ve had one for a long time. It’s adequate for resawing. Now, I might spend twice as much as I did then for a better saw, but I don’t know what it would be. I kept a 12” saw for the finer stuff so I don’t have to change blades for different tasks.

Before I bought the Rikon, I was using a Delta clone (Buffalo) with a riser block. It wasn't up to serious resawing—the frame flexed and it couldn’t handle carbide blades.

I use a 17" 2hp Grizzly with a 3/4" Timberwolf blade for resawing and it does a fantastic job. The default blade guides on the saw arent great, specifically the top guide for the back of the blade. It could just be that the one on my saw is worn from the previous owner too. Either way, its a fairly easy fix with some good third party replacement options available.

Rikon!

period

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Mike Collins

In my experience Timberwolves blades are short lived junk. Once the start to warm up they lose their set and then they really get hot and fail. On my saw Lennox dimaster blades last many times longer and give cleaner cuts

If you have a comfort with some level of tinkering I'd look at older machines. $2,000 could get you quite a nice larger vintage bandsaw that would outperform a newer one if tuned up nicely.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Check out the Harvey bandsaws. They get great reviews on the woodworking groups. The 14" Ambassador is 3 HP, almost 400 lbs and under 2k. I'd buy one over a Laguna.

https://www.harveywoodworking.com/colle ... dkEALw_wcB

TBH, that Harvey looks like a rebadged Laguna. Same saw…

Harvey built a large amount of Pacific rim tools to various levels of quality including many Laguna models. It's what you spec. The best Harvey's are as good as the best Italian Laguna's by all accounts.

Question for OP: How important is a resawing capability? Saws mentioned are beautiful machines, weigh a ton and cost a fortune. If resawing is a someday possibility, I suggest leaving it to the future and buying a saw that will do everything but resawing nicely. Less than $500 all day. I did just that and my Rikon's very useful for everything but resawing. Besides if resawing does become needed, the saw may well stay set up for resawing, leaving the non-resaw available for what it does (everything but resawing).

A thought. And you have it tomorrow.

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Peter Havriluk

I really need to be able to resew. I have a ton of billets that I've been storing.

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This was a good thread from a year ago ——- viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=54606&p=716915&hilit=Bandsaw+recommendations#p716915

Covered a lot of ground.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED