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I am a volunteer carpenter on a tall ship and we just built a new building with a new carpentry shop and got a donation of some new tools. Well someone gave us a Laguna 14" bandsaw with a 15" throat and a 3 HP motor. It is fitted with a new 1-1/4" re-saw blade from Laguna - I am told it was $300. I don't have a tool for cutting backs and tops, so I thought - hmmmm,

I put a piece of dry white oak through it at 7" thick and it marched right through it with no problems and left a finish that almost didn't need sanding - no tooth marks or anything. I think I am in love.

However - we were also given a SawStop 3 HP table saw. I was changing the blade from an 8" dado to a 10" blade. I was wiggling the "cartridge" for the 8" blade out to replace it with the one for the 10" blade when I hear a little "Bang" and feel a jolt in the cartridge. When I pulled it out, it had blown! A call to SawStop and they are sending a new one - they said that this happens sometime - a little weird! Not on love with the SawStop.

Ed

I hear Laguna's are very nice saws. Sounds like you are in the right spot at the right time!!!

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Sounds like you got the 14" SUV with a resaw king blade. I'm lusting after the same thing. If anyone wants to give me one, I'd gladly accept it...

I am wracking my brain to come up with reasons to justify the purchse of the 14" SUV. I think that we all NEED one.

Fine woodworkiing in the most recent tools and shops has a review of large bandsaws and gave the cheaper 14in laguna a better review over the 14in SUV , with a price difference of abt 700 $. Since I own neither , it/s hard to validate unless one tries them

Ed- A 14" bandsaw should not have a 1 1/4" blade on it. I wouldn't go bigger than 3/4" even though Laguna specs say 1.0". The radius is too tight and stresses the blade. Wait until the 1 1/4 bandsaw blade snaps. Much bigger pop than the Sawstop cartridge.

As far as the Sawstop and table saws in general...there are many more versatile, safer and cheaper options than a table saw. A powerful band saw, router and a Tracksaw will do what a table saw does and then some.

After nearly 40 years of woodworking that has included fine furniture, boat building, general construction, timber framing and instrument making my table saw (a Delta Unisaw) remains the heart of my shop. It gets turned on much more often then any other saw. The only lasting damage I have is from a bandsaw (my resaw took a finger that a doctor sewed back on for me). It is more the operator than the tool when it comes to safety....

Shane

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Canada

I took delivery of a new Laguna 14 SUV about a month ago and also got two of the 1" Resaw King blades. I can tell you that is one sweet saw and blade combo!! The first cut I made with it was a piece of Cherry about 11" wide and maybe a foot long. I resawed it and used the standard low fence, no particular effort to make a really good resaw but I wanted to see how it would do power wise to cut 11". I sliced off a piece about 0.135" thick and was pleased to see it varied no more than 0.008" corner to corner to middle. I can't wait to make a tall fence and resaw some music grade wood into sides and backs.

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David

David Falkner - Woodworking YouTube channel and Instagram
Romans 3:23