Official Luthiers Forum!

+1 on what Bob said about 1" 1.3 TPI Woodmaster CT. It's a great blade.

I started sawing sitka on a 20" Grizzly. To this day, it will not cut straight boards no matter the saw. We use it for trim saw now for just little trims of length and stuff that doesn't matter. But the sawing we do now and the last 15 years is on 42" Industrial bandsaws with high band speed and 15- 3 phase horses.
I have known of many that have use the Laguna with good success. they are definitely a more spendy machine. The recommendation of the tanawitz, oliver or other quality machine is a VERY good recommendation.

Thanks Brent last night I found a host of complaints about the grizz products. so I/m hesitant. I/d rather pay more $$ and get something that will last . It/s hard to find the older BS here in the KC metroplex.They rarely come up for sale , and I don/t have a trailer to lug one home. I/m looking at the laguna higher end BS. My older mini max is also relegated to trim work, There is an industrial resaw sold here in MO called Baker resaw unfortunately my garage has no space for one.Thanks for your input

We upgraded to a Carter blade guide system on our Grizzly and it now does a respectable job re-sawing. Totally useless prior to the change.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Hi ken which model of grizz did you purchase ??? thanks

Its the G0555 14" with the riser block --- we only re-saw domestic woods (Black Walnut, Cherry, Maple, Red Oak) so its works OK for us. Looks like the 514 has the same crappy guide system that's why I mentioned the Carter guides.

If we were cutting exotic woods I certainly would want more power.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

The GO-555 and the GO-514 guide systems are identical, except the 514 has much larger double row bearings, all hex and square steel shaft adjustment posts with a geared lift system, different thrust bearing adjustment setup versus the little 14" saws, and has front-adjusting, quick-set eccentric cam-style, hi/low lateral adjustments. We use commonly available, inexpensive ($4 per) sealed re[lacement 6202 bearings for the lowers and shielded bearings for the uppers, with cleaning every few months for the shielded bearings.

Otherwise, exactly the same guide system.

We have a local builder that tried the Carter guides for the GO-513/514, and they were judged a step or two down from the stock guide system (single versus double bearing systems, harder, slower adjustments, and a $280 price tag). We'd like to trial the Laguna-style ceramic guides for resawing extremely resinous woods, but it's more curiosity and reducing overall machine maintenance than an actual need.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

Thanks woodie and ken . I have the euro style guides on my mini max on the upper guides . I replaced the large thrust bearing with a ceramic guide I made. The lower thrust bearing was small and a real pita. So again I replaced it with a ceramic replacement the front guides on the lower level were just steel blocks which I replaced a long time ago with lignum vitae. The mini max is my go to saw from cleaning up , trim work . , bark, split ends etc. I have found a lot of salvaged wood locally ,. In terms of the BS I/ve watched a number of videos and people either love the ceramic guides or find them a pita. If some of the laguna users out there could comment on your experiences with resawing and using the ceramic guides I would appreciate it. It seems that a min of 4 hp is needed to resaw exotics . I have a lot of osage orange I need to resaw and its about as hard and dense as many of the rosewoods. Thanks again.