My budget has not changed, but money wasted on a machine that will not grow with my needs is not money saved. Bridgewood looks like a possible option, Laguna or Minimax are equally priced, Minimax seems best built...any thoughts...plans are for cabinet and furniture making, resawing necessary.
I own a 18" Laguna, and used a 16" Bridgewood that was built around 1997. I have no experience with the Minimax, and I have not kept current with the features of the current models. I am extremely impressed with the Laguna. It is a heavy duty industrial machine that has performed wonderfully. I use it mostly for resawing, and always get great results. I can not begin to figure out how many linear feet I have ran through the saw without any problems.
I recently faced a similar dilemma, and ended up buying the 16 inch Laguna (LT16). I bought it primarily for resawing and have been delighted at its performance. I have also found that a bandsaw is a wonderfully versitile tool, and much more generally useful than I had expected.
The LT6HD is beefier and has more deluxe features than my saw, like a bigger table and a rack-pinion device for adjusting the upper guide height, but the LT16HD costs $600 more than the LT16. You can check out the differences in the models at
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. Don't forget the cost of a mobility kit, about $175 (which I consider essential as my saw weighs 352 lb), and the cost of shipping, also about $175. When I added in these costs I was looking at well over $2K for the Minimax or the LT16HD, so I started looking harder at alternatives .
The LT16 is worth considering if cost is a major factor. Any Laguna or Minimax will a significant step up from a 14" Delta or Jet if you intend to a lot of resawing.
I recently bought and LT16HD after comparing it with the LT16 some of the features make nicer, in particualar it weights about 150lbs more, I really like the rack & pinon table as it's heavy and would be a pain to hold and tighten down with out it. The HD also has a larger motor.
I haven't any problems with the motor, I think it's a marathon motor on my machine i'd have to check (As they painted the case to match the machine) I resawed a 10" piece of oak without much problems the motor seemed to handle it just fine. I haven't even noticed it getting warm, I'll check next time I use it but it certainly isn't hot or anything.
At the recent woodworking show I looked a minmax just for curiosity and it looks almost identical to my lagauna, I have no experiance with them so take with a grain of salt. But overall they looked very much the same just few minor differnces. If your comparing the MM16 to the LT16 then the minmax is much better built, but I think with LT16HD it's a toss up. They both look like very solid tools.
I liked the laguna guides the are great once they wear the blade down a little it's very smooth with little to no vibration produces great cuts with minimal drift (compared to my 14" jet)
My only grip about the laguna is the dust collection port is a strange size, it's like between 4" and 5" so nothing really fits it well. (but I can replace it)
I've also had good experiance with thier tech support, my fence came with a large ding in it, so they sent me a new one.
I chose the laguna because they cut me a deal, a free set of blades and a discount on the "mobility kit" (actually a set of wheels and a metal handle). And because I knew the name better and there other import products get good reviews as well.
At the woodworking show recently they were offering the LT16HD with the mobility kit and a resaw king blade for like $2100 or something, not a bad deal considering.
I feel your pain and went for the MM20 at $2,595 . 20" throat, 15" resaw capacity, can properly tension and use a 1" wide carbide blade, and 4.8 hp which will not bog down when cutting wet bowl blanks.
I was looking at a Laugna as well because it had the brake system. I was also looking at the Nikon 14" model as well. Their PRO model has a 3 HP motor which I think is overkill on a 14inch model, the other 2 models have 1.75 HP which should be plenty. I really liked the idea of the brake system, but with the Rikon you could go with the digital motor control option and you'd have electronic braking. A local reseller told me that the Laguna has a white metal trunnion which is soft and prone to wear, while the Laguna has a cast iron trunnion.Anyone out there able to confirm of refute this? I think the Bridgewood is discontinued as I couldn't find any info onlineDMF (Mark Duginske's Bandsaw book says it is Imported by Wilke Machinery of York, PA)
Well you are not really mentioning models. I owned a Rikon for a bout
2 weeks several years ago. I was greatly disappointed. I HATE roller guides. My experience is that the roller guides get gummed up when cutting wet wood. And then there is great noise and vibration when that happens. I was constantly readjusting guides and tension with this saw. I returned the Rikon 18" band saw.
I soon after bought a Laguna LT16HD band saw. Laguna band saws have ceramic guides that keep the blade clean. And be aware that there are
2~3 lines of Laguna band saws. The better ones, like the one I mentioned are Italian made. The non Italian built models are likely Asian built. My Laguna has cast iron trunions. The only lite weight metal is the aluminum fence and the aluminum guide blocks.
FWIW you can or could buy direct from Laguna.
If you are concerned about wear of a white metal trunion you are likely wanting something to last for many years with quite a bit of use. So was I. Rikon was not going to be my last saw. The Laguna is my last saw, the Italian Industrial made versions.
When I bought 12+ years ago the Laguna was only about twice the price of the 18" Rikon.
Band saws can be very fussy. The better the saw the less adjusting you do.
OK, a follow up on Rikon band saws, it appears that they do offer a heavier line of machines. They in fact very closely resemble the Italian Laguna band saws, found in their industrial section. Still the Laguna ceramic guides IMHO are a superior guide to any roller guide.
Laguna may still offer their guides for other saws.
I was going to buy a Rikon (don't remember the model) then looked at the Laguna 14-SUV. It was a much better saw for little more than a higher-end Rikon. When I was ready to buy, it seemed that the 14-SUV went away (couldn't find one, anyway). I ended up buying an 18-BX.
Yes, they're from Taiwan.
I bought the bandsaw from Laguna via Amazon but bought my jointer from Woodwerks. Even though it was a drop-shipped from Laguna, their shipping was less and they didn't charge sales tax (shhh! Don't tell anyone). That was a year ago. Don't know how they operate now.
I recently visited their brick and mortar store in Columbus OH. Nice place.
Cast wheels, too. The only thing I don't like about the Laguna is the mobility kit. It's an add-on ($$) and a three-point system. The front swivel wheel lifts the front and the saw off its pads onto the rear wheels (a little hard to adjust, at first). It's not the greatest system. I think the Rikon tow bar is a better idea.
Only? Laguna had a huge price increase last fall. The 18-BX went up $400, IIRC. The jointer. $500 (I ordered in June so slipped under the wire). They're not like Festool with its 5%, or so, annual increase.
Tracking (then blade changing) is the big deal. The ceramic guides can be a pain but once they're adjusted they're great.
My mobility kit is 2 wheels, left front and left back, and a Johnson bar to lift and pull/push from the right side. It works.
Well the 18" Rikon was $999.99 + tax, about $1082.50, the Laguna with mobility, ReSaw King blade and 5~6 additional blades and delivery/tax, was $2600 total. That saw today is $5100 for the saw and delivery. Plus Tax, mobility and any other blades.
With mine the guides only have to be close. I have never noticed any difference in cutting quality from one blade to the next. I think if tracking/guide adjustment was critical I would at least notice a difference some o the time.
There is that! Around Thanksgiving 2020 I was going to buy a Hammer
12" or 16" combo planer jointer. Pricey machine then but shipping was about a 6 month wait and shipping was $500 for the 16 and $455 for the 12.
AND NO GUARANTEE OF A LIFT GATE DELIVERY.
I went with the Jet 12" combo from WoodCraft, it was on sale at about $3650, about $2,000 less than the Hammer. I am very happy with it. Very quiet compared to my old 15" Delta planer.
I paid about $2K for the 18-BX. They had a 10% sale. We're not likely to see that again anytime soon.
What I meant was that tracking and ease of blade changes are one of the biggest differences between a good bandsaw and an also ran. The saw has to have a pretty stiff spine to hold tracking, particularly across blades.
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