Wellllll I bought the Rikon 18" bands saw sight unseen in late November. It changed design and model numbers before I received it 2 months later on January 31. Two weeks later I returned it Woodcraft for a full credit. Kudos' to Woodcraft for their return policy and smiling when giving me the credit. I usually hate to do something like this but when I purchased the saw the salesmen stated that they sell the units faster than they can get them , so none were actually on the sales floor. I asked, what if I am not satisfied with the saw. Bring it back for credit was the reply. Regretfully I took them up on the offer.
The band saw wad a true bargain but unfortunally not what I was looking for. For what ever reason I had an issue with Timberwolf blades that was not resolved. While I suspect that perhaps I got a bad batch of blades, I cannot totally discount the band saw from the problem. While running a 1/4" blade on the saw and was observing the problematic blade wobble as it moved forward and backward on each revolution I happened to peek inside the upper door and witnessed the 18" wheel wobbling back and forth. Extra tension eliminates the wobble but that required too much tension for a 1/4" blade. As it turns out I am also not a big fan of roller bearings guides especially on the sides. They get very noisy and spin a lot from build up even though they are not touching the blade and no wood is being cut.
That brings me to taking a harder look at the Laguna line of saws. I am not so much interested in width of cut as resaw capabilities. One of the smaller 14" Laguna's still has 12" resaw capacity and a 2 hp Baldor motor. The guide system uses 10 ceramic contact points and can be touching the blade all of the time if desired. Unlike the 18" Rikon, 18" Delta and perhaps a majority of Chinese built saws, the Laguna top wheel cannot be moved in and out when you gently pull back and forth at the 9 and 6 o'clock positions with a 1/4" blade installed and tensioned.
Going with the smaller Laguna over the regular competition I give up nice little additions that I am finding to probably be unimportant. Oddly the smaller Laguna saws still do not have a quick release on the blade tension. Equally as odd the Rikon quick tension release did not release the tension completely. The release from a 3/4" blade setting took the saw down to a
1/4" blade tension. Why bother having a release that does not totally release? You still have to turn the tension wheel to change blades or relieve all tension. Are other saws like this? The rack and pinion guide adjustment was a cool addition on the band saw but I quickly found it to be time consuming over the manual method.So with that in mind, are there any suggestions pro or con with the 14" and or 16" Laguna's? Are any other saws recommended. Bells and Whistles are not as important as a saw that works as you would expect. I want to cut veneer's.