laguna 1412 bandsaw issues

Feb 20, 2018 3 Replies
S

I'm thinking that I should've bought a "good ol Delta" bandsaw to start with since I didn't have any experience with bandsaws before I bought the Laguna. I've had several issues with it.



  1. Guide bar pinon block and wheel assembly was badly manufactured and ruined the top and bottom 3" of the guide bar rack teeth. Apparently an inner c clip that held the pinon gear in place in the block assemply wasn't inserted or inserted wrong causing the gear to wobble and strip the rack teeth. After 'discussing' this with Laguna customer service and sending them pictures they agreed to replace both parts. It took several phone calls and emails with me saying that if I could have fixed the damn thing myself I would've, but I couldn't get the pinon box open with out destroying it in the process. (sigh). Anyway that's fixed and working correctly now.


  1. Guides seem not stay adjusted, in particular the lower ones. Low guide block and post knobs are almost inaccesible for a normal persons hand. I've cranked down on them but they always work loose. 2.a Ceramic blocks / holders arn't square to the blade. I've shimmed the upper ones with several layers of paper which makes it barely acceptable. I've given up on the lower ones because of the accessibility issues. Seems like Laguna would've seen this problem early on and corrected it. Or, maybe they know about it and don't care.

  2. The tracking knob does not want to adjust easily, and when it does the whole mechanism seems to fall apart internally until the knob is almost tightened down completely. Yes the lock knob has been completely loosened. Another manufacturing issue maybe?

Seems like for the big bucks this thing cost there wouldn't be these issues, maybe I got a lemon.



Has anyone else seen this stuff with the 1412? I'll go read the manual and "The Bandsaw Book" now. :)


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L

Unfortunately all Laguna band saws are not created equally. The better ones, including competing brands are manufactured in Italy.

That said, the problems you state above would lead me to believe that this unit has an issue that probably is affecting everything. It could have been dropped somewhere along the line.

FWIW I looked closely at Minimax when I was shopping 10 or so years ago. The rep demo'ed, IIRC the 16MM band saw, I went to their home office in Austin, Tx. at the time. The unit he showed me had no guides at all and indicated that a good band saw does not really need guides 100% of the time. Apparently they had to use the demo unit for for warranty parts. With that being said, the ceramic guides will wear into place over time. I understand that they can be run directly against the blade but that can cause a lot of friction and sparking.

I paid about $1K for a Rikon as a first try at upgrading, back then, and quickly learned that you have either to go OLD USED, like an old Delta, or spend some money.

Yes you can get a band saw for a lot less than what I paid but I was specifically looking for a saw that held its settings and did not have to be tweaked on a regular basis.

I think I would see if they could exchange units with you.

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T

replying to Leon, TheIRONslab wrote: I am having the same pinion gear problem. It has worked its way out of the box and eaten up the gears and scraped the paint up and down the bar. Do you have a contact I could try to get a resolution?

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N

TheIRONslab wrote in news:15cb8bd50aebc4ef$1$66836$ snipped-for-privacy@news.newsgroupdirect.com:

I had to provide customer service with a shxx boatload of documentation and sent a video showing them that they're mfg/assembly process / parts were broken. they sent me a new rack and pinion. The new pinon is now doing the same thing.

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