Recommendation? 14" Bandsaws, (Wood)

E.Carlson

E.Carlson

Joined
Mar 28, 2016
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I'm probably going to be adding a wood cutting bandsaw to the shop this year. Mainly for cutting blocks into scales and the occasional slab into blocks, although I want to be able to do larger woodworking projects as well.
I'm looking at the mid range 700-800 dollar 14" saws and the main contenders are:
Grizzly GO555LX
Shop Fox W1706
Delta 28-400
The grizzly and Shop fox seem almost identical, cast iron wheels, fence and miter gauge included. The shop fox has a better warranty and a better base.
The Delta is a 2 speed, no fence or gauge and has aluminium wheels.
Anyone have experience with any of these saws?
Are there some others that I need to be looking at?
 
Hello, I used to sell woodworking equipment for my day job and have been woodworking for over 10 years now. I would cross the delta off the list immediately, I wouldn’t recommend anyone buy anything new that delta makes, it’s very low quality with no product support, and anything old they made is usually good quality if it’s really old but unfortunately tends to be dated and almost impossible to get parts, grizzly and shop fox are the same company, the shop fox brand is supposed to be slightly higher quality, I would personally recommend a rikon 14” saw. If you have a woodcraft near you then you could potentially see one in person and have no freight costs to pickup, they can order them into the store. So were the grizzly or shop fox you have that freight cost eating into your budget. The 14” open stand model is very good but if your willing to wait for a sale or save some more the deluxe closed stand model is the best option. You can get a DVR motor upgrade on those saws to have full variable speed. Meaning you could slow it down enough to have a 14” metal cutting saw as well as for wood.
 
DanF said:
Maybe Jet? I've been eyeballing them at Woodcraft.
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Jet is decent but from experience their customer service isn’t the best, I had to deal with them all the time to get replacement parts because of manufacturing defects or stuff not being put in the box and they would take months to send things out. Honestly they are getting to the point they are charging too much for what they are giving you.
 
Thanks for the input, Joshua, now I'm down to Rikon
 
Joshua Fisher said:
Hello, I used to sell woodworking equipment for my day job and have been woodworking for over 10 years now. I would cross the delta off the list immediately, I wouldn’t recommend anyone buy anything new that delta makes, it’s very low quality with no product support, and anything old they made is usually good quality if it’s really old but unfortunately tends to be dated and almost impossible to get parts, grizzly and shop fox are the same company, the shop fox brand is supposed to be slightly higher quality, I would personally recommend a rikon 14” saw. If you have a woodcraft near you then you could potentially see one in person and have no freight costs to pickup, they can order them into the store. So were the grizzly or shop fox you have that freight cost eating into your budget. The 14” open stand model is very good but if your willing to wait for a sale or save some more the deluxe closed stand model is the best option. You can get a DVR motor upgrade on those saws to have full variable speed. Meaning you could slow it down enough to have a 14” metal cutting saw as well as for wood.
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That's the kind of info I've been looking for!
I'd already crossed jet off the list due to the same reasons you listed on the Delta, they just seem to be headed down hill.
I do have a woodcraft near me and I'm not in a hurry. My porta band does the job for now and I use the tablesaw on big stuff.
I'm not familiar with Rikon, but I'll start looking into them as well.
 
I have a Laguna 1412 that I bought 3 years ago. 1.75 hp motor easy to resaw with, has done everything I want and need from cutting up blocks, to cutting curves to resawing for flute blanks to ripping 2x6s. Been used a lot and has been a nice machine for me. Even cut up some soapstone with it. I also looked closely at Rikon's when I was searching. Wound up with the Laguna because it was on sale for a better price.
 
E.Carlson said:
although I want to be able to do larger woodworking projects as well.
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I have one word for you.
Trust me I did my home work / checking out bandsaws on the showroom floors and reading all the "fixes" for all the crazy problems for the other brands.
LAGUNA
Other wise when you are fighting weak frames, adding better blade guides, trying to find precision made blades that don't wander and cut funny, wishing for more power, cussing the poorly thought out layout of the machine . . . I could go on.
Remember this post.
But if you want a bandsaw that rivals a QUALITY cabinet saw in precision of cuts and ease of use check out Mr. Torben Helshoj's power tools.
Yes he sells affordable home equipment such as mine shown below as well as the commercial machines. From what I saw a decade ago, as far as home machines, everyone else was just playing.

This is Bubinga wood if that tells you anything. (not soft, not easy to mill).
Hook up a hose now and again.JPG
IMG_0167.JPG
 
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Joshua Fisher said:
Delta . . . anything old they made is usually good quality if it’s really old
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TRUE !
That's what I had first. Unfortunately when my girl friend left she took it with her.
It was her's after all. I had repulleyed it to cut metal (slower).
Good stuff if you can find one.
 
Here you go . . .
wanna save some money ?
Just make a frame saw !
But be prepared to put your butt into it !
Oh and you are going to need an apprentice who is willing to work for just food and a place to sleep under the work bench.
:thumbsup: :D
Been there done that. Well the new girl friend helped with the sawing. When I suggested buying the new bandsaw lets just say she didn't argue.

IMG_0338_2.JPG
TheOnlyWayToGo.jpg
 
So, with open stand VS cabinet stand, are we just talking more mass? Is there that much of a difference? I've noticed that most offer both styles. I'll be putting it on a mobile base either way.
13" cutting height on the Rikon is pretty impressive. Looks like the others require risers to get that height. I like the taller fence too.
 
If you can, the step up to a Laguna 1412 is well worth the extra $$. It works out of the box, no upgrades or mods needed. Mine is about 5yrs old and going strong. I would buy it again without hesitation, but in reality I would probably get the upgraded version with the foot brake.
 
I really like my Laguna 1412 and it does everything I want. BUT I would love to have at 16" or 18" Laguna now...for resawing. I still find myself straining the motor at times when I get a big piece of maple running on it. Prior to getting my 1412 I watched craigslist for about 3 months and a couple bigger Laguna's went through around $1800cdn and I didn't buy them. Now I wish I did. I could be resawing even bigger logs!
 
E.Carlson said:
So, with open stand VS cabinet stand, are we just talking more mass? Is there that much of a difference? I've noticed that most offer both styles. I'll be putting it on a mobile base either way.
13" cutting height on the Rikon is pretty impressive. Looks like the others require risers to get that height. I like the taller fence too.
Click to expand...

The deluxe model of the rikon for 100 more is well work it, it actually has a thicker table and heavy duty wheels compared to the lighter wheels on the open stand model, means less vibration and longevity. I’d still recommend it over the laguna, I used both saws for demonstrations and could resaw the same board on both saws and get a identical cut, it’s more about proper blade choice. The big advantage for the rikon for us knife makers is the new variable speed motor upgrade. It’s not cheap but it’s cheaper than having a 14” wood cutting saw and a comparable metal cutting saw. 1.75 hp motor able to slow down to 100rpm or 45 sfpm which is slow enough for any metal cutting regardless of what stock thickness you like to work with. And it’s easy to get metal cutting blades in the proper length, rikon has them made for them and there’s other places you can get blades made to custom lengths. https://www.woodcraft.com/products/smart-dvr-control-and-motor-upgrade-rikon It’s a simple install but rikon and striatech/teknatool has some of the best customer service out of any of the tool manufacturers I ever had to deal with.
 
I bought the 2.5hp laguna 14bx about a year ago and it has been a great machine. As far as resawing goes the laguna resawking blades are well worth it in my opinion. They cost around $150 but will end up saving you money in the long run for that particular task. I've resawed over 1000 stabilized blocks and it's still going strong.
 
I'm going to take a hard look at the Laguna and Rikon, but I have to say the variable speed motor upgrade may be a game changer for me. I'm a knifemaker first and while I want to have the ability to do larger wood work, it won't be frequent. I do cut steel every day though. I'll have to go to woodcraft and see how difficult the pulley switch to change between wood cutting and steel cutting is gonna be.
 
I buy my bandsaw blades from these guys. https://onlinesupply.ca/bandsaw-blades/Custom-Band-Saw-Blades . They make whatever length you want and have a giant selection. They are in Canada and they sell 2x72 belts and all sorts of other stuff for the shop. Their customer service is amazing. I will put in an order for bandsaw blades on Wednesday morning and get an email a few minutes later saying a couple of them are not in stock and need to be made before shipping. They are sitting on my doorstep by friday! Good prices too. There's got to be a place like this in the US too.
 
Variable speed would be really nice. Get a place that can make any blade for you like I posted above and then only needing one machine to cut wood or metal would be pretty amazing.
 
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