MM16 or Agazzani B-18 or hammer N4400 or Jet 18

[dirk martin]

I own both the Mini Max 24" saw and the Grizzly 24" saw.
Having run them both for years now, I wish I'd have saved the money I spent on the MM24, and just bought two Grizzly 24" saws.
The Grizzly actually has some nicer features, besides the huge price difference.

Sorry Mini Max...but just telling it like it is.

[Joe Kurtz]

Wow...that is really saying something. Could you explain a nicer feature on the grizzly that the mm does not have? The grizzly wasn't anymore difficult to get up? Running th guides are not any worse than the mm? the fit and finish is just as good? blade changing? trunnion strength? I am very interested in hearing more from someone who has worked on both for years
thanks

[ian maybury]

Ha! Sounds like you're heading for the same place as I was when I posted this thread on the Grizzly GO636X some months ago Joe - http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=144850

I subsequently did a lot more grouching on the topic, in that my sense is that in the cacophony of 'ours is best' claims it's very tough to separate machines. That the makers do themselves no favours by being neither specifc nor quantitative (or even honest in many cases) about the capabilities of their machines.

Basically there's a large lobby of happy users of the big heavy duty Italians on demanding applications including deep re-sawing, but not having local access to examples/users for trials I found it much tougher to get the various Taiwanese models into focus.

Signs are that the heavy duty re-saw oriented Taiwanese like the Grizzly GO 636X are the equal of anything in their class (and have some extra features too), but they are not sold over here. They are not anyway all that clearly differentiated from the other more general duty saws in even the Grizzly literature.

I couldn't bottom to my satisfaction what the story on the general duty bigger models from Grizzly was if I wanted to deep re-saw (I was looking at buying a larger general duty model to get both the re-saw and the width capability) - the point being that some very similar/identical saws from the same source (but not the resaw optimised Grizzly specific heavy duty models with extended vertical capacity) are sold under other brands over here. There was some very positive but isolated feedback on them, but it was for various reasons hard to translate it to my situation with any degree of certainty.

Hence my argument that the makers of quality stuff could probably do themselves a big favour by being far more factual and quantitative about the abilities of their differing models in the different user situations.

In the end it was chance that made my decision for me. I'd been trying for months to extract decent data from the local supplier of the Taiwanese saws (Europac) when the option to buy a very little used NRA 600/B-24 Agazzani came up for significantly less than I would have paid for a new Taiwanese model.

Seeing it as a safe bet I went for it, but time has still to tell on that one....

Ian

[dirk martin]

Wow...that is really saying something. Could you explain a nicer feature on the grizzly that the mm does not have? The grizzly wasn't anymore difficult to get up? Running th guides are not any worse than the mm? the fit and finish is just as good? blade changing? trunnion strength? I am very interested in hearing more from someone who has worked on both for years
thanks

The Grizzly has a quick blade de-tensioner. Very nice.
You won't end up un tensioning the blade on a MM, and thus you have constant blade pressure. Won't really wear out your blade, but it will wear out your tires.

To tilt the table on the MM you need wrenches, and lots of futzing around. The Grizzly has a nice rack/pinion/turning wheel setup.

[Anthony Alleyne]

Hi I thinking of getting the Laguna LT18 Bandsaw, and I like to know what year you got yours and what comes with the saw. Do there sell it with a blade and the quality of the cuts. Do you have any photos of the saw in you shop and did you need the mobility kit. what type of blades do you use on your band-saw.

Thank you
Anthony.

[John Tallyn]

I'm looking forward to more info in this thread, personally I'm thinking of getting an Agazzani, but would like to find out who the distributor is in the western US so I can get more info.
John

[David Hawxhurst]

Eagle Tools located in Los Angeles.

[John Stan]

Hi,
I have the Grizzly G0636X and really like it. I have resawed razor thin veneer with it and also cut all sorts of things that require precision (e.g. Dovetails). It has done everything I have asked and I would buy it over again. The fit and finish on mine was first rate.
Regards,
-John

[John Tallyn]

THX, been trying to get info from Edwards in Redmond Wa, w/o luck,

[Archie England]

The bigga da betta!!!!!! I bought a local 16" Jet BS; it works great...until I'm trying to resaw tall boards, hardwoods, etc. A friend has an 18" w/2hp motor. Yep, it cuts everything better. Now I wish I had saved for a 20" or bigger. Reason: everything on the larger saws are more capable of handling the weight and cutting of heavier materials. My 16" just doesn't have the beef to handle big stuff (8-12' long, 5-8" thick). It's got plenty of muscle for most thinner (under 3") boards and most softwoods; but the dense, heavy stuff really challenges it. Again, I bought local; but next time I'll buy the house brand (Extrema) or a Griz. I'll also go with 5 hp 220, just for that extra grunt when cutting wet/green wood. In my friends opinion, his 18" is just not that much better than my 16". So, buy once--buy bigger! IMHO!!!