Hi gents,
This is my first post, (for I've silently watched in the past) so please bear with me- etiquette and so forth. I'm new to woodshops, but not to working with wood (grew up working for my dad's trim company in my youth-mostly high end homes and such). Well I'm older now, and find myself doing numerous woodworking projects in my basement (mostly furniture), and that leads me to my question for you seasoned veterans. I need to get a band saw. Up till now, haven't thought I'd need one, but find I can only go so far with a table saw. I can buy wood from a small country mill but if I want thinner stock I'm somewhat limited to planning it down (very wasteful), and that's where the band saw comes in. Yes, that right, which one to get. I done considerable research but still not decided; I want quality and am not afraid to pay for it, but a new Italian band saw is hard to justify at this stage, so having said that, I guess I'm looking at the Asian input market. So what separates the field, knowing myself like I do, it needs to work well, and be reliable. Will I be able to resaw Redwoods? I think not, but that's OK...for now. The big thing I struggle with, mostly due to lack of experience is the guides. Are the Laguna ceramic guides that much better at controlling the blade than the roller guides found on the new Jet machines? My short list of saws thus far is the Laguna 14-12 or SUV, or the new JET 14" steel frame. All the publications rate the 14-12 very good, I'm perplexed why I don't see more on the Jet 14SF. Being I'm 6' 3" tall I'm leaning toward the Jet for two reasons-taller table height, and the roller guides are a cinch to adjust. The real question I guess I'm asking is: Will I be able to see a difference in cut quality between ceramics (Laguna) and the rollers found on a Jet machine?
Thanks in advance,
Roy