I'm trying to upgrade my bandsaw and looking at the Hammer N4400, the Powermatic PM1500 and the Laguna LT16HD.
Now I have this suspicion that people are going to say I should of course just get the Laguna, because they seem to have a serious following. But I believe the Powermatic will be available at 15% off, so it's $2465, the Hammer is $2200 and the Laguna is $3500. So I'm trying to figure out what the extra $1000 gets me. (Does Laguna ever have sales?)
The Laguna has more resaw depth. But I don't care. I can't imagine ever wanting more than 14" of resaw. (What do people do with all that resaw? Am I missing something? My planer isn't that wide and I have yet to work with any 16" wide boards at all, let alone try to resaw them.) The Laguna has a bigger motor at 4.5 HP compared to 3 HP the powermatic and 3.5 HP on the hammer. My gut feeling is that 4.5 HP is overkill. I have resawed 10" on my existing saw with 1 HP. It seems like 3 HP should be plenty. I'm also not setting up a dedicated resaw machine. I'm going to be using this machine for lots of ripping of 1" or 1/2" stock, as I don't have a table saw. So am I missing something here? The Laguna fence seems to requires tools to switch positions or remove it, which seems like a downside. (But maybe I want a driftmaster....)
The hammer seems to have a lot going for it---and it's less expensive---but I wonder about its ability to tension the blade. There is an article out there about somebody who upgraded the spring because he couldn't tension a 1" blade. I like to run carbide blades, which I understand benefit from a high tension. I also noted the lack of drift adjustment on the fence...and the lack of a guidepost alignment adjustment. The hammer rep couldn't tell me if the table can be rotated to line up the mitre slot for blade drift.
So I'm wondering if anybody who has used two of these saws could give me any insight into how they differ in the ways that are hard to glean from the specs. Is there something you love or hate about one of these saws?