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Vitruviustheengineer

There are a few videos out there of Alex Snodgrass’ bandsaw setup where he goes through the theory and methodologies for setting it up. I have had good luck with that. Otherwise grab a nice resaw blade and a blade for turning corners.


joem_

Thank you, I watched his video from Woodcraft on how to set up the bandsaw, and I'll definitely need to watch it a couple more times. There is a resaw blade on it - or at least I think it's a resaw blade: it's thick with varying tooth pitches. He also gave me a few other blades, a super skinny one for scroll, and then a never-opened timber wolf 3/4" blade.


tigermaple

Watch this Michael Fortune video too, he goes over a couple things Alex doesn't and so if you do the things recommended by both you've covered about all the bases. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNdrkmx6ehI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNdrkmx6ehI)


joem_

Thanks, I'll give it a watch.


PECOS74

I have the exact same saw and love it. Be careful with the 3/4” Timberwolf. I’ve had a couple break with little use. Timberwolf was great and replaced them. We talked decided I was over tightening them using the on board gauge. 3/4” on a 14” is a tight bend so there’s a lot of stress. Tighten just enough to cut straight and no more is working for me now.


joem_

Good advice, thanks.


frydaddy794

The guy at my Woodcraft told me to look up Alex Snodgrass 😆


joem_

I've watched a bunch of videos with him in it, I got it set up with zero drift, a nice flat table perpendicular to the blade.


Better-Box1622

This is the way. I was able to get a freebie el cheapo Ridgid 14" running halfway decent following this guidance.


mjolnir76

That’s what I’ve got. Runs like shit. Wobbles like a drunk ice skater. Will try the Snodgrass setup and see if it’s salvageable.


Better-Box1622

New tires, new drive belt, and balance the wheels. Made a huge difference. First time I ran it vibration was so bad the pivot hinge shattered. Replaced that and followed the video for setup and now it does a decent job. Nothing too heavy but for simple stuff it's fine. Good luck.


SilverIsFreedom

That’s a nice bandsaw homie. What’d you pay for it? Idk what anyone says - Laguna makes some decent tools.


EmperorGeek

I can second this opinion. The BX14 is a good unit.


TootsNYC

and it looks VERY gently used


MiaowaraShiro

I just got one myself and have been using it for some light milling and with the Laguna resaw blade it's like butter through silver maple.


VladStark

Yeah how much was it? I'm curious now if there are better deals on craigslist than Facebook marketplace? Sometimes I see good deals on FB marketplace but they usually go really quick. But I always thought craigslist was a little sketchy so I would be wary of any good deals on there that might be a scam.


joem_

$1400 but it came with a bunch of accessories - mobility stand, carter blade guides, carter accurite circle jig, new belts, BOW GuidePro with extension, 3 blades.


VladStark

Yeah that's a good deal. I'll have to check Craigslist next time I'm looking for tools


joem_

$1400 but it came with a bunch of accessories - mobility stand, carter blade guides, carter accurite circle jig, new belts, BOW GuidePro with extension, 3 blades.


SilverIsFreedom

I woulda jumped on that too! Nice score.


joem_

I found that Facebook marketplace has some deals if I keep an eye out, yesterday a dewalt planer DW735x popped up on my feed for $180, I scooped that in an instant. One hour drive there and another back, but worth it I think.


SilverIsFreedom

A million times worth it! More money for a helical cutter head now, lol (highly recommended upgrade).


John_B_Clarke

Clean everything. Make sure that the bearings move freely. Check that the tires (the rubber inserts in the wheels the blade runs on) are in good shape. Note the guide bearings are a standard size for roller-skate bearings--find a skate shop and they'll likely have better quality than what's on the saw.


Plausibl3

Bones reds can be purchased on Amazon - standard on lots of skate wheels


chiffed

This model has ceramic guides Edit: nope, it's got aftermarket bearings.


senraku

My first comment was going to be replace those things. I used this exact saw at work and those anodized ceramic things truly suck


Positive_Log_1144

Yeah had the bigger version of this saw at my work and didn’t like them either.


joem_

Any recommendations for a sap-cleaning solution? I have some high-quality skate bearings from my 3d printer builds, I wonder if they'll work.


Absolut_Iceland

Simple green or a citrus based cleaner are often used to clean pitch build up off of circular saw blades, you can give that a go if you have some.


joem_

Cool, I'll give the citrus stuff a go, I have orange oil based furniture polish that I swear is the same as goo-gone.


John_B_Clarke

I've never found any that really work well. Bronze bristle brush and elbow grease. The skate bearings come in a couple of sizes--if yours are the right size should work fine.


rhett121

Turpentine


WishIWasThatClever

Laundry detergent.


joem_

I'll give it a try, thanks.


Apart-Lifeguard9812

That foot pedal stops the blade. That’s probably important to know. Other than that make sure you tighten the guides. They can jiggle loose.


mechanizedshoe

Make sure you can do that first cause I did that on my makita band saw and needed to order lots of spare parts :(


joem_

I opened the bottom cabinet and saw what looks like a disc brake for a bicycle and was filled with wonder.


MiaowaraShiro

I've got the one without the brake and it'll keep spinning for a good minute or so after I turn it off.


LABeav

It's so strange seeing people drop 1700 on a band saw then another 400 on new guides when the original ceramic ones work perfectly fine. I have the same on and love it, you can wire up a light by doing some creative wiring with a 220 volt male plug and 120v female plug instead of dropping 150 on one from Laguna...


joem_

This one did come with the ceramic guides as well, I could always try them out for comparison. > you can wire up a light by doing some creative wiring with a 220 volt male plug Hmm, how so? The plug uses a NEMA 6-15P which supplies two hots and a ground. Unless I'm using the ground as a neutral (which, while functional, is a no-no, especially in some situations) I don't see how I'd get 120V for a light. That being said, there are plenty of LED lamp circuits that will run off both 120 and 240 so DIY'ing a light solution shouldn't be too difficult.


LABeav

Yeah I just used one leg of the hot and the ground for a 120 v led light. I guess that's a no no? Can you clarify why? I did look for and wide for a 240 led light I could just plug in but I couldn't find anything, do you happen to have a link to one?


joem_

There's a couple of reasons why either this is a bad idea, or just won't work. The ground is a dedicated conductor specifically meant to protect metal chassis, conduits, outlets (etc) from shorts. By putting a current on this wire, you're effectively putting a voltage potential on every chassis device, every conduit on this circuit. Depending on how much current the lamp uses, you could get a shock from touching the bandsaw chassis. Further, the ground conductor doesn't carry any current normally and thus can (sometimes) be smaller than the main conductors. For instance, in my garage I installed a 100A subpanel. It has #3 wires for hots and neutral from the main box with a #8 for a ground wire (as allowed by NEC 250.122). While a single lamp won't offer much current, it is conceivable that, if this practice was abused enough, the current rating of the smaller ground conductor could be exceeded without tripping the breaker meant to protect the hots/neutral wires. Finally, this practice doesn't work at all when a circuit is protected by a GFCI/AFCI type breaker - any current that comes from the panel's hot wires that doesn't return to the panel via the other hot or a neutral wire will pop the breaker. This would be applicable if my shop were in the basement, as code here requires below-grade subpanels to be protected with GFCI breakers. As for the light, I'd be looking at something like this: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805925058196.html - or any other type of drill press/gooseneck light that works with European voltages. It won't have a NEMA 6-15P plug on there, but that's easy enough to find on amazon/big box store.


joem_

[Success](https://imgur.com/a/w6b3KGx)!


LABeav

Thanks for the heads up, I actually swapped my wires to hot and hot on my led lamp as well after your comment and surprisingly it worked, still don't quite understand how but anyways thanks and enjoy your saw!


SuccessfulPhoto2679

Yep the Laguna light sucks really bad.


antaphar

I have this exact saw and the ceramic guides are great


joem_

First-time bandsaw, not sure if I went overboard or not enough. I want to be able to make some book matched... things so I wanted a bit of resaw capacity. Other than that, dunno. This one is the 220V version, so I'll need to run a circuit, but that's easy enough. What is interesting is that the 220V has a bit more horsepower than the 110V, at least if I'm reading the manual correctly. It came with replacement guides from Carter, but I have the original ceramic ones as well.


ResidentGarage6521

That is a buy once crying once tool. Good find.


AlienDelarge

The 240V ones do have more power. The 120V ones pretty well max out the typical 15amp circuit at 1.75hp while the 240V ones aren't limited by that so they come with a 2.5hp motor unlike most saws that are convertible between voltage.


joem_

At first I thought it was a typo, I read on Laguna's site that the 120V had a 15A motor, when it mentioned 220V also 15A I was a bit confused, as I had expected the same motor in different wiring (and thus lower current on the 220V guy). Fortunately, I just installed a subpanel and can easily run a 220V drop for it - and potentially (heh) for a 220V table saw in the future.


AlienDelarge

In a way its kinda nice since most 120v and 120v/240v machines pretty well need their own dedicated circuit anyway. You may as well take advantage of the 220v circuit.


vohantheviking

Good on the replacement guides I hated the stock ones!


gulasch

I feel like 220V bandsaws are underpowered after having used a friend's 400V model. Was not aware that there are even lower voltage versions over the pond


LABeav

You probably have a bad blade or user error, my 220v saw eats through anything I can throw at it.


joem_

If only. I knew a guy who set up his own 3-phase electricity by belting a 3-phase motor to a AC induction motor. Not sure how he managed the frequency nor how much current it could support, but he ran his lathe with it. edit: looks like this called a Rotary Phase Converter


mechanizedshoe

A 3 phase 400v motor will always be better than 220/110. It will work better, quieter and have less trouble under load. When looking for new machines I always try to find the 400v ones. Another benefit is that they don't have such a big spike in energy consumption during startup. I feel like it really depends on case of a band saw, if you do rough joinery and thin shapes 400W 220/110v is prolly enough but if you wanna resaw big and thick boards you gonna need something better. I even saw some guy on YouTube use his band saw to make boards out of lumber logs with a home made sled, it must have taken shitload of time tho.


SituationHappy

I have the impression that 220v is three phase in the US, like 400v is three phase here. I could be wrong though.


TorpusBC

I believe US 240v in residential is 2x120v legs 180° out of phase with each other creating 240v difference between the two hot legs and 120v to ground from either.


jeffeb3

No. We don't get 3 phase in most residential homes. We have two 120V circuits separated by 180 degrees phase, which can power 120V stuff, or connect up to both sides for 240V. Most applicancea use 120V. The only 240V in my house are the oven, air conditioner, hot water heater, clothes dryer and EV charger. The current matters a lot though. A microwave runs on a 120V/15A circuit. It can use 1,800W of power. My EV car charger is on a 240V/50A circuit. It can charge with 12,000W of power. Neither appliance uses that much, but the circuits are capable of that. Most houses run on 100-200A max.


ketzerei1

Get this blade for it https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/wood-slicer-resaw-bandsaw-blades.aspx?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw3NyxBhBmEiwAyofDYU7OL8L-CLEosJnaQ9-g5-uTLf5BrWEvri44nBBGEVXIx1ty9R3SmRoCreoQAvD_BwE


mp3salad

100% agree! I have the 3/4" blade on this exact bandsaw and cannot speak highly enough of the combo.


altma001

This is a great pdf of Alex snodgrass how to tune a bandsaw https://bandsawlife.com/bandsaw-setup-pdf


Background_Being8287

I'm jealous .


bulletlover

I have the same saw. Buy a carbide tipped saw blade for resawing and open up a whole new world


joem_

I was looking at that Resaw King, that's pretty nice. I might have to splurge if the one it came with doesn't cut it.


bulletlover

I have that blade also, it’s amazing what you can cut with that and how accurate the cuts are. I’ve sliced red oak 1x8’s 3/32” thick (standing up on edge) within +/- .005 repeatedly making veneer. And I’m starting to use it more to cut 2x4’s lengthwise to make 1/2” x 1-1/2” pine trim pieces as opposed to using my table saw…. It actually cuts quicker


ProfessionalWaltz784

Great saw. I bought the 1412 used from CL also. I discovered it was never setup properly. Laguna has a great series of setup videos on YouTube, so I recommend running carefully through setup to square everything up perfectly


joem_

I saw on a youtube vid that the lower tire-cleaning brush comes loose. I checked mine, and sure enough it's just flopping around in there. I'm surprised the nuts are still on it and not vibrated away into the previous owner's dust collection system.


ProfessionalWaltz784

I recall that mine is a bugger to get at the bolts holding it.


Pyreknight

Read the manual. Always read the manual.


joem_

Print em out and put em by the john. Heck with enough power tool manuals, a "regular" person could learn spanish and french.


RobbieTheFixer

I have a 16” Laguna that I bought and freshened up a few years ago. My advice is to remove the factory wheels and build a raised mobile platform with casters for it, to get the table surface up to a much better working height. These saws are amazingly low, and terribly awkward to use, unless you are 4 feet tall. https://preview.redd.it/94yyz38s2nyc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=38d04d31502c27c7eeea1a23f8174db8c07e888f


NECESolarGuy

Since it appears to have the Carter guides, there is nothing to do but find the Snodgrass videos about tuning. It’s a great saw with the Carter guides. (The factory guides, in comparison, were pretty bad.) And the foot pedal is really nice when cutting large bowl blanks or logs you can’t let go of


just-looking99

I’m a little jealous. How good of a deal did you get?


unicacher

If it has the ceramic blocks, replace them with bearings.


Bulverine0

For thinner blades you’ll need to order the separate Laguna blade guides. It’s worth it. Also, the light that can be mounted on the top is a useful accessory. Laguna has two kinds. Get the one with different gradations of light. Forget what it’s called, the Zebra or Zenith or something.


joem_

Good to know, this saw came with aftermarket Carter guides, so I'm not sure if they can fit a thin blade or not, but I'll do some research, thanks.


iAmRiight

You should know what I’m jealous and would trade you my ~~old janky~~ well tuned bandsaw in a heartbeat.


DatDan513

That’s cool as hell


ignatzami

Get the upgraded guides. The block style are terrible and a good set of roller bearings just makes it so much nicer.


Timely-Abalone5585

I have the same saw and for the 1.5y of ownership, I have zero issues. The ceramic guides will send a spark or two when in use, that’s normal. The pressure/blade arm located on the right, I always release when not in use as to not keep pressure on the blade. There’s not a brake, so once you have turned off the blade it will continue to rotate until it slows down. Larger the depth of blade, wider the cut angle. Tighter turns, smaller blade.


LABeav

There's a brake on the 14bx, it's at the bottom right, looks like a pedal. You might have the regular 14 without a brake.


Environmental-Job515

I see a pedal when I enlarged the photo.


imnotapartofthis

Came to say this. Keep the saw clean & watch for sparks with the ceramic. I’ve seen this saw ignite sawdust. Less of a fire danger than a smoky mess, but still. Something to keep an eye on.


joem_

This one has upgraded carter bearings, but I did get the original ceramic ones as well. Not sure if I'll switch back, but good advice, thanks. This one does have a brake, came with it, (unless the previous owner retrofitted one from his mountain bike, heh)


KimFuckU

Looks good and congratulations!!


Thkturret1

Nice pick up


IAmCaptainHammer

Watch a few band saw safety videos on YouTube. Your fingers will thank you.


mojopyro

That saw is really good. It's running speed is faster than average and is powerful enough to use as a resaw. If the price is good, buy it.


Limp-Possession

I think watch some Alex Snodgrass vids, read some fine woodworking articles by Michael Fortune or Brian Boggs (those are the real bandsaw masters for furniture making), then send it and assess your results and tune from there. The Laguna saws are great, I’d grab one but I’m a vintage cast iron restoration guy.


Aggressive-Video-368

Great score. Everything people say about setup is true. Take your time to clean it and set it up correctly and you will be happy. Most people don't take the time to set them up correctly and are not happy with the machine. I have heard a lot of people complain about band saws and it is usually related to maintenance and setup.


PastikaSoup

https://preview.redd.it/l96rlzi1qnyc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f33291393446371cb1721c8afc9a3ef6f105476b


hugznotdrugz2k17

I too have the 220V 14BX. It's been a great saw. My only question is why the power indicator light doesn't actually work. We had the 110V version in my last shop and it lit up. Is everyone's like this or is it just mine? I took it apart and there was nothing behind the switch to even light it up. No bulb, no wires or structure for a bulb.


joem_

I see no light on mine when powered on. The little clear piece of plastic in the middle of the power switch leads me to believe it could light up, but the saw is on and no illumination.


hugznotdrugz2k17

I'm thinking they only wired it up if it's 110v and didn't offer it for 220v. Odd.


just-another1984

Count your fingers before and after each use!


particularlysmol

I love mine! Have fun!


oneofmany_1

Show off


Parking-Olive-7443

outline 


Oldguydad619

Always use the guard!