After reviewing specs and prices of several imported bandsaws, I’ve narrowed my options down to Agazzani, MiniMax, Felder-Bridgewood. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with any of these brands. From what I’ve heard and read so far, the Agazzani is a very high quality machine, though the MiniMax has more re-saw capacity. My reason for seeking out such a machine is that though I’m more or less a beginner (5 years so far) I plan to have this machine for 20-30 more years along with an interest in boatbuilding. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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Replies
Hi there John. If your looking for a really high quality saw I suggest you take a look at the 20" Canadian made General saw. I've been using this saw for about 5 years and find it to be a beautiful saw. Equipped with bearing guides and a good blade this machine can resaw 14" with ease. I've done it on everything from figured maple to mahogany used for building guitars. This is a saw that some will use for 20 or 30 years after your done with it. Oh yea. The price. At around $4000 it's not cheap but I don't think you could be disappointed.
John,
I purchased a 20" Agazzani. I can’t believe how smooth it runs, how well it tracks and the ease of blade tensioning. I’ve cut 12" walnut veneer and the blade tracks perfectly. I love Agazzani's drift adjusting fence. I've tapped the fence upright and made some MDF height extensions that screw into the upright. Then I made a stacked triple fingerboard holder to keep the wood pressed against the fence while resawing so all I have to do is stand back and push the wood through. I also like the fence locking system. It holds real well and doesn't slip. All of the controls work very well. Since I release the tension on the blade when I'm not using the saw, I appreciate how easy it is to re-tension it when I use the saw again. By the way, I got the Iturra Design "BladeGage" to tension my blades. I can highly recommend it. You'll also appreciate the two vacuum dust ports. The top one pulls the saw dust from an enclosed chamber just under the table and collects about 80% of the dust on the spot. The only negative thing I've found about the Agazzani is that the miter gauge slot in the cast iron table is not "standard" depth. All in all a quality piece of machinery. I found Jess at Eagle Tools to be honest and he knows his saws. He’s a little hard to get a price reduction out of but he will deal a little. His saws are priced less than the same size Laguna and they’re much better quality.
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