laguna fusion table saw - seeking feedback

While I have no personal experience with this product, I am leery about these imported tools as far as quality goes.  I'd be willing to bet that you could pick up a very good 20 year old table saw below that price and be far happier.  Check out the "Old Woodworking Machines.Com" web site but, don't mention imported tools which is forbidden [wink]

Jack  (Owner of a 1966 Powermatic 66 with 5HP) see http://www.woodworkerssource.com/blog/?p=347
 
the guys at rockler seem to really like it. I agree with buying a used saw however I don't have 220, I don't need a large hp saw I've gotten by with a small job site saw It would be nice to have a larger table and a nicer fence. I currently use a TS75 instead of a table saw for about 90% of the things I do. If I can I'am going to try to swing the SS 1 3/4hp cabinet saw.
 
Oh you have 220.  just 4 screws and your in the box then a breaker and some wire.  i never even had 220 wired up, then an hour later i had 3 phase. 
 
My advice?

Before you make any decision about any stationary tools bite the bullet and put a 60 amp sub panel in your garage.  Don't let an artificial restriction limit your decision.

 
I was planning to get this saw for Christmas ( or their new 14bx bandsaw) along with about 6k in Festool. My problem is choosing between one of these or go with the long guide rails and parallel guides instead.....can't get both.   

Either way, I think this saw has plenty of power and precision for medium usage which covers 99% of us non-professionals.  It can be changed to 220v later down the road with their kit.
 
A good table saw is the center of any woodworkers shop. Everybody says to buy used but you are inheriting someone else's 20 years old saw and have no idea how they treated it. I would rather spend the money and get one that I know wasn't jury rigged or who knows what done to it. If I bought used it would have to be damn near perfect. Think about how many time you have dropped a tool or did whatever to it. Do you tell the person if you were selling it?

I have the biggest Dewalt portable and will tell you it was bought for an insight job and now is in the center of my garage workshop. With a good glad and a couple hours set up it really has been one of the best tools I ever bought. Double dust extraction and the rack and pinion extendable fence are tow big highlights. The fence is something the cabinet saw co's should take a long hard look at.

Remember if you have a track saw you really are only needing it for smaller non sheet cut down rips. That said running face frames or door panels takes a 1/10 of the time of using a track saw. It is just so easy and functional not makes everything a breeze. Never had a problem with any hardwood with a good blade. Will bog ob some 8/4.

That Fusion was in the $800 range and when I taste did it had a nice feel for it but the 30"? fence was a killer as it was too limiting for the price for me.
 
NEW2FES said:
A good table saw is the center of any woodworkers shop. Everybody says to buy used but you are inheriting someone else's 20 years old saw and have no idea how they treated it. I would rather spend the money and get one that I know wasn't jury rigged or who knows what done to it. If I bought used it would have to be darn near perfect. Think about how many time you have dropped a tool or did whatever to it. Do you tell the person if you were selling it?

I have the biggest Dewalt portable and will tell you it was bought for an insight job and now is in the center of my garage workshop. With a good glad and a couple hours set up it really has been one of the best tools I ever bought. Double dust extraction and the rack and pinion extendable fence are tow big highlights. The fence is something the cabinet saw co's should take a long hard look at.

Remember if you have a track saw you really are only needing it for smaller non sheet cut down rips. That said running face frames or door panels takes a 1/10 of the time of using a track saw. It is just so easy and functional not makes everything a breeze. Never had a problem with any hardwood with a good blade. Will bog ob some 8/4.

That Fusion was in the $800 range and when I taste did it had a nice feel for it but the 30"? fence was a killer as it was too limiting for the price for me.

Here's a link to an article about the Powermatic 66 Table saw rebuild.  It's interesting to see how simple and stout that saw is and how with very little work you can have a brand new like excellent saw for life. My Powermatic Saw is over 30 years old and humming away each day with precision cutting.

http://ggober.com/shop/p66overhaul.htm

Jack 
 
I would look at Grizzly instead of Laguna. The low end Laguna machines come from the same factory as Grizzly's. You pay a premium for a different paint colour.

I have their platinum series table saw and it's exactly the same as the G0691 I used to own. Just $800 more and a different miter gauge.

edit: fine woodworking has a table saw article in one of their recent mag, they picked a grizzly as their best value for 110v. Maybe the article would help you decide.
 
ERG said:
I would look at Grizzly instead of Laguna. The low end Laguna machines come from the same factory as Grizzly's. You pay a premium for a different paint colour.

I have their platinum series table saw and it's exactly the same as the G0691 I used to own. Just $800 more and a different miter gauge.

edit: fine woodworking has a table saw article in one of their recent mag, they picked a grizzly as their best value for 110v. Maybe the article would help you decide.

this struck a chord with me this morning because i heard a salesman say the same type of thing about another product over the weekend, and in fact, many times before.  that is:  "it's made in the same factory", followed by all kinds of other kinds of sales talk.  I'm not saying that it isn't so and i'm not even weighing in on each brand of saw discussed here.  what i want to know is:  how are people finding out this inside information?  i've never seen a label on a machine where is says what factory it's made in.  do some guys have inside industrial informants that supply manufacturer's confidential supplier information?  i'm always curious about the "behind the scenes" quality of information that gets bandied about rather frequently.  or is it just 'hear-say' that gets passed along like gospel on these forums and elsewhere?

now, lets say that a user has both machines and in fact they appear very similar.  do they take the things apart to the very nuts and bolts, check windings, test hardness of components, etc, etc?  i think it is very possible to run two or more lines in one huge factory and have each line assemble components provided by different manufacturer's outside sources, adhere to different tolerances on each line, etc, to produce two similar looking machines that share some things.  Which means that "made in the same factory" doesn't really mean much. 

to repeat, i'm not saying the claim is false.  i'm asking:  how does one know about these claims?  try as i might, i'm having a hard time finding reliable reference sources to verify these type of statements for myself.
 
An easy way to confirm if the machines are the same is to look at their part numbers in the manuals. They'll be the same across vendors. For the platinum saw I have, if you look at their King counterpart, they didn't even bother to re-brand the fence. They are both Tru-rip. Tru-rip is not some third party that makes fences, it's just some default branding for the fence on those Chinese saws.

It's the the way it is. Most companies do not have the means to pay for the R&D, the creation of castings and the whole background support that goes into these machines. Some might tweak the machine slightly. Like my Laguna LT14SUV, it has a 3HP motor and ceramic guides. I'm pretty sure I can find the same machine from Grizzly, King or Rikon.

If you look at most machines imported from China, if they look the same, they probably are. 

It's one of the reasons why I cancelled my fine woodworking subscription. They would do a review on mortissers. 1/3 of them were obviously the same machine with a different paint job and somehow they ended up with different ratings.

Same for digital angle finders. They had a review on the magnetic type you put on your saw blade. Most were the same but different branding.
 
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