SawStop Industrial vs Laguna Platinum impressions
Maybe this will be useful to someone on the market for a table saws. A bit of a comparison between the Sawstop Industrial and Laguna Platinum table saws from a hobby woodworker. Looking at mechanical specifications, it would probably be more fair to compare the Laguna Platinum to the Sawstop Professional, but I cannot do this, since I didn't own the Professional version. At the same time, Laguna doesn't have, to the best of my knowledge, a saw that will be of the same size as the SawStop Industrial.
I owned and used Laguna Platinum for 2 years, and recently replaced it with SawStop Industrial - so have very little experience with Sawstop still, mostly unpacking it, setting up and doing several cuts. While I have fresh impressions and good memory of Laguna, I wanted to share them.
For me the main selling point of the SawStop was their safety mechanism along with fantastic build quality. Is the safety feature worth roughly twice the price tag as compared to Laguna Platinum, which also has an excellent build quality? This is the question that everyone will have to find his/her own answer to. When the cars were coming without ABS brakes as standard, and the ABS feature would add a couple of grand to the cost of the car, was it worth the extra? Of course "we all drive to conditions" and are safe drivers, but ABS saved a lot of people. Sawstop also saved a lot of hands/fingers. At the same time, a lot of people safely used cars without ABS and safely used table saws without blade brake. The least fortunate group of people are those who used cars without ABS and saws without brakes, and received some injuries that could have been prevented by the technology. I'd say, if you can stretch your budget to get the extra safety features - get them, be it in the cars or in tools/machinery.
Now to some objective and subjective comparison points.
- Both machines are mechanically excellent machines. Well made inside and out. Sawstop is much heavier than Laguna, with larger cast iron table and apparently more heavy duty mechanism inside (the mechanism looks very impressive). This may be insignificant for hobby users, both saws should last a life time. All comments below, in my view, will just show some "not deal breaking" mechanical differences between the saws.
- The saws have similarly rated motors (I got 3Hp Sawstop, but 3 phase 5Hp is also available).
- Blade tilt and lift. If I understand correctly, the Sawstop mechanism is much heavier, therefore the gear ratio for blade riser is different. It means that you have to do more turns to lift the blade on the Sawstop, but it works smoother and easier (I like it). The wheels that you turn are larger on the Sawstop. At the same time, the lock wheels on the Laguna are made of metal and have the feel of premium quality, while Sawstop has cheap plastic lock knobs.
- The Sawstop Industrial has larger cast iron table - I like it, better support for larger pieces without the need for extension tables. I still plan to add an out feed table for supporting longer boards (and I had an out feed table on Laguna also).
- The fence rail of Laguna is extending past the table (which is a bit annoying when you have limited space and you have to walk past the side of the table), while the Sawstop fence does not.
- The fence on the Laguna Platinum, in my opinion, is superior to the fence of the Sawstop. It has a better design that holds the fence straight even when it is not locked. I.e. you move the fence on Laguna, and when you lock it, it locks without any movement. On the Sawstop there is a bit of a free play, and when you lock the fence, it can move a little. For precise cuts this will mean extra fiddling with setting the fence. Also I like the material that the Laguna fence is made of better, it has thick solid slippery plastic board that your material slides along, whereas the Sawstop has something that looks like some sort of laminated plywood. I am using the digital readout on both saws, so cannot comment on the convenience of the built-in scale, but the Sawstop one looks better, it seems that it is easier to align the line with the numbers on the scale. And Sawstop has two scales - for placing fence both to the left and to the right of the saw.
- I got the Sawstop with their mobile base. This is the best mobile base I have seen for machinery. It has hydraulic mechanism that lifts the saw, and then I can move the saw on concrete floor literally with one or two fingers. 330 kg of weight with one finger! When the saw is in place, you depress the hydraulic jack, and the saw is gently lowered on the floor and it is as stable as it would be standing directly on the floor.
- Sawstop dust extraction looks a bit better than that on Laguna, with a shroud around the blade under the table that is connected directly to the dust port on the side of the table, and it also comes with the blade guard with connection for the dust extraction. Some experts here will say that the dust extraction is still far from ideal. However, I compare Laguna and Sawstop here, and the later wins.
- Accessories: Sawstop has monster wrenches for changing blades, I like them, your hands are really far from the blade. The table inset on the Sawstop is much better, and easier to remove, but the saw comes just with one inset, which is a pity. Laguna has basic pressed metal table insets, but at least it comes with two (second one for dado) to get you started.
My first impression when I made my first cut on Sawstop - "it cuts exactly the same as Laguna". Wood is clearly cut, no vibrations, everything is smooth. But then my friend told me that hopefully I will never have to experience the main difference between these two table saws.
