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laguna 18 36

I have the 18/36 little brother, the 15/24 for 5 years now and I've had issues with mine that I've documented here on the forums My biggest issue has been with Laguna's customer service which, in my opinion, is lacking. Hopefully your 18/36 will be trouble free. I've had to replace the forward/reverse switch twice, it's a quick fix and the switch is inexpensive. I recommend buying a couple and putting them away for a raining day. Hopefully you'll never need them but in case you do you'll have one handy. If I could do it again I would buy a Jet.
 
Funny, you should mention the switch. The switch on my table, saw that I was bragging about earlier today failed.

I ordered a replacement from Amazon that looks like the right one for $17. If it doesn’t work, I’ll contact Laguna.

And I may just take your advice on getting extra switches
 
Mark, since I once turn rather than twice turn, access to the bottom of the bowl is not necessary for me. I did ask a long time ago about those who twice turn, wanting to know if they did their finish turns when the bowl was reversed for truing up the tenon. Maybe half did. I have trued up bowls some times when they are reversed. I start with a BOB tool for the first inch or three, then switch to a 40/40 as I get closer to the rim. Since I use a recess, I can access the bottom near the base easily. With a tenon, I can see where it would this would not be as easy.

As for the cone adding to vibration issues, if you don't use the tailstock, which I don't, then it is an issue. If you use the tailstock, which many do, then it is not an issue. The farther a piece cantilevers out off the headstock, the more vibration there will be. This is physics. Take a look at any hollow form turner, and they will all have steadys on their longer pieces.

I have had a Laguna 16 HD bandsaw for a number of years, and it cuts 16 inches high. When it arrived, it was damaged. They had bolted it to a cheap pallet with tiny bolts, and 3 of them had come loose. The shippers had tied it to the inside of the truck by a strap around the upper blade guide and bent it considerably out of shape. When I complained, they asked if I had any pictures. There were few cell phones at the time, so I said no. They pretty much said tough luck. I would expect that I was not the only one to have had this problem, and I doubt that they ship without the piece being in a crate any more, which is the way they should have done. I won't be buying any more of their tools. I wish Robust would build a big bandsaw....

robo hippy
 
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Thanks Robo. I do use the tailstock as often as possible but that’s largely because of my skill set and personal limitations. I appreciate your expertise and explanation!
 
Mark Hepburn said:
Robo, one of the things I like about the Laguna is the big cone, for the very reason you don't like it :) I like having access to the back of a workpiece (depending on what I'm turning).
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For those who like working room around the headstock end AND turn small things, I'm really liking the new dome jaws that fit the Nova chucks. Excellent working space. And will close down to almost 1/8" internally. I haven't had them long but use they are starting to be my first choice when turning things that fit (up to almost 1" square I think. SS.


Nova_dome_jaws.jpg 1757175102140.png

I don't have a picture showing access in the back of a bigger piece, but at minimum these keep potentially painful jaws away from my hands for things like this. (This is cleaning up the holding end of an ebony clapper for a handbell ornament, already drilled to be glued to a wire eye pin.)

Rick Jarosz said:
I am a born mechanic... I like to make things work to do what I want them to do. I can usually get my tools to do what I need them to do. Wood on the other hand requires finesse. It requires you to change your approach. It's a challenge, and those are something that I need to figure out. 🤔😎☕️
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Mark Hepburn said:
I'm the opposite. Wood seems much easier than mechanical things. I can do enough to keep my tools alive but thats about it. :)
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I found that after some time doing both, metal and wood are about equally comfortable to work with, given good tools for both. The finesse becomes 2nd nature. The metal working (cutting/welding/machining/finishing/mechanical) does, usually take a bit more time and entirely different methods, of course!

I do sometimes turn aluminum and brass on the wood lathe and have used the metal lathe and mill for certain wood things where the mechanical precision was a plus.

Rick: to ease the ramp to woodturning a good local mentor can help a LOT - most clubs have people with experience who love to share ideas, methods, tool choices. It's a long walk, but if you ever find yourself near Knoxville TN stop in for a day! Over the years I've had more people come that I can count.

JKJ
 
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robo hippy said:
As for the cone adding to vibration issues, if you don't use the tailstock, which I don't, then it is an issue. If you use the tailstock, which many do, then it is not an issue. The farther a piece cantilevers out off the headstock, the more vibration there will be. This is physics. Take a look at any hollow form turner, and they will all have steadys on their longer pieces.
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Robo are you saying just because it is cantilever that automatically means there is vibration? For every action (force) there is a re-action (force). Your statement IMO would only be true if the action is greater than the re-action. Do you have some data to show there is vibration? I still don’t think the cone contributes to any measurable vibration. I turned on the Laguna 18-36 for two years and didn’t see any difference from my PM 90 regarding vibration.
 
Hope the OP got his answer...
I've been turning for a couple of years. Bought a minimally-used 1836 110v 1 year ago for a good price after learning on a Jet 1221. Huge improvement obviously. Been good to me so far. I don't like the banjo and the tailstock spindle has a lot of slop and it's hard to back out live centers etc. but this is prob just me not knowing how to PM it. I'm 5'9" and stand on a mat in running sneaks; height is good for me and I even wish it were a bit lower for spindle work where I'm trying to look down and see the skew tip. Would like to upgrade to a heavier 2+hp machine at some point. But for a newer hobby turner of "average" height using it a few hours/ week, it's fine. No major service issues to date. The Laguna lathe FB group often has specific tech pointers and service info too if u pull the trigger on this model. Good luck! Great comments from the others too.
 
Thanks Dan. I bought the Laguna
 
I’ve had the Laguna 2436 for 8 years now and have maxed out its capacity with heavy wet blanks and coring. Overall, I am satisfied with it for the price I paid. My biggest complaint is that the banjo doesn’t move as smoothly as I’d like (I’ve turned on a PM 3520B and it was smoother). I’ve adjusted the nut under the banjo a few times but it keeps happening. Not a big deal and it’s never hampered my turning, just a little annoying. Maybe I’ll try the Oneway banjo as others have recommended, but for now it hasn’t been such an issue that I’ve felt compelled to do something about it.

Hope you have a good experience with yours when it arrives. Let us know!

Tom
 
Thomas Wilson said:
I’ve had the Laguna 2436 for 8 years now and have maxed out its capacity with heavy wet blanks and coring. Overall, I am satisfied with it for the price I paid. My biggest complaint is that the banjo doesn’t move as smoothly as I’d like (I’ve turned on a PM 3520B and it was smoother). I’ve adjusted the nut under the banjo a few times but it keeps happening. Not a big deal and it’s never hampered my turning, just a little annoying. Maybe I’ll try the Oneway banjo as others have recommended, but for now it hasn’t been such an issue that I’ve felt compelled to do something about it.

Hope you have a good experience with yours when it arrives. Let us know!

Tom
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Will do. Thanks Tom!
Vincent Vogel said:
I had a Laguna 15/24 for 2 1/2 years and ran the wheels off of it. No problems with it. I will advise you to keep the dust blown out of the headstock because when the wheel for the hall effect sensor gets dirty it would act strange. Blow out the headstock and wipe off the ring that was attached to the spindle and it was ok then. Only reason I got rid of it was because I outgrew it. I should have bought a full size lathe to start with, but at the time I had reasons not to. A friend of mine has an 18/36 and he has to blow out the headstock and switches to keep the on/off switch from getting dust in it.
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I have a PM 2014 and it's just too small for some of the work I like to do, so I opted for the 1836. Which should be arriving today.
 
Mark, may I ask why you bought a Laguna when you already have a VB36?
 
Hey Wyatt.

It's tailstock is so massive and hard to manage that I've only used it for medium - large turnings. I like doing small boxes, platters and vessels and it's so much easier to do on a smaller lathe. Plus I always turn pens for holidays and the VB36 is not capable (that I have found) of managing that because of the use of a mandrel.

For a long time I had a Jet 1642 and sold it a few years ago because of my hand surgeries and lack of confidence that I would ever be able to turn anymore. And I couldn't part with the VB :)

Truth is, I'll never be able to do large turnings like I want so I'll probably sell the VB in the future, much as I hate to bite the bullet on that. It's an amazing piece of equipment though, but overkill for most of what I do. If the Laguna works out as I hope, then I may not need anything else. We'll see
 
Wyatt Holm said:
I do feel that Laguna is suffering from unnecessary negative publicity. However as far as customer service goes, I can't think of many companies I buy from, or would like to, have good customer service. A few recently that I am quite disappointed in would be Walmart, Costco and Home Depot. Not to mention airline companies, all of them are dreadful customer service.
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It's the old adage, "If customers are unhappy with your product, they will tell 10 other people. If they are happy with your product, they might tell one other person."
 
The lathe arrived this week and I got it assembled today with the help of some friends. It was very smooth and the instructions were okay but not great. But as I've put together a few lathes some commonalities were apparent.

Got the chameleon light installed along with my Rubber Chucky vacuum adapter. No issues.

Overall impression is that it is a well-polished product, and I like the build except for the levelers. I think they're a little smallish so -I'm going to build something to replace them. It's not quiet that's for sure, but I listen to the radio on high so I can just ignore that inconvenience.

Time to go ruin some perfectly good blanks. ;)

1836.jpg
 
So, the saga begins. The DRO on the lathe that I assembled Thursday (4 days ago) went out on Sunday. I shot an email over to Laguna and got a call first thing this morning from their support people. New DRO assembly coming this week, along with instructions. He said it is a bit tedious getting into the headstock (meaning I'll need a helper to handle the headstock) but that the part swap is very basic.

Otherwise the lathe works well, and I was surprised at the quality of the tool rest. If it didn't have Laguna stamped on it, It would look just like my Robust tool rests.
 
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