The only thing I have de-acquisitioned so far (I started woodworking in 2020) is a Laguna Revo 1524 lathe. I thought it was going to be an amazing lathe, but I had problems with the design of the tailstock and the loose quill since the get go. I had a lot of problems getting the quill to contact any blank at the true center of rotation due to how the darn thing was designed. Has been my one disappointing purchase so far.
Little story:
The technology called "precise point" is, IMO, one of the worst things Laguna has ever devised...it effectively makes a square hollow inside the tailstock, and the SOLE support for the quill are a very loose tolerance hold for the worm and a barely 1" thick piece of metal at the front, which is the block you use to adjust the pointing of the quill. The hole bored into that block, was also not tight enough tolerance to prevent the quill from wobbling around. At full extension, it could shift by as much as +/- 5mm or so, and it would always sag due to gravity. The design of the banjo on the Laguna is also, IMO, rather poor...it is quite wide, with the post at the headstock-side. This means there is a large gap between the closest you can move the tail stock, the tailstock side of the banjo, and the blank...meaning you have no option but to extend the quill a fair amount to come into contact with the wood. The problem I had was that contact point, due to the poor design of the entire tailstock/quill assembly, pretty much never contacted at the center of rotation. It would contact off center, and then when you turned the lateh on (or if it was already on), the quill would oscillate around the true center of rotation and vibrate.
I spent MONTHS trying to work with Laguna on the issue. The best they came up with, was a less than 1mm thick metal "clip" (for lack of a better term) that you were supposed to place under the two bolts for that 1" thick "precise point" adjustment block, and "jam into the track of the quill" to supposedly hold it in place. Suffice it to say...this DID NOT work. I've used a fair number of lathes from different brands now, and own a Powermatic 3524C myself now (the replacement for the Laguna). Every single lathe I've ever used, including the low end Nova 14DR and my Wen 14x20, use a circular bore in the tailstock that is a rather tight tolerance to the diameter of the quill itself. Since the quill is then supported along its ENTIRE LENGTH, with tight tolerance, it move truly strait and easily contacts the dead center of rotation of whatever blank you are working on. The Powermatic in particular, has incredible tolerance here.
While I was trying to work with Laguna on the quill/precise point issue, the headstock stopped functioning properly. One day I went out and I couldn't get the headstock to spin with a load. Even if it was just my longworth chuck, it couldn't maintain a speed and the RPM varied widely. With larger loads, it couldn't spin more than a couple hundred RPM. We of course switched to figuring that out, which involved replacing the motor first, and when that did not work, the entire headstock. Laguna screwed up when we decided to replace teh whole headstock, and sent a freight company to my door in less than an hour after we had talked. They arrived without warning, and since I had barely finished discussing the issue with Laguna, and had not been able to take the headstock off the lathe or even figure out how to package it, the company wouldn't wait. I finally managed to get it removed and packed a few days later, and the freight company came out and picked it up. A replacement headstock arrived...actually I think before I actually shipped the old one back. That resolved the headstock issue, but the quill issue remained, and IMO it was a fundamental design flaw (still my opinion!) Well, from that point on, Laguna never again communicated with me. Oh, except to ask me where the headstock was (which came MONTHS after the last communication, and I had already moved on, even bought a different lathe)....they claimed they never received it. I mentioned I had a tracking number from the freight company, but they never asked for it and I still have not heard back from them (its been a few years now.)
Suffice it to say, my experience with Laguna was not great. Sadly, I had read a number of forum threads dating back over a decade, that effectively warned me that this was a possible outcome. I did not heed them, and paid the price. The quill issue, IMO, is a big and bad one. I feared at the time, that they would propagate "precise point" to their entire line of lathes...which I think they did. IMO, that was a grave mistake, and unless they have somehow modified the design to get rid of the problem I had, I feel for any future Laguna owners. In any case...this was mid through late 2021. I gave up on the lathe, which was what I turned all my larger things on (particularly platters at the time, which is what I was having so much trouble with the quill with). I started turning small things on my Wen. I bought the Powermatic in February 2022, on a real steal (it was on sale, IIRC, around $4600 or so...at the time, the list price was closer to $6000, I think its still $5600 today.) The Powermatic is amazing. Probably not "the single most amazing" lathe...if I had the money, I'd own a Robust in a heartbeat! But its been AMAZING, and effectively flawless in comparison to the Laguna. I LOVE the tailstock on it...its ROCK SOLID STEADY, dead perfectly centered, and has tolerance to die for. The quill is rock solid stable even at maximum extension. I can turn anything I want on that lathe. Never have any issues. Oh, and IMO, the VFD is vastly superior to the Laguna PWM (the PWM, unlike the VFD, has very stark delineations in speed/power....when you bring a tool into contact with a spinning blank, there is a momentary jolting drop in RPM, then an overdriven rapid jolting increase in speed, then a small jolt as it settles back down to the chosen RPM....this jolting quirkiness with the RPM, always left me feeling unsafe while turning...another reason I ultimately replaced the Laguna; The Powermatic VFD, on the other hand, despite being internally powered by PWM, has a VASTLY more natural response curve, and doesn't change RPM like the Laguna does...its response feels totally natural, analog.)
The laguna sat around my shop for a while taking up a lot of space, and I eventually listed it on Craigslist as I desperately needed that space and had nowhere else to put it. A guy contacted me pretty quick about it, I voiced my concerns about the tailstock design, but he was pretty gung ho about buying it, and so far its been the only thing in my shop to be sold off. He seems to be happy with it, but I don't know what he turns. I've been woodworking for 5 years now. I probably haven't accumulated nearly as much stuff as some of you who have been at it for 20-30 years or more, but my small shop is really very packed, and it might be time soon here, to sell off some more stuff I don't really need.
