Rikon Bandsaw

[dennis kranz]

A couple of days ago I asked about the Grizzly G0555X bandsaw and many of you liked it. Now I would like to ask about the Rikon 10-325. Anyone have one? Likes or dislikes. Other than my lathe I have never even come close to paying this much for a tool thats why I need all the help. This is going to be a budget buster so I need to get it right. Thanks for your help and if there are any other ideas let me know.
Dennis

[Bob Espy]

Picked up a Rikon 10-325 last month while Woodcraft had them on sale. After installing a Timberwolf blade, I'm quite pleased with it for both rounding my turning blanks and some limited resawing. Pleanty of power. I read a survey that said the blade was a little difficult to change, but with the table slot in the front, it's a five minute job including adjusting the upper and lower roller guides.

[Dale Coons]

Had it for about 2 years. It does have plenty of muscle-I've resawn 10 inch cherry without it breaking a sweat. I don't find changing blades difficult or time consuming either, however, it is necessary to remove a bolt that holds the two sides of the table coplanar in order to slip the blade out. It's not a big deal. I also wish there was a little more room for my big fat hands to get at the lower blade guide, but again, its not a real issue, it would just be nice. Other than that, setting up is easy. Its a nice solid saw and easy to adjust.

[Chris Stolicky]

I didn't respond to your previous thread because you were only asking about Grizzly saws. I went through this last fall and decided on this Rikon. It basically came down to getting a solid machine up front will good features rather than wanting to add things to a machine that may not be designed for it.

Some of the things that helped my decision were:
- cast iron wheels
- 12+" resaw capacity - so no riser block to add later
- ball bearing guides
- good reputation and customer service
- 1.5 hp
- fairly solid stand

Note - the blade it comes with is useless. I bought a couple of the 'wood turner' blades form highland, and they have worked great so far. I also bought one of the "Wood Slicer" blades but have not used it yet.

[Mike Minto]

i've had the 14" 'deluxe' model for almost 3 years now - got one of the first shipped from the factory when the model was new. i like it alot; wired for 110. blades easy to change, powerful, dust collection is so-so (still builds up around the wheels (especially cedar), has done everything i've asked it to, including letting me keep my fingers. customer support from Rikon has been stellar. (ps.s - no hijack here, but does anyone know how to tighten up the support for the lamp? mine is kinda droopy).

[Syd Lorandeau]

Dennis,
I have the Rikon 10-340 for a couple of years and todate no problems. As far as tech service it is top of the line. I called once and was told "Syd, I can handle most everyday problems on bandsaws but this is not one of them so lets not waste your time. The bandsaw guys will be back in about 30 minutes and I will have them call you." Sure enough in about 30 minutes the phone ran and bailed me right out.
They also have made some up grades to the newer models which says they listen to us.
Syd

[Curt Harms]

(ps.s - no hijack here, but does anyone know how to tighten up the support for the lamp? mine is kinda droopy).

The lamp is uh 'suboptimal'. If you remove the switch you can use a long needle nose pliers to reach the nut in the frame. I removed mine and drilled a hole in a piece of angle iron. Screwed the lamp to one leg of the angle iron and put a couple Lee Valley rare earth magnets on the other leg. Added a cord with a plug and I'm happy with that arrangement.

[Dave Lehnert]

Something else one may consider. A bandsaw is most often a lifetime purchase. Availability of parts down the road is something to consider. Rikon and Grizzly each gets great reviews for customer service. No one can predict what will happen down the road with each company. But I would think Grizzly would have the edge for longevity and parts availability.

Just some food for thought.

[Jim Silva]

I've had the Rikon "Deluxe" 10-325 for uh... almost 3 years now and have been very happy with it overall. Plenty of oomph for full capacity resawing, blade changing is not a problem, no issues with quality of the saw.

The lamp is indeed "sub-optimal" in that it's both droopy and either 4" too short or mounted on the wrong side of the saw. However I'd not reject a saw because of a lamp.;)

I've gone through 1 set of guide bearings (well, 2 bearings but replaced the full set just to tune it up) due to the fact that it's used every day and wet wood gunks up the bearings if not cleaned immediately afterward. (On any saw)

My only complaint with the Rikon is an upper guide bearing block that wasn't fully thought out. It's cumbersome and it all hangs from a round rod that's too small (and round) to be as robust as the rest of the saw. Adjusting the bearing block to change blade sizes (as I frequently have to do) is made needlessly complicated because of this but you get used to it.

I've owned numerous Grizzly machines including 2 auxiliary lathes, flap sander, 12" disk sander and 2 small DC's and find that while quite affordable, their quality control can be iffy. The two Rikon products I've purchased (bandsaw and mini lathe) I found to be higher quality. (YMMV:D)

[dennis kranz]

I had a feeling this was a good one. They have it on Amazon for 799.99 and with free shipping it sounds like a solid deal to me. Thanks again for all the advise.
Dennis