Shop Tools

[Jack Burgess]

Hey guys, listening to all of you lets me know that I am way out of your league. I am a novice and build small toys and dollhouses. Love your comments but not sure I can go the route of the quality tools for hobby. What is opinion of Rigid tools for band saw and drill press. Thanks,

[Britt Lifsey]

Hey Jack,
My tool collection is probably similar in quality/price to what you are talking about - several Craftsman tools (from many years ago), a small Ryobi band saw, etc.

The newest tool I bought is the Ridgid 13" planer and am very happy with it. If the band saw and drill press are similar quality they are probably decent bang for the buck. I had originally bought the Ryobi brand but after one use swapped it for the little more expensive Ridgid brand.

[Bill Huber]

I have a Ridgid sander and a planer and have been very happy with both of them. For the money I think Ridgid is fine.

[Tom Welch]

I have a ridgid band saw, planner and jointer. They are great for a small shop. The quality is higher than others in their catagory. The band saw is good, just replace the crappy blade with a good name brand, and install cool blocks and you will be pleased. The Planer blades are very easy to change out, and the blades are reversable, so that will save you some money. Mine are about 4 years old and had no problems with them.

[Kevin Gregoire]

i have a ridgid 14" bandsaw and i like it, it does everything i need it for and it also brightens up my shop with the nice orange doors.

[Dave MacArthur]

I read good reviews of the Ridgid 14" band saw and the planer both. The band saw in particular I see great deals on used on Craigs List almost every night, it's a good value brand new from HD, but you can easily get them for 50% in perfect shape off CL, making them a great value. HD does so much volume on the band saw that you can always find someone who bought one for one project and now is selling it.

[scott spencer]

Jack - The Ridgid BS has a reputation for some vibration issues. Obviously not every unit is effected, and fortunately those that are can typically be remedied with some fiddling, but a search should reveal several occurrences with this particular saw. I'd add the Grizzly G0555 and the Craftsman 22401 to my list of candidates.

[Terry Welty]

I've got a Ridgid R4511 Table Saw- Excellent, Ridgid Oscillating Sander- Excellent, Ridgid Jointer- Just bought, it was a floor model and had a broken part- waiting on the part from Ridgid.

Ridgid service has been good, Life Time Warranty.

Home Depot sucks...

[Tullie Templet]

I have the jointer, oscillating sander and drill press and like them all. The drill press is fairly new so i cannot comment much on it but so far it drills straight holes. I read good reviews on it before i bought it though. Not much run out on it at all.

[John Mark Lane]

I've got a Ridgid R4511 Table Saw- Excellent, Ridgid Oscillating Sander- Excellent, Ridgid Jointer- Just bought, it was a floor model and had a broken part- waiting on the part from Ridgid.

Ridgid service has been good, Life Time Warranty.

Home Depot sucks...


Isn't there some inherent inconsistency (or something) in supporting the Ridgid line but at the same time complaining about Home Depot? .. Just wondering aloud...

[Kerry Richardson]

I own a Rigid table saw, jointer, planner and oscillating sander. All these items were fantastic right out of the box. Alignments were great, very little adjusting required. Base on this experience, I decided to go with the Rigid band saw. When I got the band saw put together, I was disappointed with its performance. Rigid appears to have a quality problem with this particular item. The problem was with vibration. After several days of troubleshooting, I identified the following items what needed attention:

1. The rubber tires needed to be replaced. The rubber tires would not stay on the wheels. They were replaced with polyurethane tires.
2. I checked the balance of the upper and lower wheels and found both to be out of balance. To check the balance, I removed the blade, and brush on the lower wheel , as well as the lower wheel driven pulley. Then, I spun the wheels by hand and waited for them to stop. I marked the spot on the bottom of each wheel to identify the heavy side of the wheels. I repeated this several times, and each time the wheels would stop within a fraction of an inch of the original mark. I then tried to balance the wheels by drilling holes on the heavy side. Didn’t work to good. I then changed tactics and made some weights out of fishing weights and double sided tape. I was able to balance both wheels very accurately using this method.
3. Next item to address was the belt. When removed, the belt had a significant set to it which I wasn’t able to get out. I replaced it with a link belt.

Now having gone through all that, when I put it all back together, the vibration had been reduced but not enough to be acceptable to me. Very frustrating!!! Went back and started looking again and found that the center hole in the driven pulley was not concentric with the outside edge of the pulley. Replaced it!

After doing all these adjustments/replacements and a modification to the motor mounts, I was able to reduce the vibration to the point where the saw now passes the nickel test in two axis’s. My saw would now performs great, if I could just figure out how to eliminate or minimize drifting of the blade. Still working on that one. Have some roller guides from Carter coming. Will see how that works out.

If I knew then what I know now, I probably would not have purchased the Rigid band saw. But if you do decide to get one, who knows, maybe yours will turn out okay. The vibration problem doesn't seem to affect all of their band saw. If not, then here are a few items you can check to try and improve on the vibration issues.

Don't know anything about their drill presses.

Almost forgot, Rigid has a forum. You can do a search over there for band saws or drill presses and probably get some additional information.

Hope this helps.

[Cary Falk]

I don't have a problem with Ridgid in general. I have several of their tools. I don't have the BS or DP. I have heard of problems with the BS. I think the Grizzly line would be a better choice for the BS. I haven't heard anything bad about the DP. HTH

[Rod Sheridan]

Hello Jack, I would think that your best value for the dollar would be a used 14" band saw.

A critical issue is the blade, don't buy retail packaged blades, find a saw shop that cuts and welds them to length, you'll get a better choice of blades, a better quality blade, and pay less money for it.

Regards, Rod.

[David Thompson 27577]

............ What is opinion of Rigid tools for band saw and drill press. Thanks,

I am a hobbyist woodworker, and a small-jobs-contractor for my living. A number of the jobs that I do as a handyman/contractor depend on my woodworking skills.

I get lots of people asking me about this tool or that, and I explain that tools for a hobbyist/homeowner can and should be less expensive than those built for contractors who depend on their tools for a living. If you will use a tool a few (or even a lot of) weekends per year, that's big-time different than someone who will use their tools every day, all day, 50 weeks per year.

And having said that, I'll say that I have a Rigid portable table saw, and it has had fewer problems than my buddie's Bosch. And I have their 1/2" corded drill, which is a great tool. And I have their trim router, which I believe to be as good as any other.

So, to summarize, I believe that Rigid power tools are good quality, even for a contractor. A hobbyist/homeowner can't go wrong.

(I have no affiliation with Rigid or Homey's D'poe.)

[jay gill]

I have the 13" planer and the table saw. I love em both and would buy them again. As other have stated, they came setup pretty close to perfect. (Fence was off a tiny bit on the saw).

I did pick up the planer off of Craigslist about $100 < HD so I saved ~ 30%.

I also got the Ridgid 4 piece LI-Ion cordless set for my dad. He loves it and it works great.

Best of luck with whatever route you go.

[Jack Burgess]

Kerry, while I am impressed with your knowledge of equipment and the ability to do it but why if it was Rigid = could you not have taken it back and replaced it with a new one?

[Bob Carreiro]

I have a Ridgid BS, jointer, and edge/spindle osculating sander and like them all. Of the three, the BS is the more problematic... vibration, blade wobble, etc. Although a tune-up would correct these quality issues, i.e, Carter guides, link belt, wheel balancing, etc., they all would jack the price to a better quality machine (bought on clearance for $184). So I'm happy with what I've got and didn't expect the farm when I bought a chicken.