Steve H Graham
01-21-2011, 7:20 PM
I used to feel bad about the way the Chinese government abused people. Now I'm considering nominating the guys who write the Rikon owner's manuals. A few years in "reeducation camps" would do them a world of good.
I received my Rikon 25-010 jointer/planer yesterday and started putting it together. The photos in the manual are tiny and dim, and guess what? It's a DIFFERENT MODEL. So I spent hours looking for stuff that wasn't there.
In case anyone else orders one of these things, here are a few tips.
1. There are two dust extraction attachments (big pieces of metal painted flat black). One is a big flat one, and it goes on the left (outfeed) side of the machine. It's for planing only. You have to attach it before you put the outfeed table on. It has four Allen screws in it, and they go into four holes on some brackety doodads mounted on a horizontal bar that runs across the machine, back to front, under the outfeed table. Believe it or not, this is clearer and more accurate than what the manual says. You have to lower the planing table all the way to get the dust thing on. The big open end goes over the blades, face down. The whole attachment swings into the planing area when you're jointing.
2. The second dust thing is a sort of funnel. You don't attach it. You stick it between the planing table and the underside of the planing tunnel, and you raise the table until it holds the funnel in place. Seriously. No screws. You only use the funnel for jointing. The rest of the time, I guess you toss it on the floor. They say it doesn't work, so this may be a good permanent location for it.
3. If you get the mobile base, make sure you put washers immediately inside the cotter pins. It goes like this, starting outside: cotter pins, washers, long flat bars with holes in them, mobile base frame. You can't put the operating pedal on unless you elevate both of the machine's infeed-side feet. Put them on a two-by-four or something.
4. The infeed table has flanges on it that go UNDER the rails on top of the infeed side of the machine. Pry the rails up if you have to (after removing the Allen screws that hold them down). Don't bend them. They should come up with a little effort.
The table also has a big fence support thingamajig projecting from the rear (left as you face the infeed side of the machine), and this will help you tell the infeed table from the outfeed table.
5. There are no self-tapping screws provided for the dust stuff. They are no longer part of the machine. You do not need them.
Sooner or later someone will Google "Rikon 25-010 owner's manual hell suicide firebomb corporate headquarters" at four in the morning. I want this forum post to be waiting, to save them from a long prison term.
I received my Rikon 25-010 jointer/planer yesterday and started putting it together. The photos in the manual are tiny and dim, and guess what? It's a DIFFERENT MODEL. So I spent hours looking for stuff that wasn't there.
In case anyone else orders one of these things, here are a few tips.
1. There are two dust extraction attachments (big pieces of metal painted flat black). One is a big flat one, and it goes on the left (outfeed) side of the machine. It's for planing only. You have to attach it before you put the outfeed table on. It has four Allen screws in it, and they go into four holes on some brackety doodads mounted on a horizontal bar that runs across the machine, back to front, under the outfeed table. Believe it or not, this is clearer and more accurate than what the manual says. You have to lower the planing table all the way to get the dust thing on. The big open end goes over the blades, face down. The whole attachment swings into the planing area when you're jointing.
2. The second dust thing is a sort of funnel. You don't attach it. You stick it between the planing table and the underside of the planing tunnel, and you raise the table until it holds the funnel in place. Seriously. No screws. You only use the funnel for jointing. The rest of the time, I guess you toss it on the floor. They say it doesn't work, so this may be a good permanent location for it.
3. If you get the mobile base, make sure you put washers immediately inside the cotter pins. It goes like this, starting outside: cotter pins, washers, long flat bars with holes in them, mobile base frame. You can't put the operating pedal on unless you elevate both of the machine's infeed-side feet. Put them on a two-by-four or something.
4. The infeed table has flanges on it that go UNDER the rails on top of the infeed side of the machine. Pry the rails up if you have to (after removing the Allen screws that hold them down). Don't bend them. They should come up with a little effort.
The table also has a big fence support thingamajig projecting from the rear (left as you face the infeed side of the machine), and this will help you tell the infeed table from the outfeed table.
5. There are no self-tapping screws provided for the dust stuff. They are no longer part of the machine. You do not need them.
Sooner or later someone will Google "Rikon 25-010 owner's manual hell suicide firebomb corporate headquarters" at four in the morning. I want this forum post to be waiting, to save them from a long prison term.