Opinions on Rikon 10-325 Bandsaw

[Lee Ludden]

Does anyone have experience with this particular band saw? I currently have a 14" Delta, and was wondering how much of an improvement (other than the obvious extra resaw capability) I could expect to get. I could get this saw for about $800. I'm sure people here have opinions and I'd like to hear them.

Thanks.
Lee

[Steven Hsieh]

What are you going to use the saw for?

[Van Huskey]

I assume you mean $800 new at Woodcraft since it is on sale there for that until the end of July.

The difference you will see depends on that you are doing with it. Will it be resawing or contour cutting or dovetails etc etc. Knowing exactly how you plan to use it will help us let you know if you can expect a big change.

[Jack Wilson50]

I have the saw and have been happy with it for the most part. I have had not problem with tracking or with re-sawing. I have not tried to cut any vaneer with the saw. I had some initial tracking issues; but they were resolved after a couple of phone conversations with a little adjusting. The one thing I am not crazy about is the difficulty of adjusting to a different balde size when making blade changes. I have been thinking of getting a set of the Carter blocks for the saw.

[James Conrad]

Depends on how old your Delta is, there have been many little convenience features added to most of the newer saws. Highland has the 10-325 on sale for 800 and the 10-345 for 1200.

Since Woodcraft was mentioned, let me tell you a little story about my recent adventure to thier Rockville, MD store - I'll make it brief as possible.

I've been looking for a new/used bandsaw as of late (my first post recently was about a possible choice) read and heard decent things about the Rikon and just wanted to kick the tires on one. Since this store is affiliated with a woodworking club that has a full public shop I thought they might have a machine or two. First you wouldn't know it was a WC store, no exterior signage saying so (nice marketing choice WC) and the store is a postage stamp. So I looked around, no one asked to help me despite 4 people behind a counter the size of a grade school desk, not sure how they all fit. So I thought I would buy some glue, always need that... As I approached the counter I asked if they had any machinery available to look at, and that I was looking to buy a new 16-18" bandsaw. They said they had one out back... Followed by silence... I sort of expected a longer explanation of what BRAND and SIZE, silly me. After asking again, I found out it was a PM1800. I politely said, sorry but a 5k machine is out of the question right now, as much as I would like to have that in my shop. Again, the crickets started chirping as I waited to have other options mentioned. Again after I started the conversation again, they mentioned Jet... Then I asked about Rikon and was told from who seemed like the owner/manager of the place "Just like you wouldn't have a Powermatic in your shop, I wouldn't think of having a Rikon." I was stunned that they would trash their own products, not to mentioned completely missing the conversation we just had where I mentioned the good quality of PM. So I was pretty much told that you can't buy an 18" BS for under 5k and the Rikon products are junk. Needless to say, I left shortly after this, without the glue as well since they have a $10 limit on credit/debit card purchases and this purchase came up a few pennies short. I just laughed and walked out. No idea what WC is thinking linking their brand with these people - no interest in asking me what I wanted the saw for, why I wanted one of that size or anything. What a bunch of wood snobs. It has put me off buying anything from WC, I have also emailed their customer service - no response as of yet...

So, I would say unless your 14" Delta is worn out, beyond help, or is older than 10 years than you probably won't see a huge difference beyond those items that a riser block won't fix for resaw height.

Best of luck, sorry about the vent on WC just thought people should know about this place.
JC

[Lee Ludden]

Mostly I am looking for resaw capability. I would really prefer a larger saw, but for the foreseeable future space and budget constraints make that unlikely. My current delta was made in the mid 90's. It works pretty well, but I was planning on selling it if I got the rikon - I'd love to keep both, but space is at a premium.

[Van Huskey]

As far as WC goes everyone is different and outside a couple of corporate stores they are all independently franchised (saw some franchisees that own more than 1 store), as much as I like HIghland unless you live near Atlanta their shipping prices usually kill most deals on machines.

Lee,

If resaw is your thing then getting out of a 14" cast saw is a smart idea. If space is an issue and 14" is the size then the 10-325 and the Laguna LT14SUV are the current saws to consider, the 10-325 being the better low dollar value and the Laguna being the best of breed.

The 10-325 is going to afford higher tension on blades and give you a much better bandsaw to resaw with its two weaknesses are guides and the fence, neither are perfect but both are usable but on sale the 10-325 is about half the price of the Laguna. Frankly, even the guides and fence are a step up from most 14" cast saws but depending on the guides you have the Rikon guides may be more trouble to adjust. If you have more specific questions about the 10-325 I will try to answer them. BTW if you plan on using a carbide blade the Laguna Resaw King in 3/4" is probably your best bet for that saw due to its thin gauge.

[Curt Harms]

I think if someone came up with reasonably priced guide block retrofits for the Rikon 10-345/Sears ??-401/other similar saws they'd sell some. I'm sure the Carter Guidall 400 is a fine product but nearly half the price of the saw ($352 list plus conversion kit) for retrofit blade guides? Really?

[Van Huskey]

I think if someone came up with reasonably priced guide block retrofits for the Rikon 10-345/Sears ??-401/other similar saws they'd sell some. I'm sure the Carter Guidall 400 is a fine product but nearly half the price of the saw ($352 list plus conversion kit) for retrofit blade guides? Really?

Are you talking about the 14" 10-325 or the 18" 10-345? In either case Carter makes the 2000 series guides for each the 18" are expensive at $244 but the 14" are in line with their 14" cast saw without riser set, $179 for the standard and $209 for the micro-adjust.

[Brian Tymchak]

James,

Sorry to hear about your experience at Woodcraft. The store I shop at here locally is a class operation and I hope you get the opportunity to visit a well-run store. I would urge you to get on Woodcraft's customer service web page (http://www.woodcraft.com/Static/CustomerService.aspx) and email your experience to them. Even if the store is an independent franchise, I'm sure there are some minimal standards of quality of customer service, etc. Woodcraft has a pretty good reputation in the wood-working community and I'm sure they want to keep it.

Brian

[James Conrad]

Hi Brian,

I was just amazed to say the least at the attitudes these people put forth. I did email customer service last week, no response as of yet - I may travel to Leesburg next week and check out their store.

Best,
JC

[Phil Thien]

I had a Sears bandsaw that had the same sort of guides as the Rikon. If I had kept it, I would have made my own guide blocks by simply cutting squares of some oily exotic, with a hole drilled in the center.

[Van Huskey]

Phil, this illustrates my frustration with the current state of guides on lower end saws. They all feel the need to put bearing guides on to look like everyone else, perceived value added equipment so to speak. Most of these bearing guides are not built anything like a guide using purpose built bearings with proper surfaces for a blade to ride against, but that works out because they fail due to dust infiltration long before the metal wears out, compare the bearings and wear surface to that of a well built European guide. My point is that I wish these manufacturers would chuck the cheap roller blade bearing guides and just put in a good solid guide, they could do so much with the types of inserts (ceramic, phenolic, metals (I keep meaning to try brass, since I like steel) and wood). In the end a good solid guide is better than a cheap bearing guide and in some cases better than any bearing guide. The guides on the 10-325 could be better built and have easier and better adjustment.

[Curt Harms]

I had a Sears bandsaw that had the same sort of guides as the Rikon. If I had kept it, I would have made my own guide blocks by simply cutting squares of some oily exotic, with a hole drilled in the center.

That seems like it'd work but you'd need a means to keep the blocks from rotating.

[Phil Thien]

That seems like it'd work but you'd need a means to keep the blocks from rotating.

I think once they're snugged down, they stay in place.

[Augusto Orosco]

I assume you mean $800 new at Woodcraft since it is on sale there for that until the end of July.

The difference you will see depends on that you are doing with it. Will it be resawing or contour cutting or dovetails etc etc. Knowing exactly how you plan to use it will help us let you know if you can expect a big change.

Is that on every Woodcraft? I went online and it still shows for $949.99 in my browser.

[Van Huskey]

Is that on every Woodcraft? I went online and it still shows for $949.99 in my browser.

I didn't look for it in the flyer BUT it is right on their home page, upper left hand side, I assume it is all their stores but I dunno.

[Augusto Orosco]

I didn't look for it in the flyer BUT it is right on their home page, upper left hand side, I assume it is all their stores but I dunno.
All I see in the upper side of their website is a side to side banner apologizing because of their warehouse being temporarily closed due to the storm. And can't find the sale in the flyer, either. Perhaps Woodcraft is engaging in selecting advertising by checking for cookies in your browser? Either that, or the name Van Huskey is in every band-saw seller's VIP list, which wouldn't surprise me :D

[Van Huskey]

Try using code 78150, that ad comes up for me right under the books & dvd and "more" tabs so not really the upper right, just the upper right of the actual ad section. Maybe since it has a code it is only good online. I can;t get the last couple of pages of the flyer to load so I can't see if it is in there. I did notice when the page first loads that space has the "free glue" promotion BUT it QUICKLY switches to the bandsaw, if I hadn't seen the glue promotion before I wouldn't even be able to tell what it was, so it may be cookie related.

[Peter Hawser]

My two cents. I own this saw and was not happy with the guides or fence, so I replaced both. Carter Guides at about $250 and a Kreg fence at about $150 with a resaw guide and micro adjust (I use neither). The guides had a problem. The lower guide would sort of skew to one side when the assembly was tightened in to where it inserts and no combination of shims or other tricks would help. As a result the lower guides pushed the blade to the left no matter what I did, so I actually have the stock Rikon lower guides and the Carter upper guides. The ease of adjusting the uppers is a huge plus in set up and switching more quickly between blades, but did it have to cost $250 where I only got to use half of what I bought? Neither Carter or Rikon were any help in addressing this - they pretty much blamed the other. Carter said, "Oh yea, we have heard about this, try x and y." Rikon suggested I skew the table to compensate. I tried that and you could see with your naked eyes the table was cockeyed when the guides were set up "square." I should have been more assertive, but I wimped out. The Kreg fence was a nice upgrade, but the fence piece is shorter than the table and mounting it required drilling new mounting holes in the table (made for old Delta style for sure).

Overall I added $400 to the price of this saw and have a good saw. I use it all the time and have no problems with it. I use it for everything from ripping (very accurate and a good clean cut), lots of joinery and, of course, resawing. However, my total cost is $1200 ($800 saw plus $400 extras) with the extras that make it the saw it SHOULD (IMO) be stock, right out of the box. So, for the little extra money I should have just splurged for a Laguna 14" SUV at about $1400. However, at the time I could only go direct with Laguna ($300 shipping!) and they had no shortage of customer service complaints on boards like this. One call to them with a few questions resulted in getting almost daily harassment calls and emails by their used car like salespeople - sleazy and too slick for my taste. Also, getting a 400 pound saw into my basement was something I couldn't quite figure out how to do (I have friends, but I need better and stronger friends for that). Now my local Woodcraft sells Laguna and they deliver. So today all my problems would have been solved and, perhaps, so can yours!

If Rikon simply put good guides and a better fence on this saw, it would be a no brainer at this price or a hundred or so more. If it came with something like the "mods" I put on I would recommend it to you in a heartbeat. Without them you are left with a good saw that is a pain to set up and use productively and you might find yourself questioning the decision. I have seen the Laguna side by side at the Woodcraft and it is night and day in quality. The 14" SUV is a little low and smaller than you might imagine, but the quality is just dripping off it compared to the Rikons and even PowerMatic 14 also sitting nearby.

Another option to consider is a Grizzly 17 with all the buzzes and whistles - cast iron trunion, brake (man do I want a brake every time I saw) and both their guides and fences get good remarks. Still, why not just take the hit and get a saw you will never ever regret buying vs one that leaves you with doubts and second guessing. As they say, very wisely, it only hurts once.

P.S. EDIT and flip flopping like no politician you ever heard! I see now the SUV is about $1700 and even though Woodcraft carries it, I think shipping costs still factor in. So, it's not even an apples to oranges, it's apples to... some exotic fruit. Given this, I guess I could give a nod to the Rikon WITH mods, but then you have something like the Grizzly G0513X2F 17" at $1249 shipped and it has everything including a great fence, good guides, cast iron trunion, 2 hp and a foot brake. I've never bought Grizzly anything and wonder why so many people say they are great because they respond to problems so fast, yet seem to always always always have problems that need responding too.

It's tough out there, bandsaws seem the hardest thing to decide on of any shop tool. Then again (and forgive my continuing schizophrenia) when I finally got my Rikon my immediate reaction was, 'Why did I suffer and wonder so long, I would have been happy with this or any of the other saws I debated myself over for months and months." I really do like my Rikon, I think I am just a little bitter that 1. It didn't come with the quality guides and fence it should have and 2. I got a little screwed on the Carter guides by both Rikon and Carter, but after all is said and done, I have saw that really works well and allows me to do all the bandsaw tasks I need to do - it just didn't come that way out of the box.