Rikon 18 inch Band Saw

[Dan Henry]

I am thinking about buying a new bigger band saw, have a 14 inch now. I have been looking at the New Rikon 18 inch and in the catalogs and on the Internet they look pretty good. would like to hear from some owners, good and bad. The closet Woodcraft store does not have it in stock.
Dan

[Mike Cutler]

Dan. There are a few folks here on the board that have the 18" Rikon, in fact Effie Lever just asked pretty much the same question a few days ago. Here is that thread link.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=21767&highlight=Rikon

I've had mine for about 5 months now. I've pretty much taken it completely apart and put it back together again. I had some initial blade tracking issues. There is a link to the reviews I did in the post link above.

I still like the saw quite a bit. I believe it was a good value for the money.
It's not as polished or as smooth as a Laguna, MiniMax or Aggazani, but it also doesn't cost as much as one of those saws.
It has nice big beefy wheels,and comes stock with some pretty good bearings also. The blade guides are substantial, like Carter's but much bigger.Mine took a little finessing to get right, but it's been fine ever since. I will tell you that the fence is rather anemic, and you will be quickly replacing it or modifying it if you intend to do any resawing. I've been running a Lennox Tri Master( 2-3 vari pitch) on mine. I also have a Lennox Bi- Metal and a Timber wolf 3 TPI. All my blades are 1" blades, and I've had no issues with blade tension problems during resawing.
Mine is setup specifically for resawing and nothing else. I've pushed 12" wide Jatoba boards thru it and had no problems at all. It tracks well and there is no noticable blade lead at all. The only negative I can think of is that the thrust bearings need to be checked for proper adjustment, prior to each use after retensioning. Still no big deal, but you might get annoyed.
In short, it does what I need it to do. I still believe that for the "garageshop" hobbiest it's a good value. Good luck looking, there are a few nice saws available in this price range. Bridgewood has a nice 17", and Grizzly had a nice 20" on closeout,to make room for the 21" bandsaws that they are offering.

[John Bush]

Hi Dan,
I've had mine since Nov. of last year and agree with Mike's assesment. There is plenty of power and blade stability is great. I hadn't used a BS this big before and found it quite easy to handle. I bought mine from Cyberwoodworking and they took care of two minor component replacement issues immediately. I think it's a great value and recomend it (and Cyberwoodworking) highly. Good luck, John.

[James Biddle]

I've had mine since Feb, when Woodcraft had a 10 percent off sale on them. Mine had a broken guide brace and Rikon had a new one to me in 2 days. I put a link belt on it, added a fiber washer on the tensioner pin, and spent some time tuning it up and it really runs quiet now. Like everyone else, I would have liked to have a foot brake since it takes 15-17 seconds to stop. I've been using a TimberWolf 1/2" 3 TPI blade on it and it cuts pretty well. Every now and then it starts to track out of the guides when I'm ripping 5/4 to 8/4 and I need to figure that out. I'm not sure if I should be setting the guide rollers right to the blade for better tracking or back them off for a quieter run. Maybe going up to a 1" blade like Mike may work better. I also want to pick up a tension meter and check the accuracy of the indicator, which is listed in blade sizes. I've used a 1/4" blade for cutting some radii and that's worked well. In short, I think the saw is a good value and I need to learn it's nuances.

[Randy Denby]

Dan, what is the price difference between a Rikon vs MiniMax or Laguna? Is there a dealer in Caddo Mills? :cool:

[Frank Pellow]

Dan, what is the price difference between a Rikon vs MiniMax or Laguna? Is there a dealer in Caddo Mills? :cool:
Randy I see that this is your first posting at Saw Mill Creek. Wecome! :)

When I was checking out bandsaws abvout six months ago, the Rikon was less than half the price of the Laguna or MiniMax. :) But, Rikon is not sold in Canada. :(

[Dave Tinley]

Dan-
I am a fairley new Rikon BS owner myself and have to agree with the earlier posts. Best upgrade I did was to get the Lennox Tri-master blade, I use it for 90 percent of all my cuts, the only exception is when resawing for veneer, then I put a 3/4 Woodslicer on. Yes the fence is low end, and I am still trying to figure out if I want to try to adapt the new Kreig fence to the table. One thing I did on the table was I had it polished out. I took it to a company that rechromes bumpers and they polished it out for me. The dust collection is not all that great, but from what I have heard there is not too many bandsaws that do have good dust collection.
For the money. you cant go wrong.

Dave

[Hal Flynt]

I've had mine since Feb. did the steel plate mod that Mike did, just because Mike did and I could get a piece of steel.

I spent time setting it up from the beginning. Table 90 degrees to the blade and all that jazz. My fence was not 90 to the table and took 3-4 thin strips of blue masking tape under the left side where the fence attaches to the locking mechanism. It'll resaw less than a 1/16 with a WoodSlicer from Highland hardware. ( I have Timber Wolves on my 12" saw for the tight cuts.)

I bought mine at WoodCraft on their 10% sale in Feb and I think another sale is coming up from what I read here, not sure though.

I have never regretted the purchase.

[Dan Henry]

Thanks for the good info on the Rikon 18 Band saw. Sounds like the only problem is the fence, my use is to prep turning blanks and maybe some resawing and just all around band saw usage.

Their is no dealer in Caddo Mills, so far the only source is I see is Woodcraft or the Cyber Woodworking Depot . Woodcraft is having a $100 off sale in Nov.

thanks again it is great to have other woodworkers give their opinions about their experiences with their tools for others the learn from.

Dan

[John Bush]

Hi Dan,
I ordered my Rikon from Don at cyberwoodworking before Woodcraft began retailing them and was very pleased with his services. He knows all there is to know about the machine and can supply the correct blades for you as well. I chose the Lenox but I think he has other brands as well. I had a problem/question concerning the guide blocks and he referred the ? to Steve, an exec. at Rikon, and Steve in turn contacted me directly. I felt that was exemplary service. Give them a call as you are shopping and see how they compare. Good luck, John.