How to align the wheels on a Rikon 10-325 bandsaw

[Michael Cole]

I can get the blade to track on the middle of the upper wheel, but it is more to the outside on the lower wheel. I have messed with the 4 bolts on the back but don't seem to be making any difference. Any ideas on what to do? I am probably just missing some easy step, but need help.

[Frank Pratt]

Get ready for an ordeal. I have the same saw & it came from the factory with the upper & lower wheel not even close to being coplanar. Here's what I did.

First, made up a jig/straight edge that I could hold against the upper & lower wheels to check the alignment. Then I messed around with the 4 bolts that secure the lower shaft to get it in alignment with the upper wheel. A washer or 2 was required to move the wheel out a little as well. Then it was a simple matter of aligning the upper wheel so the blade would track. That was the easy part.

Then the fun begins. I started the saw & it ran great for a few minutes until the drive belt self destructed. By messing with the lower wheel, the 2 pulleys were now badly out of alignment. To correct that, I had to shift the motor pulley on its shaft & use washers on the 4 motor mounting bolts. But some of the mounting bolts were then too short so I had to get longer bolts. I then measured the depth of the holes & cut the bolts to length. I also had to tap the holes a little deeper. The motor frame is very soft aluminum so I had no choice there if I wanted it to stay put. That took half a day & by the time I was done I just wanted to throw the thing in a dumpster. End result is that the thing runs & tracks beautifully now.

Other than that issue, it seems like a well built machine, but the experience has kind of turned me off of Rikon.

I've since read that some are of the opinion that upper & lower wheel alignment is not that crucial so maybe my pain & suffering was unnecessary. I'm kinda fussy about such things though & not knowing any better, just dove in head first.

Have you done any cutting with it yet? You may want to just get the blade tracking correctly on the upper wheel & see how that works. Might save you some grief.

[Jerry Thompson]

Go to YouTube and enter Alex Snodgrass. It turned me around.

[Ken Massingale]

Go to YouTube and enter Alex Snodgrass. It turned me around.

+++10 thousand

[glenn bradley]

If you want your blade to track on two crowned wheels, the wheels (or at least the crowns ;)) will need to be co-planer. This is how the machine is designed to operate and this is the path I chose. One benefit is that I am completely unfamiliar with the term "blade drift". I change blades of differing widths and tooth counts and the only adjustments I generally make are to the guides and tension.

Another way to go is to find someone like Alex Snodgrass or Michael Fortune who state that co-planer wheels are unimportant and subscribe to that. The importance of this adjustment varies directly with the nature of the wheel and what you use the tool for.

I resaw my own parts and a blade tracking at the center of a crown on one wheel and at the rear of the crown on another works poorly for me. Look at what you want to do and the result you are after and then determine the effort you want to put into achieving that. No right or wrong, just different requirements.

320885 . 320886 . 320887

[Michael Cole]

Thanks for the information. I will google Alex Snodgrass and Michael Fortune.

[Michael Cole]

Get ready for an ordeal. I have the same saw & it came from the factory with the upper & lower wheel not even close to being coplanar. Here's what I did.

First, made up a jig/straight edge that I could hold against the upper & lower wheels to check the alignment. Then I messed around with the 4 bolts that secure the lower shaft to get it in alignment with the upper wheel. A washer or 2 was required to move the wheel out a little as well. Then it was a simple matter of aligning the upper wheel so the blade would track. That was the easy part.

Then the fun begins. I started the saw & it ran great for a few minutes until the drive belt self destructed. By messing with the lower wheel, the 2 pulleys were now badly out of alignment. To correct that, I had to shift the motor pulley on its shaft & use washers on the 4 motor mounting bolts. But some of the mounting bolts were then too short so I had to get longer bolts. I then measured the depth of the holes & cut the bolts to length. I also had to tap the holes a little deeper. The motor frame is very soft aluminum so I had no choice there if I wanted it to stay put. That took half a day & by the time I was done I just wanted to throw the thing in a dumpster. End result is that the thing runs & tracks beautifully now.

Other than that issue, it seems like a well built machine, but the experience has kind of turned me off of Rikon.

I've since read that some are of the opinion that upper & lower wheel alignment is not that crucial so maybe my pain & suffering was unnecessary. I'm kinda fussy about such things though & not knowing any better, just dove in head first.

Have you done any cutting with it yet? You may want to just get the blade tracking correctly on the upper wheel & see how that works. Might save you some grief.

That sounds way out of my skill level!

[Allan Speers]

Thanks for the information. I will google Alex Snodgrass and Michael Fortune.


IMO, Snodgrass's ideas are extremeley questionable, and I'm being nice. He's the only "expert" alive who advocates that. Everyone else, from Lonnie Bird (who literally wrote the book) to Grizzly and Laguna, all say that coplanar wheels are critical. - You can in fact find videos online from Grizzly and Laguna that strongly advocate the coplanar method.

I see three big problems with the "Snodgrass" method:

1: If your wheels aren't parallel to the frame, this has to put uneven pressure on the bearings.

2: A blade may track well, but what happens when you change to a different width blade?

3: The way he does it, the teeth of your blade are VERY close to the tires. Even if they don't touch, this means that more heat is transferred to your tires, instead of dissipating in the blade.

Since making your wheels coplanar actually works, I can see no reason at all to follow the questionable Snodgrass method.


I guess I could be wrong, but I doubt it.