Rikon band saw - safety issue?

[John Ziebron]

Back when Rikon first came out with their 18 inch BS, model 10-345, I purchased it at the introductory price. And although I had some issues with it over the years it's been a good saw for me. But the other day I started to cut a piece of 6 inch PVC (yes, I probably shouldn't have been doing that) and bang. The pipe popped out of my hands and a few broken pieces went flying. After shutting down I noticed the pipe wasn't the only thing that broke.

There's a plastic window at the bottom front of the blade guide that broke into 3 pieces and one of them went flying. Luckily, nothing hit me that I could tell. Normally I guess one would never expect something to happen to cause this window to break. But I was still surprised that Rikon used acrylic instead of polycarbonate in this location. I have some 1/8 inch Lexan on hand and so just made a replacement.

It is interesting to note that Rikon used 4 little screws and nuts to hold this window in place. They also have a plastic window on the side where you can view blade tracking on the upper wheel but that window is riveted in place. I don't know what material it is. I see their current model, the 10-346, also has these 2 windows. Hopefully, they are using polycarbonate at least on the front one.

I don't know if other band saw manufacturers use plastic window on their machines but if you have one on yours you may want to check it and replace it if necessary.

[Erik Loza]

Centauro (and others) have used little plastic windows around the guide area for years. I honestly never thought to ask what kind of plastic but I'm sure it's not polycarbonate. Probably cheap acrylic. Ditto on the plastic saw guards and jointer guards. Don't take this the wrong way but I have never, in over 12 years of selling bandsaws, had anyone tell me that they shattered the little window on their bandsaw. That's just not an area designed to see "exploding particles", or however we would describe it. The fact that it was large PVC pipe would make the cut even sketchier. The correct way to cut any tube or cylinder on a bandsaw, regardless of material, is to somehow clamp or secure it into a jig or sled. Of course, maybe you already know all this. Glad a piece did not fly up into your face. I don't believe you will find any bandsaw that uses polycarbonate on its windows. Just my 2-cents.

Erik

[Wade Lippman]

I looked at mine to see what you were talking about and found that one of the screws was missing. Your post might have just saved my life!

I agree that lexan would have been a better choice, but I think acrylic is probably adequate. Presumably it is just to deflect a broken blade, and if it breaks doing it that isn't a big deal.