John Ziebron
04-14-2016, 7:53 PM
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.
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.