Rikon mini questions

[Jerry Ingraham]

My new Rikon mini is a great lathe but it makes a constant rattling/ratcheting noise when turning and the indexing pin seems to allow about 3/16"-1/4" of play when engaged. Have any of you Rikon owners experienced this? I recall a thread about a set screw that has a tendency to loosen but I don't recall the specifics. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

Jerry

[Jason Hallowell]

I just today used my new Rikon Mini for the first time. I did not have any rattling, and it ran smooth as silk, but I did notice the play in the spindle lock. Mine is not as severe as yours, only about 1/8", but still kinda dissapointing.

[Mike Lipke]

The index pin drops down between the teeth of a part that looks a lot like a gear, which is on the main shaft. The "gear" is held to the shaft so that it won't turn with a small (i think 4 mm) allen set screw.
Set screw has come loose.
Now for the fun:

To really get it tight, you have to take off the front plate with the switch on it. That is the easy part. The hard part is getting the swich plate far enough away from the cast iron head to get your allen wrench in there.

It isn't really that hard, but pull it away, you have to create slack in the two electrical cords that enter the head on the rear.

To do that, you have to take a good pliers and squeeze the strain reliefs on the rear enough to get them to pull toward you (away from the head). If the room is warm, it is easier. Get a good grip and squeeze and rotate just a little and they will come out. If you take a good light and really look at them, you will see where to squeeze. I think it is at 12 and 6 oclock.

Once they are out, you will see how they clamped on the cable. Unclamp the strain reliefs, and now you can go to the front of the lathe and pull the switch plate clear, and see the set screw on the gear. Before I tightened the snot out of the set screw, I backed it out far enough to see a few threads and put lock tite on it so that I would never have to do it again.
Reverse the steps to reassemble.

[Dale Gregory]

I just today used my new Rikon Mini for the first time. I did not have any rattling, and it ran smooth as silk, but I did notice the play in the spindle lock. Mine is not as severe as yours, only about 1/8", but still kinda dissapointing.

I have not noticed any rattling in mine, but there is a little play. The issue I have with mine is that the spindle lock is not holding properly, the knob is moving up when I try to remove the chuck and forces me to put my hand on top of it to hold the knob down, which then allows me to remove the chuck....defeating the purpose of the spindle lock and only having to use one tommy bar! I'm sure it is something relatively simple, as it worked fine when I first got it, just haven't had the time to tinker with it. Anyone have any ideas? The only other problem I've had with the Rikon is that the drive belt cover likes to vibrate loose and fall backwards, no big deal since it is such a convience to have easy full access to switch positions on the pulleys. Not many negatives so far with the Rikon, I would put it on par with the Jet Mini. All in all, lots of fun learning to turn, and many smiles from my better half when I present her with a new piece!

Dale

[Larry McCumber]

I just installed a new spindle lock on mine (lock and set screw was missing) and went thru just what Mike described. I'll only add that my "gear" had slid down the shaft to the housing wall. I had to wiggle it back up the shaft with some help from WD40 and align the set screw hole with a dimple in the shaft that the set screw fits into. The only other problem I had was I put everything back together :D only to find that the motor wouldn't turn on. :mad: Found out I had pulled the ground wire loose from the shaft. Works good now except that either the shaft or the motor is now "singing" quite a bit. May have to pull it apart again to see if the "gear" is loose again. (I didn't have in loc-tite.

Larry

[Mark Pruitt]

Jerry, IMHO the spindle lock mechanism on the Rikon Mini is one of its greatest weak points. I wish Rikon would consider a redesign. It was a spindle lock gear problem much like what you describe that caused me to return the machine. I tried twice to fix it without success.

[Jerry Ingraham]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I also have noticed that the spindle lock is fairly easily overcome when removing my chuck. I'm gonna take it apart tonight and see what's going on in there. I really like this lathe and just ordered a modular tool rest system and beginner's pen turning kit for it. It is doing yeoman's work while I wait to repair my Grizzly lathe. I also have tentative appointments to do a bowl turning demo in my kids' classrooms this spring and the Rikon is perfect for that purpose. I'll post the results of my repair attempts later.

Jerry