RikonBS Gloat

[john l graham]

SWMBO agreed to the recent purchase of a bandsaw. I quickly ordered one before she changed her mind. This BS may not be very large but has lots of standard features of the larger models. It has been getting used often. Just need to finish the other end of my shop to move it there. John

[Ted Shrader]

Joohn -

Very cool! Congratulations!

Now get some good blades and it will really hum.

regards,
Ted

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats on the new BS. Get you some decent blades and you will be set. I like the Timberwolf blades.

[Bill Bolen]

Looks huge to me. That's the one I've had my eye on but...alas the economy!Congrats on a great machine...bill..

[Bruce Wolberg]

What are the specs of the new BS? And why the Rikon? I will be looking for one soon and am interested in why this one. Thanks. Bruce

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - Congrats on your new saw! Should be able to cut some major blanks with that one!

Bruce - Welcome to the Creek! Looking forward to seeing some of your work!

[Rick Apt]

I, too, got the Boss' permission to pick out, in her words "a toy" and got the same saw. I love it.

After reading many reviews / articles / post the Rikon made the most sense for me.

The Rikon blade that came with the machine is a pretty good one. I got a few Timberwolf blades and have been playing around with the different set-ups.

Have fun.

Rick

[Scott Hurley]

I bought one a few month ago, and I really like it. It had easily handled everything I've thrown at it. The only issue I have had is it seems to be pretty difficult to get the lower blade guides adjusted properly. I believe Wood magazine had a review of bandsaws, and that was their complaint, also. Other than that, I really like it.

[Curt Harms]

I have the Rikon 10-325 and am happy with it. I found one problem with the lower thrust bearing however. I found that the lower blade guide block could not be moved back as far as I would have liked-it hit the bolt head for the table locking mechanism. There wasn't really room for the lower thrust bearing to move back so as to be able to center a 3/4" blade on the wheels. Yes, the saw seems to be able to tension a 3/4" t'wolf blade okay. I took the existing lower thrust bearing to a bearing & drives place and got a smaller O.D. bearing. Now a 3/4" blade will center on the wheels and eliminate blade drift.

The potential downside to this mod is that less than 1/4" blades won't work because the lower thrust bearing cannot come forward enough to keep the teeth forward of the side bearing guides. I think 1/4" blades are the minimum for bearing style guides anyway. There's only about 5/32" from the bottom of the gullet to the back of the blade which isn't much bearing surface. I did get a carter guide (http://carterproducts.com/product_list.asp?cat_id=14) for narrow blades. It seems to work well and isn't too much of a pain to switch out. I do very little with blades < 1/4" so I don't switch them often. This is one downside of the bearing style blade guides compared to the cool-Block style guides--you can bury narrow blades in the cool-block guides without damaging teeth, you can't with the bearing guides. I wonder if anyone will offer retrofit guides that use cool-block style guides for the Rikon-Craftsman steel frame 14" saws.

HTH

Curt

[Bill Embrey]

John... Congrats on the BS... I purchased the 18" Rikon a little over a year ago and LOVE IT!!!... all the ice fall from our ice storm back in January provided me with lots of goodies that I could actually do something with. Like the others have mentioned, I purchased the Timberwolf blades and have had zero issues... those things rock.