I have a Rikon 10-347 that I have had for about 6 months. Love it, it cuts well, but I am getting to the point where I am trying to fine-tune the little stuff. The entire frame tends to vibrate when the tool is running, which is at its worst at the upper blade guides (no surprise, as it's hanging out in thin air as far away from support as it can get. This causes the blade / blade guide to vibrate a bit until the moment they touch the wood; the workpiece immediately dampens the vibrations and all is good. But this makes starting a cut a bit of a hit-and-miss operation - literally. Plus, it shows when using my wider blades on thin work...
- 1" Lennox Tri-Master (2-3TPI): amazingly smooth cut quality on anything thicker than about 3" (which is thick enough to stabilize the vibration). Thinner than 3" and the vibration causes a bad cut.
- 3/4" KerfMaster (3-4TPI): Great cut quality in just about anything - once the blade is in the wood the vibration stops.
The saw is sitting on a Grizzly Papa Bear mobile base, which is on concrete slab. Needless to say, I am thinking/planning on getting rid of this, since it seems like the prime suspect. However, if I take the mobile base away, what is the proper way to level the saw on the concrete slab? It doesn't have any leveling feet, and the bolt holes in the base are just for through-bolts. Like most basement slabs, mine is only kinda-sorta level.
Any other thoughts/ideas on vibration reduction here? I have tried playing around with blade tension, and that doesn't seem to make much difference, so I don't think it's a resonant frequency. Is there a way to test the wheels to see if they are out of balance? Any other ideas/thoughts on what may be going on here (other than me being nit-pickey)?