Bandsaw Info

[Richard L. Rombold]

I am in the market for a new bandsaw and was looking at the new Rikon Md # 10-325

Does anyone here have one and do you have any feed back on it?

[Leon]

"Richard L. Rombold" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

One year ago I bought the 18" model and returned it 2 weeks later. I bought it sight unseen with the understanding that I could return it if not satisfied. If you are going for a "first" BS it is probably well spent money. If you are looking for something better, I suggest you look a bit higher up the ladder. I up graded from a twenty two year old Craftsman with a 1/2 hp motor. I was not impressed. More than anything I was not pleased with blade tracking and the guides. I had a continuous problem of the blade tracking and it moving forward and backward up to 1/8" against the thrust bearing. Regardless of where the top wheel angle adjustment was located the blades would not track properly. Roller guides make sense on paper but in real life they are troublesome. If cutting wood like pine or green wood the roller bearings tend to pound and almost permanently attach saw dust to the sides of the blade. With the pounding comes a lot of noise. the ceramic guides are a far better alternative IMHO. When I upgraded I was looking for a saw that required little involvement on my part to keep in adjustment. The Rikon required constant adjustments. The Rikon offers a lot of value if you can overlook its short comings. I expected too much from the Rikon and finally bought a Laguna. I have been very pleased with the Laguna although it did cost one and one half times more than the Rikon. Compared to the larger Delta and Jet, I would say that the Rikon is of equal build quality.

[dondone]

Do a "find" or "search" of this news group for "Rikon" in the Subject line. There was a similar question posted by someone early on 1/3/07 in this newsgroup. There were several responses to the question.

[Stoutman]

I have the Rikon 10-345 and love it! Very beefy. Rikon also has excellent customer service. I have read some very unpleasant remarks regarding Laguna's customer service (i.e.

and here under bandsaw: is mine:

[Jim Weisgram]

[...snip...]

FYI, that can be caused by the top wheel not being coplanar with the bottom wheel. This is a very commonly needed adjustment with a shim behind one of the wheels to bring it coplanar with the other; hopefully the top one, much easier to do.

In my case, I installed a riser block on my 14" Grizzly and the wheels were coplanar but the blade that came with the kit still did the dance. I got a new blade (NOT a Grizzly blade) and since then all has been well..

So there's a couple of reasons this happens that do not mean the saw can't be tuned up and work well.

[Leon]

Understood, however approximately 1/3 of my blades tracked OK. I believe the tires were the problem as adjusting from one extreme to the other had no effect on most blades.

In my case the blade that came with the saw and a locally made blade tracked good but "most" of the Timberwolf blades wandered.

I agree that it could be fixed but the other issues came into play. With my Laguna upper wheel adjustment is not critical at all.