Any Reviews of the new Rikon 14" Bandsaw Model 10-350?

Wood magazine did a review of several bandsaws and the Rikon was only second to the comparable Laguna. The Rikon did win for performance vs price point across the board.

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Robert, I think he is talking about the NEW Rikon 14” saw. I don’t think they are consumers hands yet, but should be in the next week or two. Just based on paper I can’t see it overshadowing the Laguna LT14SUV when it is priced $200 higher with the same HP. The SUV owns every comparo it has been in and has Laguna guides…

Thanks for the comments and thoughts. I did read the Wood review, but as @AHuxley pointed out, there is a new Rikon model coming out soon that I was referring to. I’ve considered the LT14SUV, but have been concerned about their reputation in terms of post-sale support. People either seem to be ok with it or claim that it is extremely bad – very few raves and many rants. Any experience with their post-sale support?

I have dealt with Laguna for years, I have owned 3 of their Italian saws and still own a smaller LT18, I have used their guides on several non-Laguna saws and they are my favorite for all around use, I absolutely love their Resaw King, it is the best resaw blade available in widths for vertical bandsaws. I have had no issues with CS with them but I have only had 3 issues but were all handled the way I would have expected. IMO Laguna’s CS issues can be linked to having delt only in mid to high end Euro machines and when they jumped into the Asian machine market they were unprepared for the CS issues that came up. If you read a bunch of forums each has their own take and flavor for Laguna, IME Laguna has been great.

The other thing about the LT14 SUV is it is in a LOT of hands, plenty of great reviews on them on most of the forums, very little negative. Further, there are now lots of retail outlets where they can be bought so you have the retailer to help with any CS issues. Woodcraft, Rockler and Toolnut are three. IMO the SUV is the best engineered 14” bandsaw on the market especially if your goal is resawing. I will be interested in looking at the Rikon if I can see it soon or at IWF in August at the latest. Thus far the Rikon bandsaws have represented good value, particularly when they are on sale but the Laguna with their guides and the bigger motor stock along with what I have seen and what others report just seems like a no-brainer. The only issue seems to be Laguna’s post sale service, it hasn’t been a problem for me and I haven’t seen any issues with the SUV specifically so I wouldn’t have an issue with buying one if I had a need (with 6 bandsaws need doesn’t often come up) I would not hesitate to buy one, others opinions will vary.

@AHuxley, thanks for the detailed reply. I will definitely be interested to see what the feature vs. price comparison is when the new Rikon comes out. I understand Powermatic will also be coming up with a new line to compete directly against Rikon in that sweet spot (<$1500), but maybe not until later in the year. We’ll see, but the competition is good as I anticipate we’ll see more options with more features for comparable prices soon.

You could just up the budget and get a Hammer N4400, it is Austrian built and the best bandsaw IMHO in the under $2,000 range and it has a 4hp motor. Felder is also a company I trust more for CS than Laguna or Rikon.

Actually I’ve been looking at that machine as well, given the promotion they have ongoing. It looks very similar to the Laguna Italian models (the mobility kits is identical). Decisions, decisions…

Johnson bar mobility kits are the norm on small shop euro machines. ACM used to make all of Felder’s bandsaws, now Felder has started to move some of their BS line inhouse. ACM makes the current crop of Laguna Italian saws so it makes sense their are a lot of similarities. Then again ACM, Agazzani and Cantauro are all located within just a few miles of each other in Northern Italy so the parts contractors probably overlap to a significant extent, not to say there still aren’t significant differences but there are a lot of similarities in the Italian saws the same as a lot of the Asian saws. If you feel like spending the coin the N4400 will not disappoint IMHO.