Rikon, Where have you been all my life?

Well why didn’t you post the picture. Curious minds want to know.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

cheers on the new saw!

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Good for you Jeff – happy that you got your “dream” saw – enjoy. Post some pics when you have a project. Wouldn’t mind some photos of that saw and if you can, the saw in your Mustang.

-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/

celebration time!!

re: folding the blade. We struggled with instructions and finally just hung them up “as is” until the Wood Whisperer demonstrated how to do it… Pshaw WAY too easy.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Enjoy the toy Jeff. You will have to do a review in a month or so after you have it fully checked out.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Yes Debbie, I just watched Marc’s demo on coiling the blade. His style was the same as the guys at WoodZone (plug) that showed me. He actually said that one of the companies that sells some of the huge blades has it coiled into 6 loops when packaged. Neither of us could figure that out in the few minutes we tried. Word to the wise, wear gloves and long pants! I’m at work, but I’ll get some pics of the saw and transportation pics tonight.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Nice find Jeff. It sounds like you got a great bargain, as well as a nice tool. We are looking forward to hearing of your adventures. I wonder if we will be seeing bandsaw boxes soon?

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Yes. . . band saw boxes! But Bill, I just looked at your site and didn’t see any band saw boxes there. What’s with that? Donna

-- "So much wood. . .so little time!"

Jeff:
Glad you gave WoodZone Karl a plug. I’ve bought a good bit of stuff from Woodzone and am probably going to get a Rikon bandsaw from there. At 3/4 hp, my Ridgid ain’t gettin it done. Karl, his wife and the whole crew have been good to me. He’s got some pretty good classes going also although I haven’t been able to attend any. Ok, well I guess I just gave him a plug. www.woodzone.com

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

You didn’t take a picture of it in the Mustang? What were you thinking? I know…you couldn’t wait another second to get it in the shop and make some dust, right? I’d like to hear more as you get some time with the saw.

-- Jesus is Lord!

Congrats, Jeff, Nothing like a new toy especially a band saw. Have fun!!

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Hey Os, No I didn’t take the picture myself. As Carl mentioned earlier, I got it locally from Woodzone.com which opened their first physical retail store here in SC this past year. Woodzone Karl, and the other staff there have filled a major void in this area. There were only a couple places to get the more common items. Most of those are geared towards construction and framing. It was nice to get a dedicated WWing store. Their competitor here just partnered with Rockler and added about a 1000 SF of Rockler Merchandise. Yes Carl, I’ve heard through the grapevine that the classes are popular, especially turning. Good to see another SC WWer on LJ’s. I hope you get the Rikon. I’ve put very little mileage on mine and have found it as the hype declared thus far. I found that adding casters to the predrilled base holes sacrifices a lot of stability. I went back and framed a mobile base around the saw and it solved the top heavy issue. I poured a 50lb of leveling sand and about another 50lb’s of fragments from some heavy paving stones that had been broken. I do have to move it reguarly away from the wall for long stock, so I couldn’t do without the mobility.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Well, let me put it this way. I’m going to get the Rikon, it’s just a question of when and how to sneak it under the wife’s radar. ( Not really, she’s pretty good about tool purchases. I just have to get her something at the same time. lol )Sounds like you’ve got your stability and mobility under control. The Rikon is a really well engineered piece of equipment. I’m sure it will serve you well. Nice chatting with you.

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

Jeff, Thank you for the great review. I just sold my old Shopsmith bandsaw w/power base and it’s time to get a “REAL” bandsaw. The Rikon is high on my list. Your review really helps in my decision.

-- Russ - Bloomingdale, IL

Hope you can get some pictures soon Jeff.

No Donna, I have not tried bandsaw boxes yet. Right now I am concentrating my efforts on furniture, with a few small items as time permits. Maybe in the future I will try it.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Congrats on your new saw. I am sure you will enjoy it.

I picked up a Rikon 18 in saw last year, and have been very happy with it. I have done resaws on 10” hard maple without even breaking a sweat.

Enjoy!

-- JT - "It only costs a nickle more to go first class!"

Congratulations on your new toy, Jeff
I just bought the same machine back in March. Man, do I ever like it.

I’ve had an old Taiwanese machine for many years, but I figured I owed myself a new saw, So I did a lot of research, & decided on the Rikon.

Like you mentioned, the saw comes with about the lousiest manual, for such a nice piece of machinery. I called Rikon right after I got it, & they said they were working on a new manual. They’ve been kind of slow, because I haven’t seen a new edition yet.

Here’s some pictures of some of the saws features I like.

I like the large highly finished cast iron table, & an excellent fence.

The heavy cast iron wheels run very smooth. The inertia in the wheels allow it to coast almost 30 seconds after shutting down. That helps with the power with heavy work loads.

The windows for tension adjustment, & centering the blade are also good features.

Blade check window.

There’s one thing I discovered with the dust collector port. It has a steel baffle welded about 1/2” in front of the hole. It stops the air flow, & it did a poor job of sucking away the dust.
I called Rikon ,& they said it was a safety feature specified by OSHA, to prevent getting fingers in the wheel spokes. I suggested drilling holes in the plate would allow air flow, & he agreed with me. He said he’d pass it on to his engineers.

This is the dust port with the holes drilled in the baffle.

Internal view.

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Hey Jeff,

I also bought one of these saws when Woodcraft had their sale, but haven’t assembled it yet.
I was wondering if you had any pics of the mobile base you built for yours.

-- Randall Fisher, Grand Haven, MI

Hey Randall, I’ll take a pic tomorrow of the base. The picture won’t show much of what I did though. The base isn’t a typical square 4 caster base. I made a frame aroung the bottom a little under 2.5”s higher than where the saw meets the floors. On the outfeed side, I mounted (4) 2” casters that hang just above the floor. All I need to do is slightly tilt the saw to move it like a dolley or handtruck. When its not tilted, the casters clear the floor so no brakes need to be engaged or disengaged. I normally put a handle on the tool to help tilt it, but the saw has plenty of places to hold. My drill press and router table have handles. I fastened angle iron at all joints to be sure the dimensional pine wouldn’t fail. I filled the bottom part of the saw cabinet with a broken paver stone and some leveling sand I needed to get rid of. I estimate that it added 100lb’s to the saw. I have the extra blades and accessories on the top part of the base.

-- Jeff, South Carolina