Rikon 14" Deluxe Bandsaw

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  • Rikon 14" Deluxe Bandsaw

    My Shopsmith™ bandsaw that I purchased has served me faithfully for about 5 years, but the bearings had started to squeal like a banshee The 6 inch depth of cut under the blade for sawing out blanks had also become a bit limiting since acquiring the new Nova 16/24. I looked at a couple of options and asked the advice of some of the more experienced turners in the group. But, not having won the lottery and not having 3 phase power I had to pass on the 24 inch Laguna. Luckily the December sales flyer from Woodcraft featuring the Rikon bandsaw arrived about the same time the LOML added up the receipts from our last Holiday craft show and she asked was there anything I wanted to buy with some of our profits. What an easy decision.
    I called the Richmond store to see if they had the deluxe model in stock hoping that it would be an early Christmas present as well as being depreciable for the 2007 tax year, to my dismay they were sold out and doubted they would get more in before the New Year. Someone from the store called the 2nd week of January and I made plans to go pick up the saw on the 12th. I would need some help getting saw into the shop since it was 1 pound heavier than the Nova lathe and my son in town the following Sunday. When I got the lathe home I could stand to see it sitting in the back of the Explorer so I put some wheels under the box and wrestled it around to the back.
    The saw was extremely well packed – encased in t a rigid Styrofoam coffin. I got luck when I cut away the cardboard as the instructions were on top. I removed the cast iron table, the fence and the stand from the coffin hoping that I could reduce the weight enough to walk the remains down the two steps and into the shop. No dice, it was still too out of balance and sliding the Styrofoam coffin down the steps was abrading away the Styrofoam making it look like someone had murdered a bean bag chair in the backyard. I left the saw still wrapped in its grease and plastic sheeting sitting at the top of the steps while I went to assemble the stand. Instructions were quite good with none of the Sino babble one often sees when the engineer’s instructions are translated into English. I set the assembled base into the Shopfox rolling base that I purchased for the saw and ran into the first snag. The base of the saw needed to be shimmed up about ¾” so that door would clear the rails of the Shopfox base. No problem I thought,I’ll build some little corner pieces to shim saw up and fill the gap between the saw base and the Shopfox base ( maybe I’ll get around to it before the of the month).
    On Sunday my son and I moved the saw into the shop and hoisted the saw onto the base. The bolts holding the saw to the base are smaller than I would have expected (6mm). Now comes the tricky part: getting the nuts and washers onto the bolts from inside the base. The bolts hang down inside a ¾: wide channel that runs along the top of the front and rear panels. I finally ended up laminating the washers and the nut together with a drop of CA so I wouldn’t have to blindly juggle all the pieces trying to start the threads. I put on a disposable polypropylene glove just to make sure I didn’t attach myself to the inside of the saw’s base. Murphy did not appear and the saw and the base were successfully united.
    The table attachment and guide alignment were uneventful. The guide post did need to be adjusted to that it cleared the upper wheel when raised to its full height. About this time, the LOML came down to see how things were going and to see “first sawdust” off the new saw. I plugged it in, got out the firebottle out, set the fire watch and hit the switch – motor but no saw movement, the belt was off the pulley. After putting the belt on the font set of pulleys and setting the tension with the convenient tension adjustment wheel, we were ready for first dust. I sure did cut nicely and the saw was surprising quiet. I could actually hear the blade instead of the bearings. The saw shipped with a 3/4” blade; apparently the target market for this saw are those folks interested in resawing lumber more than wood turners.
    After having used the new saw for almost two weeks I can make of couple of observations. It is a terrific bandsaw. Dust collection is excellent when attached to a 650 ft3 system through the integral 4” port. The power switch looks like the magnetic switches that are normally found on shop machinery – but it’s just a plain old pushbutton. Kick out the power cord or trip a breaker while the saw is on and it will restart all by itself when connected back to the power source. I’ll probably replace the stock switch with a magnetic switch since I occasionally lose power and don’t have a master cut off for the shop. The work light is a welcome addition; but it is mounted on the back side of the cabinet on a fairly short gooseneck. All the light comes in from the left rear of the blade; I don’t know about you but I’d rather see where I’m going rather than where I’ve been. If you are using the fence for ripping narrow stock, the pencil line is guaranteed to be in the shadow cast by the fence. But, on the other hand I haven’t burned my forehead on the light’s hot reflector yet so I guess it’s a tradeoff. Hmm there’s a market – LED workights.
    Rikon makes two versions of a 14” bandsaw. The standard (model 10-320) has a 6” cutting capacity and a 1HP motor and the deluxe (model 10-325) a whopping 13” cutting capacity and a 1.5 HP motor. The 14” deluxe actually has a larger cutting capacity than the Rikon 18” bandsaw. That’s not the only discontinuity in the specs for the Rikon bandsaws; the voltage specs for the motors range from 110,115,120 to 220,230 – such is the global economy.
    There are a couple of other differences between the standard and the deluxe versions

    Standard
    Deluxe
    Wheel Material
    Aluminum
    Cast Iron
    Light
    No
    Yes
    Tension Quick Release
    No
    Yes
    Blade Length
    93.5
    111
    Guide Style
    Ball Bearing
    Micro Adjust Ball Bearing


    I’m glad I got Rikon Deluxe instead of getting an open frame bandsaw and going with a riser block. I’ve got enough horsepower that with the right blade I can saw the pith of a 12” long log by standing it on end or make some really big bandsaw boxes.
    Tags: Power Tools
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