I am interested in hearing from others who have purchased this piece of equipment.
After owning this “Deluxe Band Saw” now for about 3 months let me give you my feedback on this product.
I made the decision to purchase this Brand/Model based on a few factors. First was the that the products are designed by woodworkers. Second was FWW Editors pick. Third was some of the features: resaw capacity, horse power, mechanics, bearing guides.
I read about other brands in this same price range and read many reviews.
Now I feel like I bought a low quality band saw, let me tell you why.
• First is the rip fence an absolutely worthless item on this machine. It’s impossible to adjust and does not move freely like a rip fence should, just poor design.
• Second the construction is poor I have to remove the entire table along with the trunion
because of defects in the body of this machine it does not sit level.
•Third the bearing guide adjust dials under the table don’t seem to work properly and are
difficult to turn in such a tiny area.
• Forth the goose neck light is weak and won’t stay in most positions.
• Fifth dust extraction is poor, the dust extraction port is blocked by the design, weird.
• Overall poor quality, bolt holes did not line up, instructions and diagrams are confusing/incomplete.
• I have spent more time fooling with this than I care to.
From my understanding and from what I have read most of these come from the same factory, they look the same except for paint and logos. So why is it they vary so much in quality?
Replies
From my understanding and from what I have read most of these come from the same factory, they look the same except for paint and logos. So why is it they vary so much in quality?.. salvaged
Because the distributing manufacturer has the option to make changes to the basic factory design coming down the assembly line as stock. The fewer changes they make, the cheaper their delivery price. Some machines get changed by a respective brand... some don't. You determine which category you fall into with your machine.
After careful examination... I chose the Steel City 18" because they made a number to customized changes and I ended up with a well designed and ship-shape BS. So... IMO each machine has to be compared to competitors to see if indeed it is the same or if changes for the good have been made.
When shopping 20' planers I discovered that very few changes were made on any of the brands and all were basically the same except the asking price. A few modifications on PM and Steel City, but not enough to warrant the difference in $1049 I paid for a York-craft and $1900 for a PM which has 4 speeds but a shorter table. Go figure.. I suppose PM was hoping I would pay the extra $850 so I could have their name boldly displayed on the side.
My rule of thumb is... don't assume anything. Go look at the machines and make a comparison to see "what is" and "what isn't" then compare the asking price to determine if it is warranted or the manufacturer is just "banking" on their name an assumed that "there's an *ss for every seat"! ha.. ha... ha..ha..ha..
Regards...
Sarge.. jt
Edited 5/16/2007 10:03 pm ET by SARGEgrinder47
Edited 5/16/2007 10:05 pm ET by SARGEgrinder47
Salvaged,
I have also had the Rikon 10-325 Deluxe 14" bandsaw for about 3 months and am very happy with mine. Maybe yours came off the assembly on a Friday afternoon or a Monday morning. I have not had any significant quality issues.
First is the rip fence an absolutely worthless item on this machine. It's impossible to adjust and does not move freely like a rip fence should, just poor design. I have no problem with the rip fence. It adjusts okay and sets up solid. Granted it is no Besiemeyer (sp) but it serves its purpose. There was a little "widgie" that fit between the locking screw and the rail that kept falling out when I removed the rail. I just left it out and lock directly on the rail. Works fine and isn't scarring the rail.
Second the construction is poor I have to remove the entire table along with the trunion because of defects in the body of this machine it does not sit level. I had no problem getting the table to set level when I set up my machine.
Third the bearing guide adjust dials under the table don't seem to work properly and are difficult to turn in such a tiny area. The dials work but they only adjust the location of the bearing carriage and the rear bearing. I wish there were dials for the side bearings. You just have to shove them in place and lock them down. Not ideal but it works. I did run into a problem with the upper bearings that I will touch on later.
Forth the goose neck light is weak and won't stay in most positions. Yeah, it is on the flimsy side. I have pretty good lighting in the shop and don't use it much.
Fifth dust extraction is poor, the dust extraction port is blocked by the design, weird. The "baffle" in front of the dust extraction port had me baffled too. It looks like the port is blocked off but it is not. There is a gap under the baffle. Apparently it controls where the air flows. It actually works quite good. I just ran a bunch of maple through the saw this morning and there was only about a teaspoon of sawdust in the corners of the bottom compartment.
Overall poor quality, bolt holes did not line up, instructions and diagrams are confusing/incomplete. Like I said - no problem on overall quality, no problem with bolt holes. But I agree with you wholeheartedly on the instructions and diagrams. They suck more than my dust collector does. The printed copy with the machine was missing several lines in significant places. The on-line copy was complete but it appeared to have been written by someone who had never put one of the machines together. Several steps were in the wrong order and I wound up with pieces left over. I finally located them in the parts diagram and figured out where they went. When I called the help desk to confirm the parts location and complain about the instructions the attitude was kind of "ho-hum."
I did have a problem with the upper guide bearing carriage. It would not slide back and forth properly until I worked on the carriage way with a file. Not a significant problem but it shouldn't have happened.
Overall I am still very happy with bandsaw.
Good luck, George
You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing. - Michael Pritchard
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