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For those that don't know I've been using a 14" Grizzly GO555 for several years now. Bought it new when they were under 400 dollars and freight was 39 dollars. Over the years I've been making changes to the saw here and there so I could resaw with it. Had some great success....and had some fantastic failures. You can resaw on a 14 inch saw and get good results, but eventually it's going to eat a piece of wood. When mine decided to eat a piece of wood, it happened to be my very best billet of Cocobolo. I nearly rolled the saw out into the street and ran it over with my truck.

So I sold it for 400 bucks...and purchased the Rikon 10-345 18" saw that was on sale this last month at Woodcraft for 999.00. I also purchased a 1" Woodmaster CT from Louis Iturra. In addition he was kind enough to add 4 feet of length to a 3/8th's 3/4 tpi carbide tipped blade I purchased from him a year ago. All for the new Rikon.

The saw comes in a tall crate and it's bolted to a subfloor in the crate so it's pretty stable. There's a big sign on the box that says, "DO NOT LAY FLAT!"....so I didn't. I loaded it up onto a flat bed trailer, anchored it, and drove it to the house. It was pretty easy to 'walk' off the trailer and right into the shop. Shipping weight is stated on the crate as 500 lbs. with a net weight of 389.

Assembly on this saw was minimal. Simply attach the table top (after you've removed the grease on it) to the already attached trunnion, add a few handles and you are ready. My fly wheels were in alignment with no detectable play in the bearings. You have to jam something (uhmw plastic is what I used) in between the tensioner assembly and the housing to stop that from moving first to do this. All nuts and bolts that were pre-installed were snug. Even the cheap blade that came with the saw was properly tracked on the fly wheel. Just as an aside I never used it - I took it off right away. That blade has grease all over it too.

I installed the 1" Woodmaster and only had to adjust the tracking slightly. Under tension this blade will deflect the frame a little but in my opinion, frame deflection with a blade like this one is almost inevitable. Does it track straight under tension and can you still line up the bearings effectively is what passes muster for me. This saw does that.

I didn't have any billets in the shop prepared for test but I did have an 8 inch wide piece of scrap white oak that I ran through the saw. Never bogged - never 'hopped' like the 14 did - and the feed rate was super fast. It kind of scared me a little really. The blade sneaks up on the push side of the billet pretty quickly.

The only cons I would mention are the following:
-The lower thrust bearing set screw is difficult to get to and adjust. A T-handle allen wrench will solve this. The set screw is located INSIDE the trunnion. If I remember correctly I think it's a different size than the other set screws too, but don't hold me to that. See the picture.
-The tool holder is mounted to the back side of the saw. Most adjustment are done from the front so it would have been better to mount it to the front.
-My saw packaging was sans lock washers for the trunnion bolts. Had to dig those out of my stash.
-Blade changes require you to remove the front fence rail. I like having the table blade slot in the front but I don't like removing the fence to change the blade. Can't have it both ways I guess.

Anyway - I really haven't gotten into it yet. I have more Cocobolo and some curly cherry and such but I have to prep them first. I think it will do fine.

In the end - I'm happy.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Hi Chris, How is the dust collection on the saw? I have the 14" rikon and it isn't real good. I end up with alot of sawdust on the floor around the saw. Also, how tall is the fence that comes with it? From the pics. it looks to be short for resawing.I had to add alot of height on mine to resaw correctly with mine.

Mark - the fence that came with the saw is somewhere in the 2.5 inch tall range. Certainly not what you'd use for resawing back sets. I'm making a separate resaw fence for this purpose. The single point bar that Rikon provides with the saw, in my opinion, is useless.

Todd you still happy? I'm ecstatic!

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Sorry Mark - I didn't answer that question.

I have two 4 inch hoses ducted to the machine. Since my frame of reference was the old Grizzly 14 (dust collection on that thing was an absolute nightmare), I have to say the dust collection on this machine is superb. There's an initial dusting of the table when the blade contacts the board but after that it's pretty good.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

I have the 18" Rikon as well.....I've had it for about a year.

I kept my 14 inch Jet instead of selling it. I had installed the riser and Carter guides, which improved the saw dramatically, but not enough for accurate resawing, thus the Rikon purchase. I've resawn probably 25 black walnut sets, plus a ton of other stuff. It is a great saw for the money, no question.

Speaking of dust collection, I have a cyclone capable of picking up both ports pretty painlessly. If you had a sub-par system, I'm sure there would be a problem or two.

How do you like your blade? So far I've bought my blades through Carbide.com, and they've treated me well, but I'm open to suggestions.

I would recommend to anyone the 18" Rikon.

Arnie,
I LOVE the blade (Woodmaster). Not cheap but then nothing that makes you cry only once is....... . Super fast feed rate. I have another carbide tipped blade to compare it to (the 3/8th's 3/4 tpi Tri-master). While the Tri-master's cut is baby butt smooth, the woodmaster is rougher, but not by so much as to lower it's rating. The Tri-master SHOULD cut smoother given it's variable tooth pattern.

When you want to hog through some wood and stand at the saw waiting 6 minutes to complete one cut....the Woodmaster has to be near the top of your list.

Chris

_________________
There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Todd,
I am almost 100 percent confident the kerf on the woodmaster ct is in the 50's....not at home right but will check when I get there.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Chris,
I have the same saw and have had mostly satisfactory results in re-sawing. Before you get into really tough stuff like cocobolo, ziricote, or other resinous woods let me suggest that you look at the throat clearance plate and see what it is made from. Mine was a hard plastic and while attempting to re-saw some cocobolo with a Lenox Trimaster CT blade, the saw bucked as the wood touched the blade applying tremendous downward force causing the billet to actually be pulled down at an angle through the throat plate. All this happened in a millisecond of course and as a result I spent several hours in thelocal hospital emergency room. I since replaced the throat plate with one made from 1/4" aluminum plate and have had no further issues.

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(alias: gasawdust)

Tom,
Mine is the black plastic you mention. Where'd you get the aluminum?

Chris via PDA

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Chris ,
Congrats the the new saw I helped a friend get one of those. We looked it over at the store. He got it home and I asked him how things were going. He said it was ok but he wasn't getting good results. I went to his house and turned on the saw. I thought "man this thing is running slow". I though I remembered it had two speeds. I told him to open his lower cover. Sure enough he had it on the slow speed. I changed his belts to the correct pulleys and told him it should do a little better now. He is happy now.

One thing that you might do and what I did for him was to make a couple of supports that run from the base platform part of the saw on a angle up to the body of the saw. I noticed a bit a flex (more than I liked to see) between the base and the body of the saw. I took steel bar I think it was 3/16" x 2"
and welded tabs on the ends. Two bolts through the tabs and bolted to the base and the lower body of the saw. Making a angle brace. These could also be welded as well. Bolting was more palatable to him. This really stiffen up the saw and reduced vibration. Big improvement I thought.
If you ever want to do that let me know if you need help.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Todd,
I measured the band at .035 (specs state same). Carbide tips are .053. So figure .55 for a final kerf.

Link if the deflection becomes an issue I'll certainly look you up....and yes....running the saw on the 3200 blade speed certainly makes a difference.

Thanks!

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Chris,
I made mine out of some 1/4" stock I had laying around. I rough cut it on my 14" Delta bandsaw and then filed it to fit. I never looked for a ready made after market product.

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(alias: gasawdust)

Tom did you drill any holes in the throat plate? Like the plastic one has?

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Actually Grizzly does include a reasaw fence with there 17INCH AND THERE 19INCH SAWS.As far as my dust collector, it has a 2hp motor and puts out 1,700 cfms.and works great with my Delta 18-36 drum sander so threre is no reason for the saw to put sawdust all around and on the base of that rikon saw.If the half plate shouldn't be there, why is it in the first place?

Mark one of the questions you asked above is why is the plate there in the first place.

I'd like to answer that question, and I'll state flat out...I've never owned one.

Ever driven a Winnebago? There's an unbelievably conspicuous sign up front that says not to leave the drivers seat while operating the vehicle. Why? Cuz some idiot got up to use the bathroom whilst driving...wrecked the daylights out of the RV....and then sued the pants off Winnebago.

Rikon probably put that plate there to keep people from sticking their hands up the port while the saw is running...thereby getting said hands perfectly mangled....and then suing the pants off Rikon for being an idiot.

...but I'm just guessing at this....

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Chris,
No holes just solid aluminium with a saw kerf for getting the blade in/out when changing it.

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(alias: gasawdust)

I been thinking about removing the restrictor plate on my 14" But wasn't sure if it gave extra support for ridgidity on the saw or not. My 4" port is half blocked off, so in reality it's only a 2" port as is. They should have put a small x in there instead to keep hands out if that is what they are worried about.They didn't have to totally block half the port like they did making it only a 2" port in reality.After all it was sold as having a 4" port right.

Not that it makes a whit of difference but the opening on a 4" pipe is 4 times the area of a 2" pipe so if it was half blocked, it would still be twice the size of a 2" port.