Well I am about 99% sure I am going to upgrade to the Rikon 18"er. Does it
come with a blade? I suspect that I will get a 1 to 1.5" one for resawing
but I was curious if I needed to buy a blade right away to get started.

Thanks.

I am impressed with the design of the Rikon... wish I still had a
chance to consider one, but I already have the Jet 18" and I very
satisfied. I think the Rikon is currently the best choice for a
bandsaw.

In my opinion, the choice of blade is as important as the bandsaw
itself. Sure a cheap blade will work, but I am much happier with the
quieter, smoother, buttery operation of a quality blade. I'm sure
there are many quality blades available, but I am happy with PS WOOD /
timberwolf blades, so I haven't tried many others. They work well at
low tension and have milled teeth and the thinner blades can make turns
like a scrollsaw. Make sure whatever you choose has milled teeth... I
think that makes all the difference.

http://www.pswood.com/home.php?cat=47

If you or anyone else knows of a better bandsaw blade, please let us
know.

Alan Lilly

You should probably buy a blade. The ones that come with a new purchase
are notorious for poor quality. Them bandsaws are on special this
month at Woodcraft. Tom

"panofish" wrote in message
oups.com...
I am impressed with the design of the Rikon... wish I still had a
chance to consider one, but I already have the Jet 18" and I very
satisfied. I think the Rikon is currently the best choice for a
bandsaw.


I'll be buying sight unseen. Apparently the local Woodcraft is selling them
faster than the time it takes to set one up for dispaly. I did get a good
look at the 14"er though and was impressed that fit and finish and features
were the best I have seen. I do have 3 major Jet tools and am extremely
happy with them but the Rikon gets my vote this time.



In my opinion, the choice of blade is as important as the bandsaw
itself. Sure a cheap blade will work, but I am much happier with the
quieter, smoother, buttery operation of a quality blade. I'm sure
there are many quality blades available, but I am happy with PS WOOD /
timberwolf blades, so I haven't tried many others. They work well at
low tension and have milled teeth and the thinner blades can make turns
like a scrollsaw. Make sure whatever you choose has milled teeth... I
think that makes all the difference.

http://www.pswood.com/home.php?cat=47


Thank you for the info Alan Lilly. I was hoping to use the blade that comes
with it, providing one does, to cut fire wood to length for my smoker. Not
a lot of need for a quality blade in that instance. Besides that, I had
planned on buying Timberwolf for the wood that I don't plan to burn. ;~)

"tom" wrote in message
oups.com...
You should probably buy a blade. The ones that come with a new purchase
are notorious for poor quality. Them bandsaws are on special this
month at Woodcraft. Tom


That's my plan, as I mentioned to panofish, the stock blade would be used
for cutting firewood into smaller pieces. And I do plan to order the saw
before the sale ends.

On Sat, 05 Nov 2005 23:12:52 GMT, "Leon"
wrote:

Well I am about 99% sure I am going to upgrade to the Rikon 18"er. Does it
come with a blade? I suspect that I will get a 1 to 1.5" one for resawing
but I was curious if I needed to buy a blade right away to get started.

Thanks.

Mine came with a 5/8, 4TPI blade that I used for setup and then
replaced with some Timberwolf and a Woodslicer blades.

It's a very nice saw that works well.

The tension adjustment is a little quirky in that the tension goes up
linearly with the tightening wheel but seems to stay tensioned as you
back off. I don't use the flutter method (I have a tension gauge) so
maybe this isn't a problem when it's running.

Try it, you'll like it. $899 this month at Woodcraft.

TWS

"TWS" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 05 Nov 2005 23:12:52 GMT, "Leon"
wrote:

Mine came with a 5/8, 4TPI blade that I used for setup and then
replaced with some Timberwolf and a Woodslicer blades.


Thank you, that was the info that I was looking for.

"Leon" wrote in message
m...
Well I am about 99% sure I am going to upgrade to the Rikon 18"er. Does
it come with a blade? I suspect that I will get a 1 to 1.5" one for
resawing but I was curious if I needed to buy a blade right away to get
started.

Thanks.

Mine came with a damaged blade so I can't comment on the quality. The lower
blade guard had been pushed into the blade creasing/kinking it. I couldn't
get the bend out so just bought a 1" timberwolf blade. Problem with the 1"
blade is that the roller bearing mount won't allow the bearings to be
adjusted forward enough w/o hitting the back of the blade....unless I'm not
seeing something correctly.

Gary

I tried the previous version of Woodslicer blade from Highland
hardware the required HIGH tension and got better results than Delta
blade the read about PS low tension blades made by Suffolk and
switched to them as source and have never looked back.

On Sun, 06 Nov 2005 16:13:32 GMT, "Leon"
wrote:


"TWS" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 05 Nov 2005 23:12:52 GMT, "Leon"
wrote:

Mine came with a 5/8, 4TPI blade that I used for setup and then
replaced with some Timberwolf and a Woodslicer blades.


Thank you, that was the info that I was looking for.

On Sun, 06 Nov 2005 11:24:52 -0800, nospambob
wrote:

I tried the previous version of Woodslicer blade from Highland
hardware the required HIGH tension and got better results than Delta
blade the read about PS low tension blades made by Suffolk and
switched to them as source and have never looked back.

I'm promised a telephone call from BC Saw tomorrow. After that I will
report on what I think of them and their blades.

Leon wrote:
: Well I am about 99% sure I am going to upgrade to the Rikon 18"er. Does it
: come with a blade? I suspect that I will get a 1 to 1.5" one for resawing
: but I was curious if I needed to buy a blade right away to get started.
Has anyone done a comparison of the Rikon vs. the (much more expensive)
16-18" saws from MiniMax and Laguna?

-- Andy Barss

Andy:

Has anyone done a comparison of the Rikon vs. the (much more expensive)
16-18" saws from MiniMax and Laguna?


I believe either American Woodworker or FWW has done a review of
the upper-end saws like the MiniMax and Laguna. Rikon, if my memory
serves me right, wasn't included because it looked at only high-cost
machines (over $1200).

The best from what I hear from different owners is an Aggazzi
but at $2k it looks like it's out of my range. I'm seriously thinking
about the Rikon - just have to figure out what to tell SWMBO.

MJ Wallace

On 7 Nov 2005 11:04:20 -0800, wrote:

The best from what I hear from different owners is an Aggazzi
but at $2k it looks like it's out of my range. I'm seriously thinking
about the Rikon - just have to figure out what to tell SWMBO.

I'm telling mine I saved us $100.

- Matt

Andrew Barss wrote:
Has anyone done a comparison of the Rikon vs. the (much more expensive)
16-18" saws from MiniMax and Laguna?


The original Fine Woodworking article that convinced me to buy the Rikon
compared it with the Laguna. The Laguna was listed as the best overall. The
Rikon was listed as the best buy (out of 8 or 9 other 18" bandsaws). Given that
the Laguna cost almost three times as much, it wasn't a tough choice for me.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE