Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Power Tools). This thread is read-only.
Anybody know anything about them? My cousin says he’s going to repay some money I loaned him a while back. From what research I’ve done thus far, the Rikon and the Jet are the leading candidates.
https://www.rikontools.com/product/10-305
http://www.jettools.com/us/en/p/jwb-10-10-open-stand-bandsaw/714000
The Jet has significantly more power (1/2 HP vs. 1/3HP) but the Rikon gets glowing reviews online, where what little I find about the Jet is pretty much, “meh”.
The Jet is more expensive, but after you buy a stand for the Rikon, the gap closes considerably.
I’m having a hard time confirming, but I thought I read that the Jet comes with a miter, but the Rikon might not?
I honestly have no idea how I might use it… The only thing I know I have in front of me is replacing a curved picnic table bench made from 2x material, probably using cedar but a slight chance of using teak. My limited use of band saws in the past was in middle school shop class, so it was a big industrial saw, and pretty much all we used it for was cutting curves in 1″ pine. “Resawing! What’s that?” Now resawing seems like it might be something cool to try…
Thanks, fells!
Those are both good options I’m doing the same research but u might want to consider the wen 10in also.. Looks like the rikon but can resaw 6 in and its only 215 with a stand on amazon at the moment. I have decided to go bigger so that’s were my path lead me lol. Haven’t gotten it yet but have decided on a 14 in rikon
Once I get moved I’ll be looking at a Laguna 14″ (and the bigger Rikon)…
BK13 wrote:
41 minutes ago, BK13 said:Once I get moved I’ll be looking at a Laguna 14″ (and the bigger Rikon)…
Laguna looks very nice wish it was in my price range that would def be the one to get.. If resaw depth doesn’t matter as much I wouldn’t def get the rikon from the two you mentioned.
I have the Wen 9″ bench top. It gets the job done, and it was inexpensive …. Not the greatest, but Wen you are on a budget
it is perfect … it all depends on what you want to do with it……
I have a Metabo 1/2hp and it is crap. The only thing I can cut is balsa wood or something less than 1/4″. It would be definitely worth trying to get something with more power.
That surprises me that the Metabo would perform so poorly…
BK13 wrote:
51 minutes ago, BK13 said:That surprises me that the Metabo would perform so poorly…
I agree… I have not heard too much about Metabo in a negative light at all. To be honest, the few people I know that run that line just love it.
Ya sounds like a loose belt or something.. 1/2 hp should be plenty of power for a lot of different wood..
I know we haven’t been a lot of help but have u made up your mind or wondered around other options? It looks like I’m going with the wen because my budget won’t allow for a 800 dollar purchase lol
Dude, I have a 14″ Rikon. It’s a beast and it’s awesome. I used to have a 10″ Craftsman. Piece of garbage. I tried a small bandsaw box project in it and it came out like crap. I’d say save your pennies and get a 14″. You can find them on CL all the time and normally for a decent if not negotiable price. Bandsaws are kind of funny. You want to get one, but the 10-11″ models are the ones we gravitate towards. Seriously, I’d wait. If not, I have a few Rikon tools in ,y shop and they are ALL quality tools. I love them.
BK13 wrote:
18 hours ago, BK13 said:That surprises me that the Metabo would perform so poorly…
FrosBros82 wrote:
17 hours ago, FrosBros82 said:I agree… I have not heard too much about Metabo in a negative light at all. To be honest, the few people I know that run that line just love it.
I thought the same.
Jscott wrote:
9 hours ago, Jscott said:Ya sounds like a loose belt or something.. 1/2 hp should be plenty of power for a lot of different wood..
I have tried tensioning the belt but that does’t seem to have helped.
I might look at getting a coarser belt in the future.
rbacon705 wrote:
1 hour ago, rbacon705 said:I have tried tensioning the belt but that does’t seem to have helped.
I might look at getting a coarser belt in the future.
Wow that’s crazy… Ya that might help
Jscott wrote:
20 hours ago, Jscott said:I know we haven’t been a lot of help but have u made up your mind or wondered around other options? It looks like I’m going with the wen because my budget won’t allow for a 800 dollar purchase lol
This is the one I have … so far so good.
just check the set screw and key on the motor pulley, mine came loose ….
it is definitely not an $800 saw but it works for me
with any bandsaw I would look at grizzly
smitty9118 wrote:
7 hours ago, smitty9118 said:with any bandsaw I would look at grizzly
Grizzly has nice stuff but to get the resaw depth that you get from a rikon it cost more to go grizzly. And rikon looks like better quality overall
Oh Great!
Now I want a Bandsaw.
redmed wrote:
3 hours ago, redmed said:Oh Great!
Now I want a Bandsaw.
Bandsaws are good for lots of things def worth purchasing one