Rikon 10-325 14" Saw set-up

[Tony Jones]

During December I placed an order for the Rikon 10-325 bandsaw when they were on sale. Sears had the lowest price and shipping to local store was free. Saw came in on Wednesday and I have been slowly getting this thing together. This is my first big boy band saw. My current saw is a toy compared to this thing (a small Craftsman 10" bench top). I have read online how poorly written the manual is for this saw. No Kidding!!! Somebody with no common sense and aptitude would never be able to get this together and set it up for use. I have found several sources on the internet to help with two or three questions, but this morning I was watching a youtube video by Alex Snodgrass from Carter demonstrating how to set up your saw. What I found interesting was how to set up the blade tracking. I had always thought that you should center the blade on the upper tire. His approach is to center the blades gullets on the center of the upper tire. The Rikon manual says to center the blade. Which is correct? If I center the gullets on the tire it seems to but too much stress on the "tension pointer" due to the movement of the wheel to obtain the proper tracking and bends it such that it comes off the short tab it rides upon. I have currently just removed that pointer to avoid this. What is the consensus for blade tracking?

Tony Jones

[joespehar]

I have that saw and also saw that information about riding the bottom of the gullets on the center of the tire. That works for me. I found that tension pointer to be useless. The little stub just pops out of place all the time. I do have a tension meter to check blade tension but hardly ever use it. I just crank up the blade and use the sideways deflection to gauge how tight it is. I try some cuts and fiddle with it a little until it cuts right.

[jteneyck]

The correct position of the blade on the upper wheel is the one that allows you to cut a straight line, parallel with the miter slot. On my 14" Delta that position is with the blade gullet pretty close to the center of the upper wheel, cut your saw may be different. One thing that was critical to getting my saw to cut straight was to adjust the wheels so that they were very close to coplaner. Snodgrass says this is unimportant, to which I say horse pucky. As long as you're in the process of setting up the saw it's at least worth checking if the wheels are parallel and close to in the same plane. Doesn't mean you have to adjust them if they aren't, but if they aren't and the saw won't cut straight no matter where you adjust the blade on the upper wheel, then you'll know where the problem most likely is.

Don't compromise on getting the saw to cut straight and parallel with the miter slot. It is a joy to use when it does, and a constant pain when it won't.

John

[fishhh4]

make sure to put some antiseize on the dissimilar metals . the blade bearing blocks in particular . had a heck of a time getting mine apart a couple years in.

[kurt18947]

I have the same saw. I center the blade and it works. Try it both ways and use the one that works best. The more you work with the saw the more comfortable you'll feel. For tensioning the technique I use may be unorthodox but it seems to work. I look up and left through the window in the top door at where the blade contacts the top wheel. With the saw running I adjust the tension wheel until the blade stops 'vibrating' plus about half a turn. It's a variation of Timberwolf's recommended tensioning procedure but I don't have to mess with blade guides. Others says tension it 'til it cries "uncle". Try more tension and less (just don't completely collapse the tension spring!) and see which works better.

I also replaced the blade guide bearings with Corian blocks. I was sceptical about the blocks rotating with just one screw through each one but so far so good. The bearings work well with blades wider than 1/4" but 1/4" or less there isn't much smooth metal on the blade for the bearing to ride one. I figure if blade teeth contact Corian it'll do less damage than contacting the steel on bearing races. Others have used oil soaked hardwood blocks for this purpose.

[gboot]

Tony,
I had a devil of a time with blade tracking when centering the blade on the wheel. When re-sawing the drift angle was way more than the adjustment in the fence could handle. I tried adjusting the lower wheel to be co-planar, not in the manual but there is instructions to do this that Rikon tech support will give u when asked. This didn't help the drift angle, I coped with it by shimming an auxiiallary wooden fence.
I saw the article that referenced centering the gullets on the wheel. I did this and also changed the 1/2 inch blade (forget about 3/4) from Timberwolf to the Woodslicer. Bingo - when resawing no need to adjust for drift blade tracks parallel to the fence.

[MikeinKCMO]

The outside surface of the wheels are slightly convex. This is done to keep the blade tracking wherever it is positioned on the wheel. Since the wheel is convex, if the blade is significantly to one or the other side of center it will not cut straight across the table, ie perpendicular to the edge of the table, but at a slight "off 90*" angle.

To demonstrate, set the tracking significantly off to one side or the other of center. Draw a straight line on a piece of scrap material, and freehand saw it following the line, and stop about half way through. The resulting "angle" of cut will be quite obvious.

I like keeping things square/plumb so I set the blade tracking accordingly. YMMV

Mike