Which rikon would you buy?

[bobs64ford352]

You're a hobby woodworking that sometimes wants to resaw, sometimes wants to cut bowl blanks and will just do all around typical cuts a hobby shop would do. You find yourself with a choice of the 10-326 deluxe 14" saw for $799 or for $100 more (sale on top of a sale) you can have the 10-345 18" saw. Both are brand new and assembled. The 14" allows smaller blades and tighter cutting, with a little more resaw capacity and the 18" gives you more throat capacity and a little more power. I'm leaning towards the 14" due to the tool less adjustments and you don't have to remove the fence to change blades.
He also has the green version of the 10-370 for $1200, which I guess just gives you a variable speed feature.

I have until next week to decide, so I thought I'd get your opinions.

14"
18"

Bob

[Wild Turkey]

Unless you're planning on a LOT of small radius cuts to me there's no question -- bigger is much better!

The 18" is 220v and twice the horsepower. If you are planning on resawing much that will really pay off.

[AHill]

The size of the saw has nothing to do with tighter radius cuts - that's the blade, not the saw. Shorter blades for the 14" saw are cheaper, which to me, is the ONLY advantage of the 14" over the 18" saw. Get the 18". You'll never regret it. There's nothing an 14" saw can do that the 18" can't, but there are lot of things an 18" saw can do that a 14" can't.

I have a 14" Jet with riser and I can't tell you how many times I've wanted a more powerful saw cutting bowl blanks.

[Wild Turkey]

AHill said:

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The size of the saw has nothing to do with tighter radius cuts - that's the blade, not the saw.

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IIRC the specs say the 14" can take a 3/16" blade, the 18" min is a 3/8".

But how often do we pay any attention to the "specs"

[AHill]

I spoke without reading the specs.

14":
Resaw Height 13"
Min Blade Width: 3/16"
Max Blade Width: 3/4"
Two Speeds

18"
Resaw Height: 12"
Min Blade width: 1/4"
Max Blade Width: 1-1/4"
Two Speeds

Given the specs between the two, I'd still opt for the 18" machine. The resaw height advantage is only 1". The advantage of a larger (1-1/4") blade on the 18" outweighs the smaller blade capacity, IMO. Especially if you plan on resawing. The min blade advantage for the 14" machine is a mere 1/16" smaller. Having an extra 3/4 HP on the 18" is a big deal. The smaller machine will need a lot of extra time to deal with full height resaw ops compared to the 18".

Wild Turkey said:

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[blockquote]AHill said:

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The size of the saw has nothing to do with tighter radius cuts - that's the blade, not the saw.

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IIRC the specs say the 14" can take a 3/16" blade, the 18" min is a 3/8".

But how often do we pay any attention to the "specs"

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[/blockquote]

[JR1]

I've used a friend's 325 quite a bit and it can be slow going on tough wood. The 14' advantages are : 14' resaw, smaller overall size, possibly less electrical hassle. The big advantages of the 18' is more powe and two speeds at the cost of less resaw, more space and potentually more electrical hassle.

[Tapper]

I've had the 10-340 (18") for 12+ years now and like it. Picked up a vintage Walker Turner later for smaller jobs and tight curves. As someone said earlier, "bigger is definitely better!"

Doug

[ken in fallbrook]

More power is always a better choice in my opinion, especially when resawing. I have the 18" saw your looking at I bought it last year. After running it and getting a good blade it's a good tool. I leave mine set up for resawing. I've been cutting 2/16" veneers off of 11" wide Walnut for the last few weeks, cuts like a dream

[Steve N]

Ages old reasoning. You can do small work on a big tool, but can't do big work on a small one.

True, not true? That call is yours to make, but for 900 bux you would be getting a saw that is retail at 1700. Can you say flip it if you don't like it

Amazoo

[Tim J. Chase]

I recently purchased the 10-341 similar 18" saw only one speed at 1000.00 thru a price match. I spoke with rikon and they said there will be an upgrade available to tooless guide adjustments for the 18" saws this summer as well as a new improved resaw fence. Mine is 2hp 13" resaw new blade cuts like butter thru wet spalted maple bowl blanks. slightly different than the 10-345 1/2hp less.
So far so good and I'm keeping my 14" Delta with riser set up with a small blade and the rikon for bowl blanks for resaw or bowl blanks.