Rikon 10" J/P Helical Cutter Initial Tool Review

[Scott Vigder]

Arrived today in great shape: R&L Carrier driver was very polite and helpful. I got it into my garage.

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The box did its job: no damage to the machine. Instruction manual & assembly tools logically placed on top of packaging when box opened. Overall Packaging grade: B+


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I wrestle the beast out of the box and lay it flat to install the legs. Everything was straightforward & fit well.

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Cleaning/degreasing took about 10 minutes...they did not go overboard!

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Planer bed very smooth and Johnson's Paste Wax makes it really shine.

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Quality Control Issue #1. The outfeed table has a casting crack underneath the front corner. The crack does not go all the way through. May or not be a big deal, I will call them and show them this pic.

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Quality Control Issue #2. The crank for the planer table hits the top of the chip ejector chute. I just do not see where there is any adjustment to the handle height to correct this. It just nicks the chute, but you can see it left a mark after only one use.I'll include this pic with my correspondence to Rikon.

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Final product installed on my $$cheap-o Rockler mobile base (it works great, by the way).

I was lucky...both beds required less than two minutes to align; the planer bed was spot-on and required no adjustment whatsoever. I would rate the process a solid B+ as the instructions were pretty easy to follow and the pics matched the copy. Machining for all the screw holes is very good. Castings in several places is sloppy, with burrs or scratches that could have been attended to but were not.

The fence is borderline pathetic. I don't know if it is the design, the execution, or both. I have a OneWay guage that is essentially a perfect square and it will now reside near the Rikon so I can use it to check the fence every time. Fortunately I rarely move the fence out of 90 degrees so I'll have to report back on this after it's been through some use.

I do like the euro-style cutter guard. It requires a little more attention than the pork chop, but you get the added bonus of it acting like a feather board for edge jointing.

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Speaking of edge jointing, here she is. Came out smooth with no ripples and square. This is my first helical cutter, and I was surprised at the consistency of the chips. Face-jointing with my Gripp-ers went very well.

I converted to the planer, which was pretty straight forward, and except for the nicking of the hood it worked well. Chip extraction is fair at best, but it wasn't that great on my aircraft carrier, either.

Bottom line: delivery, assembly and tuning went very well. Overall grade is B. Grade subject to change after a couple of projects are done.

[George Gyulatyan]

Quality Control Issue #2. The crank for the planer table hits the top of the chip ejector chute. I just do not see where there is any adjustment to the handle height to correct this. It just nicks the chute, but you can see it left a mark after only one use.I'll include this pic with my correspondence to Rikon.

Mine does the same thing.

Fence. Let's just say once I got it to sit at 90 degrees, I haven't moved it. Luckily once the angle is locked in, it remains that way even if you remove/reinstall the fence.

Glad your initial expressions are favorable and adjustments were easily achieved!

[Scott Vigder]

Thanks, George....I was a little gun shy after reading your comments. But I have to remind myself this is a hobby....