Anyone seen/have a rikon 25-010?

[yzf600]

I'm a new woodworker from Atlanta, GA. I'm basically in it to make my own furniture. I don't really have the space for a planer and a jointer, so I was looking at the Rikon 25-010 10" combo jointer planer. I've seen the JET models, but they are either out of my price range (~$2k) or seemingly too cheap ($300 desktop models). Does anyone have the Rikon? I'd really like to get some good info in it before I throw down $800 for it. You would think Rikon would bring it to the IWF here in Atlanta, but no, they didn't. I can't find it in any of the local wood stores either.

Thanks.

[Ben H]

That might be an omen. If it's not at a national WW show, why don't they want to show it off. I understand the lack of funds for the JET, but I'm sure it's a nice piece. Doesn't The Griz have a combo unit too? I was almost certain they did...

Here, they have several models. This one appears in your price range. Grizzly Combo Unit

Edited August 31, 2010 by Ben H

[wilburpan]

I have an older version of this machine. I like it a lot.

If I had to do it over again, I would certainly buy this machine again. In looking at the Rikon website, there are a few improvements to the 10" J/P combo that I see. First of all, the cutterhead now has three blades, which should lead to smoother cuts. Second, it looks like there are jacking screws added to the infeed and outfeed tables to help with the table alignment issue. I really wish I had these on my machine. My machine was 220V only, and the new version is 120/220V, but I would run it on a 220V circuit if I had a choice. The instruction book for the new machine that's available on Rikon's website is much nicer than the one I have. The crank to change the height of the planer bed looks like it's been moved to a more convenient location. The switch looks a little different, and the plastic is a different color, and that's all the differences that I can see with the new version.

This type of machine is very common to find in the U.K and Europe, which means that there are a lot of woodworkers using a 10" J/P combo -- just not in this country. Literally every single manufacturer that sells machinery over there has one of these machines in their line up, including Dewalt (!). It's as ubiquitous as Delta 14" bandsaw clones are here.

This thread should probably be moved to the General or Normite forum.