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Rikon 8" 1-hp grinder, thoughts?

S

Steve Tiedman

Joined
Oct 25, 2020
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Minneapolis, MN
I may add another grinder along with my 20-year-old Baldor 7' slow speed grinder. As much as I'd love to get an 8" slow speed Baldor, I'm priced out of that market anymore.

For owners of the 1-hp Rikon 8" slow speed grinder, what are your thoughts and experiences (good and bad)? I'm not interested in the 1/2hp machine. Thanks.
 
The light can be made slightly better by swapping in a bigger bulb. Adding a real task light is a much better solution. Other than that, outfitted with CBN wheels and the platform/jig of your choice it works perfectly, as far as I can determine. I've used Baldor grinders and see absolutely no evidence that they get my tools any sharper. Perhaps they last 50 or 100 years in use rather than 20 or 30 but there's no discernible difference in performance, and I've reached the point where either is going to outlive me by a good margin. The factory work supports on all of them are a joke, not even very good for sharpening lawn mower blades, thankfully there are good aftermarket solutions for turners. Really cheap grinders can have nasty bearings and runout, which is bad. The rikons I've used are free from vibration and spin quite happily. At least with aluminum CBN wheels they've got plenty of power to spin them up quickly. I've never used a grinder of any sort for hogging off metal so I don't know how they'd perform under a heavy load.

I've had the 1 hp for about a decade and added a 1/2hp found on a very cheap sale for tasks like mower blades. Both of them are much nicer to use than the 6" sears high speed grinder that got me through the first 30 years of woodworking.
 
Steve Tiedman said:
For owners of the 1-hp Rikon 8" slow speed grinder, what are your thoughts and experiences
Click to expand...

It should be fine.

I have only 6 bench grinders. Poor pitiful me. (My favorite is a Metabo in my welding shop, my second favorite is the old No-Name grinder Woodcraft used to sell) I bought two smaller 1/2 speed Rikon grinders, gave one with CBN wheels to a friend/student. My 1-hp Rikon is good but I use it with traditional grinding wheels and not for lathe tools.

I personally think the the 1/2 hp slow speed bench grinders are perfect for sharpening lathe tools IF you use aluminum CBN wheels. I don't have any of the heavy steel CBN wheels but in the past some have said two 8" steel wheels on a 1/2 hp were a little too much for it. No problem with the aluminum. The 1-hp sould be fine for anything.

Yes, the stupid little light is worthless (at least on the model I bought some years ago). I changed the bulb. My final solution was to take it off and mount a real light somewhere. My elderly eyes like the bright supernova lights with magnetic bases from woodturners wonders, combined with some other lights at different angles. If I don't have something steel to stick the light magnet to I either mount a steel plate on the plywood wall behind the lathe or at the lathe, remove the magnet and drill and tap a hole somewhere to thread the flexible neck into.

One thing - the cast iron frame of all 3 of the Rikons I've bought have been slightly warped and wouldn't sit on a flat surface without rocking a bit. Someone else told me theirs were like that too. I simply ground a little off one foot. I bolt all my grinders along with the aligned wolverine bases to a square of 3/4" plywood so I can pick up and move the whole thing elsewhere if needed, for example to a demo.

JKJ
 
I have 2 steel CBN wheels on my 1/2 hp Rikon. It works, but it is a little slow to start up. I'm using it with a foot switch so just a quick touch up is done at an even slower speed. I really don't care how long it takes to get up to speed.

I had to look up my order to confirm it's the 1/2 hp model. It's gone up quite a bit in 10 years.
 
I picked up the 1hp Rikon for $199 during the holidays to set up as a second grinder and so far I’ve been very happy with it. Two cbn wheels spin up fast. The light is ok but I’ll probably add a separate light or try Rogers suggestion of changing out the bulb.

No regrets. Just wish I had bought it the first time.
 
Good, thanks for all the replies.

This grinder would be a want for me, not a need. My Baldor is working as well today as on day 1. I also still have my first grinder, a 1995-purchase 6" 3600rpm Milwaukee from back when they were subbed out to Wissota here in my home town area. Sadly, those days are gone, too. Wissota's only remaining product- ice skate grinders, a tool they've built since the 1940s.
wissota.com

About Us - Wissota Skate Sharpeners

Wissota Skate Sharpeners has been manufacturing American Made Skate Sharpening Machines and accessories since 1946. Learn more about our company here.
wissota.com wissota.com
 
I have 2 Baldor grinders and 2 of the 1 hp Rikon grinders. The first Rikon I got, I had to grind a bunch off of 2 of the feet to get it to sit level on some plywood, the casting was really that bad. Not a problem on the second one. They do go on sale, and I would buy at the sale time. The lamp is worthless, as are the platforms/tool rests. Fitting an 8 inch CBN wheel on is no problem, but the outside cover has to stay off. Can't remember, but there were some set screw things on the motor side that were threaded, and I think I needed to file them down. I may have used the helical washers from Woodturner's Wonders to space the wheels far enough out so they didn't rub. Running 2 CBN wheels, they come up to speed in the same time as my Baldor grinders. They do run pretty smooth. The biggest difference is that when I turn the grinder off, the wheels run for a long time with the Rikon, and they are off on the Baldor in seconds. I did have one of the blue no name grinders from Woodcraft years ago, but sold it. I do not think it would have handled the CBN wheels without a "Power assist" to start them up. The Baldor is overall a far better grinder, but the Rikon ain't bad.

robo hippy
 
Steve Tiedman said:
Good, thanks for all the replies.

This grinder would be a want for me, not a need. My Baldor is working as well today as on day 1. I also still have my first grinder, a 1995-purchase 6" 3600rpm Milwaukee from back when they were subbed out to Wissota here in my home town area. Sadly, those days are gone, too. Wissota's only remaining product- ice skate grinders, a tool they've built since the 1940s.
wissota.com

About Us - Wissota Skate Sharpeners

Wissota Skate Sharpeners has been manufacturing American Made Skate Sharpening Machines and accessories since 1946. Learn more about our company here.
wissota.com wissota.com
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Interesting ... my first "real" grinder was a 7" 3600 rpm Wissota purchased in 1990 from Russ Zimmerman in Vermont ... anyone remember him? I never heard of the Wissota brand - surprised that they made grinders for all those other companies. Served me well all those years (and still use occasionally) until I bought my Rikon in 2018 to use my 8" CBN's.
 
Steve, the feedback on the Rikon 1hp has been pretty favorable on the forum over the years. However, you're kind of set up for disappointment, as you'll inevitably start the comparison with the Baldor. The Rikon works satisfactorily for woodturners, but it's also not a Baldor.
 
Dean Center said:
Steve, the feedback on the Rikon 1hp has been pretty favorable on the forum over the years. However, you're kind of set up for disappointment, as you'll inevitably start the comparison with the Baldor. The Rikon works satisfactorily for woodturners, but it's also not a Baldor.
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Oh, I won't disagree there. But when you see a $1200 price tag... and that's without your favorite wheels.
I will still recommend Baldor over anything else, every time, but one needs to be prepared for the investment. 20 years ago I went with the 7" Baldor due to the big price jump to 8" which I could not stretch to afford. Today, I have a hard time justifying an 8" Baldor in my mind when the 7" is serving me well. But 7" leaves few wheel choices, either in stone or CBN. (I do have a 7" 180 grit CBN installed.) Certainly if a turner amortizes the cost over a long period of time (10 years, 20 years... it's gonna last a lifetime), then the price is palatable.

I just went looking for my 7" Baldor. Tough to find, and it's now about the same price as the 8".

Pfft! Who am I kidding?! I have no need for an 8" grinder of any brand. The 7" Baldor is flawless, I just need to shut up and be happy with it. That said, if I didn't already have the 7" Baldor, I'd likely buy the 8" Baldor, knowing it will outlive me.
 
I have the 1 hp Rikon. Attached light is garbage. I have 2 LED magnetic lamps from Woodturner Wonders, works fine. The 1 hp rikon works well at present with 2 cbn wheels, comes up to speed fast.
 

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I have both the 1/2 and thee 1hp Rikon. The 1/2 is 12 years old and continues to meet my need . I purchased the 1 hp 5 years ago and add two additional CBN wheels grits. Like someone else mentioned the light are the best but I didn’t buy the grinder because of the light.
 
I have the 1/2 hp Rikon. Only issue, and I’m not sure if it’s the grinder or the CBN wheels, is it takes some fiddling to get the wheels to run true even with the spherical washers from WTW. Either the shaft is slightly undersized or the hole in the wheels is slightly over. I can get them to .005” runout. Good enough, but I’d like them closer.

I have been drooling over the Tradesman DC. About $1k with 2 wheels. Variable speed. Like JKJ I use a very fine wheel for sharpening (1,000) and sometimes if I’m not careful I can blue the edge. Would be nice to turn down for sharpening and up for shaping.
 
Mike Novak said:
I have the 1/2 hp Rikon. Only issue, and I’m not sure if it’s the grinder or the CBN wheels, is it takes some fiddling to get the wheels to run true even with the spherical washers from WTW. Either the shaft is slightly undersized or the hole in the wheels is slightly over. I can get them to .005” runout. Good enough, but I’d like them closer.
Click to expand...
I have 2 of these, same issue. I think it's because the shoulder on the arbor is really tiny so there's not much surface for the wheel to register on.
 
I have a 1hp Rikon with 2 CBN wheels from WoodTurnersWonders that I got in 2017. Works great, but wanted some more grit choices and had a few bucks in the tool budget so my xmas present to myself was a variable speed Tradesman DC. I looked at it for a long long time not sure if it was worth the eye watering price.

After using it I can say for me it is like my Robust AB lathe - expensive because it is so well built and after using it I can say it is worth every penny I paid for it. Absolutely awesome machine. I use Tormek jigs and in some instances a wheel that rotates away helps keep the jig registered on the support bar. You can do that with the Tormek grinder by re-locating the support bar but that is not possible with an 8" grinder. I chose to have the Tradesman with the reverse option and that combined with variable speed has made sharpening whatever a lot more controllable and precise.
 
Mike Novak said:
Would be nice to turn down for sharpening and up for shaping.
Click to expand...
That is something I've thought about. To the point I've wondered if picking up a used 6" high speed grinder for shaping might not be worth it. It would mean storing another tool, but that might be a trade off worth looking at. Additionally, I wouldn't be looking at cbn wheels for shaping,i think.

Gregory
 
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