Rikon 8" 1-hp grinder, thoughts?

[Steve Tiedman]

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.

 

[Tom Gall]

I've had mine for over 6 years. No problems ... works fine. The little included light is pretty much useless. I added a metal plate to the top of the grinder and use a swivel light with a magnetic base.

 

[Roger Wiegand]

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.

 

[Tom Lucas]

I have the Rikon and it works flawlessly. I see no point in spending more.

 

[John K Jordan]

For owners of the 1-hp Rikon 8" slow speed grinder, what are your thoughts and experiences

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

 

[Darryl Fective]

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.

 

[Josh Mandell]

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.

 

[Dave Hulett]

replace a Delta variable speed that died after 6 years with a Rikon. Works great highly reccommend.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

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.

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

 

[robo hippy]

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