RIKON 20-800H | 8 Benchtop Jointer with a 6-Row Helical-Style Cutter Head with 16 Carbide, 2-Edge

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RIKON 20-800H | 8 Benchtop Jointer with a 6-Row Helical-Style Cutter Head with 16 Carbide, 2-Edge Insert Cutters for Super Cutting Action, Flat Surfacing Results, and Easy Knife Changes

8” Benchtop Jointer 20-800H has a 6-row helical-style cutter head with 16 CARBIDE, 2-edge insert cutters for super cutting action, flat surfacing results, and easy knife changes. Table extensions expand the work surface from 30-1/2″ to 51-1/2″. Features rigid, all-metal construction, machined aluminum tables, a quick depth setting mechanism with scale, adjustable fence that tilts from 90° to 45° quickly and accurately, spring-loaded safety guard, 4″ & 2-1/2” dust ports, front safety on/off switch and two push blocks.

Review : IF You Can't Afford a $1500-$2000 Jointer, This is Good Enough

"I bought this jointer several months ago when Rikon first released the 8" version. At the time, some states were locking people down because of the pandemic so power tools started flying off the shelf. I could not find a jointer locally anywhere. There were a few at the big box stores but only cheap stuff. I wanted something semi-affordable but high quality, and this was the best available at the time. I was lucky enough to find it at a local dealer, but had to pay $600 for it.

Does it cut clean? Yes.... IF you tuned it well. It's REALLY, REALLY is a pain to tune this machine. There are two major aggravations in setting this up: leveling the tables and adjusting the fence. Be forewarned that these two things will steal hours from you and cause you a lot of frustration.

In order to level the tables, you have to remove 4 hex bolts. There are 8 hex bolts in total, 4 for each side. However, the hex bolts are not for adjustment but cover the adjustment sleeves. I call them adjustment sleeves because for whatever reason, the engineers over at Rikon decided to use these screw in sleeves instead of bolts or something else. The manual tells you to use a flathead screwdriver. However, the notches are wider than a regular flathead, but it still manages to work anyway. Second, no matter how hard you try, you won't know how the adjustments you made will turn out until you replace the bolts and tighten everything back down. This is due to the fact that the table sinks in a bit lower once you tighten the bolts. You can try to account for it, but it really throws you off. You have to keep a lot of constant pressure on the table with one hand while you make adjustments because it will not only come up but it will also slide to the side. Then, you can only make very small adjustments at a time. I'm not even talking about one full turn, a half turn, or even a quarter turn, but tiny little adjustments. This essentially means adjusting each of the 8 freaking knobs very slightly, one by one, replacing and retightening the bolts every single freaking time! If you do not tighten all the bolts, then the table will sink a bit after you made all of your adjustments - forcing you readjust. You must tighten the bolts all the way because they sink the table right at the point of where the bolts begin to feel tight. This is a frustration beyond end.

Second, the aluminum fence attaches to the fence assembly by a single, tiny, hollow, allen screw on one side of the assembly. The other side looks like it was designed for a duplicate screw but was left out. This is by design - and a crappy design at that because it leaves the assembly a bit lopsided. When you adjust the fence, there is no way to hold it in place while you tighten it. You have to either hold it steady or put something under it to keep it from falling down below the table line. Also, like the stupid top, at the very end where the lock knob begins to tighten, it causes the fence to shift forward. Therefore, you have to hold the fence and begin to tighten it a few degrees short of 90 so that it will end up square once you tighten it down. Again, you have to kind of anticipate more or less how the fence will shift and account for that before you try to lock in your setting.

Nevertheless, despite the stupid engineering and frustration of tuning this, you can achieve a fairly flat table and a fairly square fence. However, be very careful that you test it at different depths because sometimes you think the table is flat, but when you have to take very little or more material off on the cut, any discrepancy in the leveling of the table, extension arms with the blades will cause snipe, convex or concave cuts.

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