RIKON Belt Sander Review - 1" x 30" belt / 6" disc sander 50-161VS

I got a Rikon variable speed belt sander for Christmas, so here is a little review of it, after a bout of COVID delayed things several weeks. 😝
The video is split into chapters, for those who like chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:09 - Unboxing
01:43 - Inspecting
03:49 - Assembling
05:16 - Making an Adapter
05:36 - Setup
06:04 - Trying Out
07:47 - First Thoughts
09:02 - Conclusion
10:52 - Ending
Music:
Sneaky Snitch
"Sneaky Snitch" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
incompetech.com/
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
#beltsander #Rikon #review

[@tonoosterhoff]

Nice video again. I'm looking for an oscillating belt and spindle sander for the smaller works. Any experience with that? It seems you painted your violin in that 3 week period?

[@SculptyWorks]

Thank you! Hehe, in the business we call it 'varnishing'. 'Painting' is for when you want to hide low quality wood on cheap instruments. 😉 But yes, that's violin #6, and it's almost finished! My experience with oscillating sanders of any kind is that they tend to be a bit on the pricy side, and I loved the time they saved me every time I used one, but never felt I needed them often enough to justify buying one. When I need that kind of sanding, I put a sanding drum on the drillpress. ...and then built a thing to deal with the dust that creates kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6e4YaqMfbp_bas 😊 I know WEN makes them, and the few tools I have from them have not disappointed me. Harbor Freight makes them too, and it looks like everybody is using the same molds, just painting their product a different color in the end.

[@kimstone7287]

Just got this sander myself, of course the dust ports are still the same as you described. Do you by chance know what size fittings you used to hook it all up? I was planning the almost the same as you.

[@SculptyWorks]

I actually don't remember the numbers; I did measure it when I was turning the PVC pipes in the lathe, but didn't commit to memory the sizes. I know I use the 2" pipes on my dust extraction setup, but they had to be adapted to fit.

[@robertmunguia250]

Would there be a way to replace that motor since it gets too hot? Oh How did you make that adapter? You have a machine lathe? How do I get one to fit it?

[@SculptyWorks]

The whole thing is sort of a 'unibody' type of construction, so I doubt replacing it would be practical. But it doesn't get hot to the point of being problematic. It's just something I noticed during operation, it warmed up quickly and stayed warm a long while after it was used.

[@christinashelby6083]

The main question should be, is it Ash-approved?? ☺ Glad you got over covid ok; it's hit our house for the first time, and we're all ok, too.

[@SculptyWorks]

Ash is Ok with it, but he excused himself early from the video because he had cat things to go do. 🐈 Glad to hear you're all Ok! COVID sucks! It hit like a mild flu, but I lost my senses of smell and taste and they're still not entirely back!

[@christinashelby6083]

Oh no! I hope you get smell and taste back fully really soon! It was basically just a really mild flu for us, too, and not even any fevers for me or our daughter. Probably the most difficult thing is trying to keep everyone separated in a house that is by no means big:-P

[@SculptyWorks]

@@christinashelby6083 I hear ya! They say to keep the pets and all away too, but how am I going to keep away two cats that go absolutely mad with separation anxiety if I close them outside of my room to sleep? The lack of smell has been the true bummer, though. Nevermind the impact it has on daily life, I was working on varnishing a violin and I can not smell alcohol or solvents! So I had to wear a respirator all the time to make sure the room wasn't filling up with fumes and I was all oblivious breathing them in.

[@christinashelby6083]

Haha, we have three cats ourselves, and I totally understand. We would never get any sleep if we had doors closed! As it was, I had two with me on the sofabed. They were warm, but it did make it hard to move around:-P Ooh, that's something I never would have even considered, smelling something like varnish. That's a little more important than smelling, say, the cats' litterboxes! Hope you can smell and taste again soon!

[@user-jq5rk1on8m]

I was trying to put on the belt sander table and there is a plastic piece that prohibits the adjustment knob from going in and I can's screw it in even using a Philips screw driver. the video doesn't really show hw to get this table screw to work

[@SculptyWorks]

I didn't run into this problem. Care to describe the issue you're having?

[@migo-migo9503]

Does the motor heat up really bad?

[@SculptyWorks]

I wouldn't say it heats up to the point of being a problem. But it gets noticeably warm. I've used it for relatively long periods of time and it got warm, but never to the point of worrying me.

[@migo-migo9503]

@@SculptyWorks thanks! That’s good to know.