Since no one has responded, I'll chime in with the limited knowledge I have about the tool. I haven't used the tool, but I have examined it closely at the store.

For starters, it's not truly helical. The cutters are installed square to the cut. It does offer the benefit of four-sided cutters though, so there's no need to sharpen blades, and it'll be a long time before the carbide cutters will need to even be rotated to a fresh edge-and you get four of those.

It does suffer from the usual things that benchtop tools do, such as a relatively short bed (although it extends) and a less-than-rock-solid fence. You also have the same materials trade-off such as aluminum instead of iron or steel. The bottom line is that it won't be as solid a performer as a full size jointer.

For the most part though, if you feel that a tool that size fits your needs, it's a good choice. Plus, you get the benefit of an 8" wide cutting head.

 

Thanks Rich. Agree with your points across the board. I had looked at several other jointers starting at $1,500 but I'm on a tight budget and given what I'll be making (small boxes, etc) this should suffice. I.e., I won't be running lumber longer than perhaps six feet across it. If it doesn't work out then back to Rockler it goes and I'll have to get creative and come up with another grand. Hopefully it won't come down to that though.

Thanks for taking your time to share your input, greatly appreciated!

Best,

Lyman

 

For your needs, and given that there's a return option, I'd say go for it.

 

I have the Wahuda 8" bench top joiner. It looks identical to the Rikon in form. For what it's worth, I'm very happy with it, yes, it's not as stable as a full sized unit, but I have it mounted on a flip top table with my Dewalt 735 on the other side…small shop, what can I say. It's done everything I've asked of it, and the bed extensions work very well. I've run hardwood to about 6 feet in length with no additional support. Using small infeed and outfeed stands, I've put 8 foot pieces through with good results. I wish I had a huge shop and a full sized Powermatic joiner, but I don't….and I do ok without it!

 

The Rikon carbide inserts are only 2-sided not 4-sided like the Wahuda

 

The 4 sided cutters and cast iron tables are the reasons I bought the Wahuda. I have the 10 inch.

 

I'll chime in as I have the 8" Wahuda and while I haven't used it all that much I really like it. Most of my stuff isn't large. The 10" one wasn't out when I got mine or I probably would have gotten that. Many of the videos of the Wahua were about squaring it up and tuning it and such so I was concerned about the amount of effort I was going to have to put in but when I got it out of the box and assembled the fence, everything was dead on square.

I suspect the Rikon and the CueTech are probably from the same factory as the CueTech has the same 2 sided carbide blades.

 

I have found that technique is an important part of my 8" Wahuda. I learned that a light touch was best. And I second RyanGi, it is identical to my 8" wahuda.

Just so you know the wahuda ($549) has free shipping and a spiral cutterhead with 4 sided carbide tips. And if you are not in that state no taxes. So that would be 549 total. I had one tip chip the first week and they responded well and replaced it.

 

For your needs, and given that there s a return option, I d say go for it.

- Rich

Thanks again, Richard. We'll see how it pans out. Should be in next week.

Best,
Lyman

 

I have the Wahuda 8" bench top joiner. It looks identical to the Rikon in form. For what it's worth, I'm very happy with it, yes, it's not as stable as a full sized unit, but I have it mounted on a flip top table with my Dewalt 735 on the other side…small shop, what can I say. It's done everything I've asked of it, and the bed extensions work very well. I've run hardwood to about 6 feet in length with no additional support. Using small infeed and outfeed stands, I've put 8 foot pieces through with good results. I wish I had a huge shop and a full sized Powermatic joiner, but I don't….and I do ok without it!

- RyanGi

Thanks Ryan. Wish I could afford a full size Jointer as well but it is what it is, right? Being happy with it is what matters, bottom line!

Lyman

 

I ll chime in as I have the 8" Wahuda and while I haven t used it all that much I really like it. Most of my stuff isn t large. The 10" one wasn t out when I got mine or I probably would have gotten that. Many of the videos of the Wahua were about squaring it up and tuning it and such so I was concerned about the amount of effort I was going to have to put in but when I got it out of the box and assembled the fence, everything was dead on square.

I suspect the Rikon and the CueTech are probably from the same factory as the CueTech has the same 2 sided carbide blades.

- sepeck

Thanks for the input, Steve, greatly appreciated!

Lyman

 

I have found that technique is an important part of my 8" Wahuda. I learned that a light touch was best. And I second RyanGi, it is identical to my 8" wahuda.

Just so you know the wahuda ($549) has free shipping and a spiral cutterhead with 4 sided carbide tips. And if you are not in that state no taxes. So that would be 549 total. I had one tip chip the first week and they responded well and replaced it.

- OldBull

OldBull,

Thanks. I'm going to look into the Wahuda based on what you and others have said. Thanks for the input!

Lyman

 

I'll add. I have a Wahuda 13" planner as well. They had an issue with the shipment as I suspect a large portion arrived damaged. As a result they have suspended the product until they wort that out per the website.

Mine had the side panels damaged but from the pictures they said it should be technically fine and gave me two options. Send it back full refund or test it and if it worked they would send me replacement side panels. I was dubious but ran the test and it worked so I took the second option. Pretty happy with it as well. They expect to start selling in August timeframe.

 

I don't get Rikon's description of 6 rows with 16 cutters. The pictures I've seen show 2 cutters per row. Do some rows have more than 2 cutters on them?