Xxx Bs

[drift393]

Wow!! just bought a 14002 (even after reading all the posts) and after assembling this thing It is like a something that should be sold at an adult sex shop it vibrates that bad. I mounted it to a sheet of ply to reduce the vibration put it back together to see if that helped it helped a bit at least stoped it from moving on shut-down. Started getting mad so I opened the covers to balance the wheels. Holy aluminum re-moving!!!! somwhere around 16 holes in one wheel and 6 on another. If I find my camera I will add some pics but I can assure you there is not much aluminum left in one of the webbings. Still have a bit of vibration but it is alot better. It could pass the nickle test if the object of the test is to flip the nickle. Sorry for the rant but come on Ridgid no way did this pass Quality control. It skipped that stage of the process. First ridgid product I am disapointed in. I own a TS3650, the ridgid router combo kit a ridgid shop-vac and Ridgid outfeed supports. This tool well never mind I will stop at that. By the way long time lurker first time poster in the correct forum posted once in power tools instead of here. Some great info here.

[oldslowchevy]

instead of drilling hole in the wheels why don't poeple 1. return the saw for a replacement or get there money back? also why not add weight to the light side of the wheels? much like balancing the wheels of your car or truck. this way you will not void any warentty that you have.i think car rim weight might work if not there is something that would i am sure. this is just my 2 cents worth

[Woussko]

From all the posts on this forum about the Ridgid band saw and its troubles, there's no way I'll buy one and I'm having doubts if I would want one for free other than to play with and attempt to fix up. I think OSC has the right idea. Return defective items. As for adding weights, that's an idea, but be careful they don't fly off. Really though there is no good reason why a customer should have to balance parts that should have been at the factory.

Edited do to having some foul comments. I was in a bad mood thinking about nasty factory working conditions over in China.

[papadan]

My appologies, this comment uncalled for. Dan

[drift393]

Agree with you Papadan probably should have looked the route of adding weight to light side /hindsight. Disasembly,repackage, drive 20 miles, get a new one, drive 20 miles home, re-assemble...a drill sounded better. Not the point of the thread though point is quality control really sucked on this one.

[zenophus]

Oh Man.....

I had a similar experience when I first bought the Ridgid Bandsaw, however after spending 2 or 3 intensive hours learning how it functions and tuning it properly in addition to replacing some of the stock parts (nothing major, mind) it purrs like a kitten! Unfortunately, it takes alot of TLC to keep this thing up to snuff, but it's worth it once you do. No complaints from me!

[Bob D.]

instead of drilling hole in the wheels why don't poeple 1. return the saw for a replacement or get there money back? also why not add weight to the light side of the wheels? much like balancing the wheels of your car or truck. this way you will not void any warentty that you have.i think car rim weight might work if not there is something that would i am sure. this is just my 2 cents worth

As OSC said try adding weight. My old Craftsman BS (made by Emerson) came with weights added to the aluminum wheels. These weights were nothing special, they were just some clip-on speed nuts with the sheet metal clip like they use on cars. You can get them at the local hardware store or at a automotive store. Use two nuts per wheel not just one. You will have a hard time trying to balance it out using only one weight. Start by finding the light spot and placing an X there with a Sharpie so you will know where you started from, make future marks with pencil. Take two of the clip-on nuts and place them over this light spot. Now slide them out and away from each other equal distance from the light spot, maybe 10 or 15 degrees each to start. Now try spinning again (multiple spins, maybe 15 or more) and look for the light spot. each time you spin you need to note where it stopped by a method that will not add weight to the wheel. Do this at least 10 times, maybe more. Did it stay in the same place or did it move around the rim of the wheel? If the light spot is in the same place then bring the weights in closer together a little bit and try again. If the spot moved then you'll need to use lighter weights (smaller or different style clip-on nuts) and/or reposition them accordingly.

690

[drift393]

Thanks for the advice. I managed to get it usable even pass the nickle test through start-up run it for a few minutes and shut-down. like I said before I ended up taking alot of meat off of the wheels, put a piece of wood under the base, re-level the legs, place furniture sliders under the legs (so I can move it bit). Still have the stock blade on it talk about ruffles have ridges!! the blade needs to go asap but now that its been modified im starting to like it. how big of a difference would replacing the tires be? or should I let them run out a bit before swaping them out?

[papadan]

Why would so many people buy a stationary power tool and do so much work to it before being able to use it. A story got started then everyone jumps in with their experience on it. If I bought a piece of equipment with all those problems, it would go right back to the store, I would not modify it and replaced half the stock parts on it with aftermarket parts that will void the warrenty. Funny how Ridgid is unaware of all the wheel and tire problems that are reported here on the forums. If they had a real problem they would get a bunch of these saws back and be aware of it. The only issue they are aware of is a little vibration that is caused by the belt and pullies. They are in the process of replacing them with serpentene (flat) belts and pullies to correct this problem like they did with the 3650 when it first came out. I met and talked over several issues with someone from Ridgid and got the straight scoop. I guess it's really not any of my business, I have all gray lifetime warrented Ridgid tools in my shop and have not had any problems out of any of them. I just hate to see when maybe one person had a problem with something, then everyone has this problem and the Tool company gets slammed for no reason. Yo Ridgid, Sorry you have been subjected to this BS, I'm just glad 90% of your customers don't frequent forums sites like this.

[ironhat]

<snip> Still have the stock blade on it talk about ruffles have ridges!! the blade needs to go asap but now that its been modified im starting to like it. how big of a difference would replacing the tires be? or should I let them run out a bit before swaping them out?

The roughness of the blade is easily corrected with a sharpening stone lightly touched to the back edges while under power. Work the stone like you are trying to produce a rounded corner. Don't try to round the entire back. The weld is harder to correct so I only attempted to improve it. The tires are a judgement call on your part but why spend the money unless there's a clear need. My need was clear - it wouldn't stay on the wheel.
Later,
Chiz

[zenophus]

papadan....

1. Why would so many people buy a stationary power tool and do so much work to it before being able to use it.....If I bought a piece of equipment with all those problems, it would go right back to the store.

I could think of at least one reason:
A. You purchase a 200 lb. tool, drag it home in your car for 15 miles, then spend 4 hours assembling it. Then, you turn it on, it vibrates a little. Then, you spend 4 hours dis-assembling it, packing it up in the box the way it was (if you saved all the stuffing), then shove it back in your car, drive the fifteen miles, find a cart, wait in line at the returns counter, and MAYBE get an exchange because it is open. That versus spending a little time (3 hours) learning about the tool and having the intellectual satisfaction that you made it work properly. I would prefer the latter as long as the tool is not DAMAGED.

2. I would not modify it and replaced half the stock parts on it with aftermarket parts that will void the warrenty

A. I would hardly call a larger table, guide blocks, and a riser block aftermarket modificatios that would "void" the warranty.

3. I just hate to see when maybe one person had a problem with something, then everyone has this problem and the Tool company gets slammed for no reason.

A. I fail to see where the company is getting "slammed" in this thread. What I see is people offering constructive help to someone who, because of lack of experience or a understandable degree of anxiety, was unable to get the VERY EXPENSIVE tool they purchased to work properly. Really, if the product is damaged, that's one thing. If they modify it to the point that it voids the warranty, that's their problem. If it's a small matter of tweaking, then I don't see the problem at all (does no one own a computer?) But there are people here who have had similar experiences with certain tools and helping them get through thier frustrations should not be an indictment of the spirit of innovation and experimentation.

4. Yo Ridgid, Sorry you have been subjected to this BS, I'm just glad 90% of your customers don't frequent forums sites like this.

A. Wow.....got any Prozac?

[oldslowchevy]

i am going to give it another year or so for ridgid to update and fix this saw or i will just go with some one else. as much as i like ridgid tools i know that the band saw has some problems that will need to be fixed before i plunk my money. thank fully i don't"need" a ban saw now

[oldslowchevy]

papadan....

A. Wow.....got any Prozac?


hummmmmm here we gooooooo:p

[drift393]

OK I see this getting ugly fast so lets squash this thread. Read this whole post before adding to it as I see no need to add to it after this. I thank everyone who helped and gave great advice.

I did not wish to get into this but ... the main reason I did not take it back after assembling the BS and seing how poorly QC is simply this...

I returned from Iraq a little over a year ago while there I was hit by a steel cable placed across the road design to decapitate anyone in the gunner/vehicle commander seat. It caught me across the face and sliced me from above the eyebrow down to my other cheek. luckily it was a night mission so i placed my gogles around my neck so I could wear my night vision gogles. So after I managed to get the cable off my face it poped down to my neck where it hit my gogles and didnt sever my head. Luckily we were also going slow about 15 miles an hour. Unfortunatly my NVG's were tied to my frag vest with 550 cord as was standard practice in my unit. So after managing to free my neck from the steel cable it than got caught on the 550 cord and proceded to rip me backward form the turret. I managed to finally kick my driver in the head to get him to stop as my microphone was shatered when the cable hit. Thus my back and neck are pretty messed up and assembling and carying a 200lb machine is not on the top of my list. Second reason also while in Iraq during operation Phantom Fury when we cleared out Fallujah I was shot in the back of the elbow by a 7.62mm round again I was lucky as it was a through and through round and didnt rip muscle from bone but I havea piece of that round still stuck in the back of my elbow where the nerve for your funny bone is. This causes two of my fingers to go numb after use or in the cold such as turning a wrench assembling a crap saw.

So due to back beyond repair and few fingers that dont work right. Those are the two main reasons why I chose to modify my saw the way I did Papajohn your comments such as sheepshit etc are useless at best like someone once told me if your not part of the solution your part of the problem so thats where I put you part of the problem. I started this thread stating facts. You said you dont even own the orange version of the saw so I can not see how you have any relevant input or feedback. I like Ridgid alot but if a less than standard product is made from them I will voice my opinion FROM FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE!!!!! You said you have talked to the Ridgid folks well good tell them to look in this forum as I know they do, and if you think they dont take into acount what is said here you are sadly mistaken we are doing QC job for them.

Sorry everyone started getting pissed at the end excuse the rant

Ex
SGT Chrisman, Sean M
44th Engineer BN
2nd BCT

[VASandy]

Sgt Chrisman,

First of all, thank you for your service. As an American, I can't say enough good things about y'all that go out there and put your lives and limbs on the line for us. Thank you. It really does mean a lot to us, our country, that someone is there to do those things. It's not pretty, it's not nice, and it has to be done. Thank you.

Now...remember, these fellas have been around a while. We're generally a good sort...just kinda goofy sometimes. It's so difficult on forums to get your real meaning across. Don't worry about it, really.

An opinion of your experience does matter to Ridgid. I'm sure they pay attention and hopefully will do what can be done to fix these problems. It's surprising to me that the BS has so many problems. I have the TS3650, the DP15501, and the jointer jp16601. As well as the band saw. All Ridgid. I have to say, the other products are pretty fine for the dollar. I couldn't ask for a better TS for my money. The jointer is a real good buy, although I could wish for some better adjustments on it. No biggie there, it works great and I'm glad to have it. The drill press is actually a tremendously good tool imo. QC on the band saw is probably something they need to work on. I'd prefer it would be a little less of a vibrator. Even though your post had me thinkin maybe there was an upside to it's shaking!!! ;)

[papadan]

papadan....

1. Why would so many people buy a stationary power tool and do so much work to it before being able to use it.....If I bought a piece of equipment with all those problems, it would go right back to the store.

I could think of at least one reason:
A. You purchase a 200 lb. tool, drag it home in your car for 15 miles, then spend 4 hours assembling it. Then, you turn it on, it vibrates a little. Then, you spend 4 hours dis-assembling it, packing it up in the box the way it was (if you saved all the stuffing), then shove it back in your car, drive the fifteen miles, find a cart, wait in line at the returns counter, and MAYBE get an exchange because it is open. That versus spending a little time (3 hours) learning about the tool and having the intellectual satisfaction that you made it work properly. I would prefer the latter as long as the tool is not DAMAGED.

2. I would not modify it and replaced half the stock parts on it with aftermarket parts that will void the warrenty

A. I would hardly call a larger table, guide blocks, and a riser block aftermarket modificatios that would "void" the warranty.

3. I just hate to see when maybe one person had a problem with something, then everyone has this problem and the Tool company gets slammed for no reason.

A. I fail to see where the company is getting "slammed" in this thread. What I see is people offering constructive help to someone who, because of lack of experience or a understandable degree of anxiety, was unable to get the VERY EXPENSIVE tool they purchased to work properly. Really, if the product is damaged, that's one thing. If they modify it to the point that it voids the warranty, that's their problem. If it's a small matter of tweaking, then I don't see the problem at all (does no one own a computer?) But there are people here who have had similar experiences with certain tools and helping them get through thier frustrations should not be an indictment of the spirit of innovation and experimentation.

4. Yo Ridgid, Sorry you have been subjected to this BS, I'm just glad 90% of your customers don't frequent forums sites like this.

A. Wow.....got any Prozac? Zenophus, your talking upgrades with the table size, guides, and riser. I have a riser for mine too. The subject here is about the quality of the saw in general. Statements like they drilled so many holes in the wheels there isn't much left when tryin to balance them. A wheel drilled like that will end up breaking and warrenty wont cover it. A tire that wont stay on, I can believe that every so often there may be A, as in one, tire that may have been streched or damaged during installation at the factory. but to get a new tire from Ridgid and say it doesn't fit either is off base. My whole post is not aimed at any one person, there are many posts on this and other forums stating these same faults and they all seem to originate from here on this forum site. The wheels are cast all the same, if one is so far out of balance, they all are, and Ridgid would get most of them back, instead of everyone drilling out balance holes in them and automaticaly replacing the tires. All over the web, there are people who are being talked out of buying the Ridgid band saw because of these statements. people who have never even seen one in person are recommending not to buy them because of what they have heard on other web sites. This crap happens with a lot of products all the time. There is a line of tape measures called FastCap that Woodcraft sells. Several people have posted about how good they are. One person posted that his was 1/16th" off and that led to several pages of posts by people saying theirs was off by 1/16th also. None of these people took it back, they just kept them and adjust their measurements for the 16th. I have 2 different models and know of 5 other people who have these tapes and none of them are off at all, 2 of the best tapes I have ever owned. Next we have the Wixey digital angle gauge. Same senario, one person posted that theirs was off by 1/10 of a degree and then most of the same people that praised theirs are saying it is off by 1/10th but they just compinsate for it and use it anyway. Mine nor any of the people i know that have them is off at all. Lets try it this way, look for my new post under tools.

[TOD]

My BS1400 had wheels that were out of balance. I choose to balance them, the saw runs very smooth now. I did not sacrifice wheel integrity. I did have to drill several holes in each to get them in balance. I am still running it with the factory v belt set up with no problem there. My tires have never came off but do not run perfectly true. I feel for the price and tweaking I did it was a good buy. It would be nice though if Ridgid did correct the balance problem.

[oldslowchevy]

http://re3.mm-a1.yimg.com/image/2061625843 (http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fs earch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dstiring%2Bthe%2Bpot%26fr%3Dyf p-t-501%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3Dmss%26ei%3DUTF-8&w=292&h=280&imgurl=www.mdaa.org.au%2Fimages%2Fphotos%2F03%2Fco ok4.gif&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdaa.org.au%2Fgallery%2F03%2 Fcooking.html&size=53.9kB&name=cook4.gif&p=stiring+the+pot&type=gif&no=7&tt=39&oid=287af9f65dbb6a68&ei=UTF-8) i was just stirng the pot:eek:

[scrambler28]

As many problems as people have with these bandsaws I wish people would just take them back instead of buying $100 worth of after market parts just to make them work. I took mine back because it wouldn't hold tires on the wheels. If everyone returned them maybe Ridgid would get their head out of their arse and fix these things. I love my Ridgid jointer, but the bandsaws are the dog turd in the garden.

[Josh]

Just to let you guys know. This thread isnt going unheard by RIDGID. I have forwarded it off in a few directions within the organization.

Josh

[drift393]

Great, thanks Josh hope to get some kind of positive response back. As I hope Ridgid can fix the problems with the BS.

[zenophus]

I had originally sent this message to papadan in private but after further consideration I feel it would be just as relevant to the members who have read this thread. I really, really believe that this forum actually HELPS people a great deal and do not want to come across as a pariah just because I expressed my opinion in a moment of frustration. I sincerely and publicly apologize to everyone here....

"I wanted to email you privately and tender an apology particularly for my last comment responding to your post. It was out of line. I was only upset that someone as respected in this forum as you would get so angry. While I understand your frustration, I only meant to imply that as long as the tool is not damaged (I had meant to imply that drilling the wheels was NOT something I would do), that tweaking it was part of the experience of owning a tool. I am a scientist....I love to experiment and play with machines. I have MILLION DOLLAR mass spectrometers in my lab that I take apart and modify all the time and I relish the satisfaction of making it do something beyond its original specifications (not ENTIRELY relevant to the current post, but...). I also meant to imply, and I hope it came across as such, that my particular Band Saw is performing WONDERFULLY after tuning it. I just was hoping to convey that people should not automatically reject Ridgid’s product because it did not work right out of the box or because of what this or that person might have said about it.

Again, please accept my apology."

Zeno

[SWLigler]

Just to add more grist for the mill (or fuel to the fire as the case may be...), I'm a new member and found this forum when searching for a Herc-U-Lift for my new BS. I've been VERY pleased with my Ridgid tools and did not (shame on me) do much research before going with the Ridgid BS. I'm not new to woodworking, nor is this my first BS, but when I put the dang thing together and made all the adjustments, I found the very same vibration problems many of you have noted. Then, after about 3 minutes of run-time, the lower tire came off. I'm not thrilled with the overall construction/quality (strike three) and plan to take it apart tomorrow for a trip back to HD. :(

I'll probably go with a Grizz now, but would be happy to hear any thoughts/recommendations.

Steve

[Bob D.]

"Ridgid, Sorry you have been subjected to this BS"

Dan, RIDGID allows themselves to be subjected to this 'BS' as you call it because they don't squash the rumors when they start in my opinion. If they were more reactive to the problems posted here then the stories would die on the vine and not be propagated across the 'net to the point where they are out of control and affect their bottom line. But they choose to remain silent (at least that's the view from here), and that expands the problem.

Remember the TS-3650 arbor issue? Look how that got out of control. Finally, after what was it a couple weeks someone from RIDGID finally posted that they were working on the problem and offered direction to people who had issues to contact RIDGID. Once that happened the whole thing dies down. Just think what would have happened if they had responded in the first couple days once they had validated the problem. It would have been a non-issue, more correctly it COULD have been a PR triumph, but their thinking appears to be too short sighted for that to occur.

The forum is not the proper place to solve problems with consumer's tool problems, but someone dedicated to each major shop tool monitoring the forum for issues related to that tool could then contact the consumer outside of the forum or send them a PM asking them to contact them by phone or email to get the problem resolved. They may handle the problem themselves or hand you off to someone else, but you would get some attention and contact with a real person, not just a reply email with a copy of the manual in PDF format as someone one the forum stated they did recently. That's not CS, that's BS.

[Josh]

Guys... I am doing everything I can within my power to bring attention to your problems. If I could fix the problem myself I would.

Sorry for the problems with the saw.