Thoughts on Rikon

[Greg Haggard]

I had the good fortune to work on a Rikon 70-3040 for a while and appreciated the features it offers. As happens often when I am newer to something, I set my heart on this as The lathe I ultimately hope to own.
Then I noticed how many mentions there are of Powermatic, Jet and others on this forum, and am wondering if I need to broaden my horizons.

My desired goal in the future is to turn drums, roughly 14-15" diameter x 24-26" long from solid heartwood, boring through the pith. This machine has a 3 hp motor, and a bed that would easily accommodate the size and heavy-duty head stock bearings.

Any opinions on why to consider one vs another for this end use would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lyle Jamieson]

You get what you pay for in the lathe marketplace. I believe the Robust is the best, but some are close. A few thousand more and you can get the best lathe in the world. Not only the lathe but the service and made in USA are important to me.

 

[Ross Berning]

I have the 3040 and enjoy it with no real complaints. I’ve contacted Rikon a few times with questions and one issue, each time they were responsive and helpful.

The only material comment I have about the lathe is with the sliding bed there are more spaces for shavings to accumulate. When turning green wood it takes a few extra moments to get the damp shavings out with air, vacuum, and a stick.

Is this my ‘forever’ lathe? Possibly, Robust is just down the highway…

 

[Richard Coers]

To turn drums, I would think a sliding head and a metal lathe style cross slide would be at the top of your list. Boring out a log to make a drum is likely the hardest and most labor intensive way they can be done. It’s my opinion you don’t need a Robust to make drums and you can take the money you save to create the tooling and boring bar to make those drums. I’m still crazy about my OneWay, and consider the Canadians as the original inventor of that style of machine. Using a triangular bed instead of a tube is not a major innovation. Also considering the number of companies that stole the live center they invented.

 

[Greg Haggard]

My inspiration:

View: https://youtu.be/8cljLnNNOwg?si=z5TaMVVEvpTLt1qf

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Another option would be stave construction, which would decrease the amount of shavings.

After doing a dry fit you can see where a joint may not fit right so this is a method to make a very minute correction to the angle.

After all the joints have been checked it is just a mater to add glue.

 

[Greg Haggard]

Staves work well for drums that have either straight sides or continuous curves from top to bottom. Not sure how well it would work for a goblet shape. I have had several people suggest I make it in 2 parts, the bowl as one and the foot as the other and join them in the center. This might work, although I think some resonance might be lost at the break and glue joint.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

This might work, although I think some resonance might be lost at the break and glue joint.

I had wondered if the species would make a difference in the resonance especially with something like cottonwood.

 

[Greg Haggard]

Being in New England, I will probably use maple as it is everywhere around here. There are some very prominent drum makers who work with maple because of its brightness and resonance. Probably more drum kit and snare drum, but why not African drums?