One of the magazines beside my chair at home has a review, I think it was of 14 inch bandsaws. I remember that they rated the better Grizzly model as the best buy. I do not remember which was their top tool. I think it was a Wood magazine review.
Rikon get good reviews. They are welded up sheet metal saws, not cast like a Grizzly or the traditional Delta. You cannot put in a riser on a welded up saw (at least not by bolting it in). You thus do not have the ability to buy a 6 inch depth of cut and later easily make it 12 inch. Otherwise, I see no reason to have a strong preference, it is more how well it is made than the method of construction.
With respect to power, it may make more difference what blade you are using than how many hp is in the motor. I have another article somewhere in my pile where a very experienced bandsaw user says that 1/2 hp is enough for 12 inch deep cuts as long as you use a sharp 3 tpi blade. My current bandsaw is a "gilbuilt" wooden saw (metal wheels and assorted other parts) and has a 1/2 hp motor. It is limited to about 6 inch depth of cut but does that OK with it's little motor. I am also interested in an upgrade but I am not worried about the motor size. I also have the luxury of a 1 hp motor sitting around un-used, however. If you run on 110V, a 20 amp circuit is going to limit you to something on the order of a 1.5hp motor or smaller but for a bandsaw, that should easily be sufficient. If you start pushing on a bandsaw blade for higher feed rate, nothing good happens regardless of your motor size. If you move the wood at a rate the blade is happy with, you don't need a huge motor.
Jim
