radial arm saw

[Doozer]

I see quite a few of these for sale at a decent price used on craigslist, but to be honest, im not sure if there is really a good reason to have one. I have a decent sliding miter saw, other than that is there really any benefit to one of these?

Just wanted to see how many people have ane and do you use it often?

[Vic]

I see quite a few of these for sale at a decent price used on craigslist, but to be honest, im not sure if there is really a good reason to have one. I have a decent sliding miter saw, other than that is there really any benefit to one of these?

Just wanted to see how many people have ane and do you use it often?

Not that I know. I have one that actually belongs to my best friend that has an open invitation to use the shop. He has a couple tools here, but has never come and tuned the RAS. I hate the things. Scary!

[Dylder]

I have one that I use to crosscut rough dimension when milling lumber down for a project. I don't use it at all for final dimensions. You could use a sliding miter saw for that, but I wouldn't waste a really good miter blade. I picked my current craftsman ras up on craigslist for about $50, it came with some extra stuff I sold for $60 on ebay & craiglist, gotta love the internet.

dw

[minorhero]

I see quite a few of these for sale at a decent price used on craigslist, but to be honest, im not sure if there is really a good reason to have one. I have a decent sliding miter saw, other than that is there really any benefit to one of these?

Just wanted to see how many people have ane and do you use it often?

Depending on the RAS and the quality of the table, a RAS can be significantly more accurate then most sliding miter saws. They also tend to be significantly cheaper and usually have a larger capacity. They excel at making small repeated cuts, like carving out a dado using a regular blade. The only other thing a RAS can do that a sliding miter saw can not (practically speaking anyway) is turn the entire blade parallel to the table. This is extremely useful for making tenons, especially on larger pieces of stock like table legs (or framing a timber frame barn as in this example).

If you do decide to take the plunge on a RAS then here are some things you should look for, 1) don't buy it if it says craftsman, seriously they are all junk. 2) Look for a solid cast iron arm on the saw. Anything that looks like a metal frame with sheet metal covering is also junk. 3) Most folk tend to say that a DeWalt RAS were some of the best around. They made a lot of the suckers to so it shouldn't be too hard to find one. 4) If you do buy an older RAS (or any older machine) be prepared to do some work on it. At the very least you will probably want to replace the bearings in the motor and make a new table. A table made from a single piece of just about anything is not going to be worth much in the long run since it will get cut up and eventually sag.

Hope that helps.

[bullson]

i think it is one of those cases where it could be a good tool in the right hand there was one of the dewalt RAS at my high school, it kind of took away the need for a mitre saw and table saw, v sa v cross cuts and ripping board..... but as with many compound machine like RAS and jointer/planer machine, they alway seem to take far more time to set up than they should compared to there seperate counter parts eg mitre saw and table saw

[Lawrence Brown]

I thought the same way for years. I thought they were the scariest things under the sun. Then one day I found a really nice old Delta at an estate sale for $40 that for some reason didn't scare me, so I took it home.

I'll tell ya, there's not much I use it for, but there's one thing that made it pay for itself, and that was doing rabbets in long boards, like for bookshelves. (I saw Norm do this, which was why I picked it up) I was making some 8-foot shelves with permanent spacing, so I wanted to rabbet the shelves into the sides (I think that's the right term). It was so easy just laying those boards down and running across them with a dado set in the radial arm. No way I was going to try that on a table saw. A router would have worked, but I wasn't looking forward to all that fuss. With the radial arm I could just cut, slide, cut, slide, done.

Now, you wanna talk about scary, mine was made in the '50s and came with some attacments that I wouldn't go near. I think they were trying to compete with shopsmith or something. Uncovered flycutters, jointing heads, shape cutters; anything that could be attached to the motor. The book that came with it is hilarious and harkens back to the days when men were men and safety guards were for wussies. "Dangerous spinning blade of death? Well, don't stick your hand in it!" It has illustrations like how to do a long rip in a piece of plywood by tilting the blade horizontal and moving it to the end of the table, then pushing the plywood through vertically with no support. Just one guy shoving it through from the end! I bet that ended well

Anyway, I think I'm saying you'll know when you need one, and when you do it's because you can't find a better way to do something, but don't get one and then try to find a use for it. It'll mostly just collect dust. Watch a few episodes of Norm. That should tell you whether it'll be useful to you or not.

[PeteJr]

I have an 50's Delta given to me by a friend, It's an awesome looking machine, weighs a ton and frankly I'm afraid to turn it on. I've heard many stories about injuries.

Not that said the comments here have convinced me to try it on a few dado cuts but I don't see it ever being an essential tool in my shop.

[mdbuilder]

I picked up a 1956 Dewalt 3/4 hp, 9" blade MBF last summer. I love the thing! Easiest and most accurate 90 degree cross cuts in the house and it is a dadoing wonder for anything up to about 13" wide.

[nateswoodworks]

I have one and I use it all the time for cross cutting and have made a ton of jigs for it that makes it very usefull in my shop. It is a love hate relationship, I personally fall on the love side.

Nate