Radial Arm Saw

[Jack Burgess]

Have chop-saw out of box but have not used it yet - having second thoughts about it being able to replace the radial arm saw. I was use to the radial arm to cut 1x12's for my doll house basic design. Have not seen radial arm saws in stores or in of the major home improvement stores. Any one have comment about one or the other having more uses and versitility

Jack

[Myk Rian]

Any one have comment about one or the other having more uses and versitility

Jack
The RAS is more versatile. A chop saw does just that, and nothing more.
A RAS can be used to mold, rout, rip, crosscut, the list goes on.

[David Winer]

[QUOTE=Jack Burgess;... Any one have comment about one or the other having more uses and versitility

Jack[/QUOTE]
There was a lengthy exchange of posts on this subject recently. I thought the thread was an excellent summary of opinions, many favoring the radial arm saw as still a very good tool to have and use. Check the "Search" routine.

[Louis Brandt]

I really like my radial arm saw, but I don't rip on it, and even though I have a molding head set for it, I don't do that either.

[Chip Lindley]

A big heavy-duty RAS is worth it's weight in gold! My Delta and Rockwell hold their settings perfectly. But chop saws are the thing to take on-site for finish work.

[Erik Christensen]

While the RAS & SCMS have the same basic functionality they are best used in different ways. As Chip points out the SCMS is portable and the best thing for on-site work. The SCMS is much easier to change angle for trim cuts – left 45 then right 45 then left 45… when framing doors & windows – it takes maybe a second or two to swing it from side to side but the RAS more like 30 seconds – crank blade up, swing the arm over, crank blade down to the right depth & if it is a new angle carefully lower it while running into the sacrificial top and through the fence. What a pain. On the other hand if you need to cut a truck load of 2x6’s the RAS rocks – leave it and the DC running, keep hands out of the way and just pull the saw – much easier than the often awkward motion of most CS & SCMS. Plus you need to cut a 2x12 or 4x8 you will find it easily done in a single pass on the RAS.

I have a 12” Delta RAS & SCMS & use both all the time - it just depends on what I am doing.

[Myk Rian]

but the RAS more like 30 seconds – crank blade up, swing the arm over, crank blade down to the right depth & if it is a new angle carefully lower it while running into the sacrificial top and through the fence. What a pain.
A RAS with a proper table requires none of that.
You unlock the arm, swing it over, lock the arm.
Why do you have to crank it up and down?

The table on a RAS is designed with the fence in front of the blade, with the carriage all the way to the column. There should be absolutely no need to adjust the height when changing angles.

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad222/MykRian/DeWalt%20MBF%20RAS/0423001512a.jpg

[Dave Cav]

I have a restored DeWalt MBF kind of like Myk's (ok, exactly like his except mine is green...). If you can find one of these (or a 925) and clean it up you should be very happy with it. No comparison to a contemporary RAS. I see MBCs and MBFs on CL here all the time from free to $100. Of course if you have the room and can find one of the bigger 12 or 14" round arm
DeWalt saws, that's even better.

[Loren Hedahl]

A RAS with a proper table requires none of that.
You unlock the arm, swing it over, lock the arm.
Why do you have to crank it up and down?

The table on a RAS is designed with the fence in front of the blade, with the carriage all the way to the column. There should be absolutely no need to adjust the height when changing angles.

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad222/MykRian/DeWalt%20MBF%20RAS/0423001512a.jpg


Because he doesn't have his table set up higher than his back boards.

[Erik Christensen]

Loren:

My saw has a separate ~ 3" wide main board that can go in front of the fence for long cuts or behind the fence for shorter cuts in taller stock (like a 4x4). I leave the saw set with the fence to the front as I cut tall stock more frequently that wide stock so the additional top board is behind the fence and as it is the same thickness as the front board the saw cannot swing without a height adjustment. I guess I could re-do the saw top so this was not a factor but I don't change angle on this often enough to make it worthwhile.

[Chip Lindley]

So sad Sears or Delta never mentioned the use of a RAS table thicker than the back board, as Myk has added. A Real Good Idea!

But...with 10" RASs (and smaller) width of cut is often an issue. There is much wasted space between that blade and the front of Myk's fence! For narrow stock, not a problem, but I always seemed to find very wide stuff to cut! I often moved the fence back with the blade still buried in it partially--just enough to clear 3/4" stock. That made it impossible to reset the blade for angled cuts without raising it above the fence. It's always something!

[glenn bradley]

If you are cross cutting pieces of that size, I would use a table saw sled and spend the money on wood. I have not fired up my CMS in a couple of years.

[Bill White]

I have both, and use them regularly. RAS has applications not suited to the CMS.
Bill

[Van Huskey]

A RAS can certainly do many tasks that a CSMS can not. The key is whether those are tasks you need. If all you are doing is crosscutting 1x12s then a quality CSMS will do a fine job and take up far less room. Depending on what else you did with your RAS determines whether the CSMS can duplicate its work.

[Peter Quinn]

To me this is like asking "Should I buy a tri axel dump truck or a Ford Ranger, I need to haul rocks....". Well, how many rocks, how big, how often, how quickly must you be finished. A good RAS will cut large stock effortlessly that would all but kill your chop saw or skill saw. 10/4 rough hard maple for leg blanks? I'll take the RAS thanks.

Something about a 2-3HP induction motor that beats a 12A vacuum cleaner motor hands down for hard labor in thick hard woods. But if you have a long windy road to work, I'd get the Ranger. Or, if you have to hang a room house full of crown, I'd get the SCMS, because the RAS while theoretically capable of doing the job, is in reality a bear to set up at compound angles and return to dead square while the SCMS was built for it.

Fact is both have their strengths. Question is which best suits our needs, and for that more information is necessary.

[Bradley Potts]

Two of the keys to success and happiness w/ the RAS is to #1 install a proper, perfectly flat 1.5" thick top on it, and #2 is to use a 1/4" or greater thickness sheet of ply or mdf as a sacrificial top that is often shifted about and/or replaced in order to keep a fresh zero clearance kerf directly under the workpiece. Instantly, this sacrificial surface will make the table in front of the fence higher and therefore the column height does not have to be changed when swinging miter cuts, it also ensures tear-out free cuts.

[John Schweikert]

I'm intrigued with this description of the table being higher than the fence. Makes no sense to me. Table higher, then no fence exists. Searched google images trying to get a better idea of what is being described. My dad still has his RAS that I used a lot when I was growing up. But I don't own one. Anyone have a photo showing a table top like this. We just had a back piece, then the fence, then the front table with a sacrificial top.

[HANK METZ]

I'm intrigued with this description of the table being higher than the fence. Makes no sense to me. Table higher, then no fence exists. Searched google images trying to get a better idea of what is being described. My dad still has his RAS that I used a lot when I was growing up. But I don't own one. Anyone have a photo showing a table top like this. We just had a back piece, then the fence, then the front table with a sacrificial top.

270795

My back boards are about 1-1/8" thick, the main top is about 1-1/2". This allows swinging the arm whilst the head is in the parked position behind the fence.

[John Schweikert]

Got it. That makes sense.




My back boards are about 1-1/8" thick, the main top is about 1-1/2". This allows swinging the arm whilst the head is in the parked position behind the fence.

[John TenEyck]

If you need portability, buy a SCMS. If you don't, get an old Dewalt or similar RAS. The radial arm saw will likely be a LOT cheaper and, as mentioned, is a lot more versatile.

John

[Bill Geibe]

I like my RAS. Recently I made a 10" ladder out of a couple of pressure treated 2x4's for uprights and 5/4 stock for rungs/steps. I cut nine 1" dado's on each upright at a 15 degree angle. A piece of cake with a dado head on the RAS. I couldn't use the table saw as the stock was too long and sliders don't work with dado heads (to the best of my knowledge). I suppose a router with a jig would have done the job but I think the RAS was a lot faster.

Bill

[Bradley Potts]

Thanks Hank! :) -- Bradley

[David Winer]

I like my RAS. Recently I made a 10" ladder out of a couple of pressure treated 2x4's for uprights and 5/4 stock for rungs/steps. I cut nine 1" dado's on each upright at a 15 degree angle. A piece of cake with a dado head on the RAS. I couldn't use the table saw as the stock was too long and sliders don't work with dado heads (to the best of my knowledge). I suppose a router with a jig would have done the job but I think the RAS was a lot faster.

Bill
Interesting. I did the same thing this week, but my ladder had only to reach a 5 foot platform for a zipline. I set the RAS to make 30 degree cuts with the dado head. It took a number of trial passes to get the dado shimmed to the precise width for the 5/4 stock.

[HANK METZ]

In making my Bahamas shutters, I had over a thousand slots to cut that would be at a really obtuse angle, plus given the typical length of the stiles, would be a beast to cut. Tablesawing was out, and although a router could be used, it offered no real advantage over the radial saw and in fact would be slower due to the handling cycle. A few hours and scrap finally produced a jig that easily clamped on and off the radial with repeatable accuracy:
270837

With an index slat on the outside of the stiles, each set took only minutes to slot:
270838

The full video shows the methods in greater detail, but this is just to illustrate that the radail saw still solves problems that other means struggle with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU2fEdGwD84

[Jack Schmidt]

My Sears RAS still has a sacrificial top layer they used to sell raising it up as well as providing rules for rip cuts and an inch/decimal conversion table. The RAS also is one of those that has digital readouts for all of the angles as well as height and rip values, which makes it a nice feature. It's like adding Wixey readouts for all the functions. I've built a lot of cabinets with this saw over the years.

[Gus Dundon]

RAS is like band saw but there are some functions of it that bandsaw can't do. I have band saw but I'm wishing to have RAS - I can use for ripping, cutting mitered and beveled angles, dadoes, rabbets and cutting grooves.

[Stephen Cherry]

Radial arm saws, like this thread from three years ago, are the saw that won't fade away.

Good saws are out there for not a lot of money.

Also, thanks Hank for all the nice videos.