Tip O' The Day from the Village Idiot........RAS style

[Rick Potter]

It has been a while since I posted one of my dirt simple tips, so here goes.

I use my radial arm saw for most cross cuts, and the way I have it set up it will cut 16 1/2" wide, and about 1 1/2" thick. Seldom do anything thicker, and when I do, I just spacer the work out from the fence....no biggie. In this case I am building several closet organizers out of melamine coated Part Board, and I needed to cut a bunch of pieces 18" wide cleanly on both sides.

I double stick taped several scrap pieces along my fence, and more importantly, one piece was placed so the blade would cut it, leaving a zero clearance line on the bottom of the cut. Notice that the other scraps were set out from the fence enough that I could move my stop back and forth. I used scraps from the melamine so it would let the 8' work pieces slide easily.


First pic: The RAS with the scraps taped on. My saw is a DeWalt 7790, 12".

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Second pic: This shows the normal setup, with 16 1/2" cross cut, and with a bit of cheating, 1 1/2" height capacity.

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Third pic: Shows the cut length is now 18 1/4", with zero clearance on the bottom of the cut.

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Fourth pic: Shows how I cheated a bit, by putting the corner of the work against the stop, and rotating it into the blade the last tiny bit. Note....that blade is RUNNING.

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Fifth pic: The first cut in the 18" wide stock.

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6th pic: Here is the first stack of cut pieces. All square, accurate, and best of all made using the fence and stop system on the RAS. Both sides of cuts are good.

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So, there you have it. Another simple tip. By raising up the work 3/4" on the blade, I gained almost two inches of cross cut on my saw, and still used the fence and stop. I also have a 10" saw, and this works fine on it also, gaining slightly less distance.

[Steve Kinnaird]

Thanks for sharing.

[Jim Dwight]

This would have been easily accomplished with a track saw and crosscut setup (like a MFT or Paulk style workbench). But if you don't have that and have a RAS, this looks like a good way to go. I cheat a bit on my fence position on my RAS too but I need to do it to get 12.5 inches. Beyond that, it is time for the track saw.

[Stan Calow]

Thanks that is a good tip.

[Doug Garson]

Brilliant idea but I'm afraid you will have to change your signature line. You are hearby stripped of the "AKA village idiot' title.

[Rick Potter]

Certainly not an original idea. Guys have been lifting the edge of their workpieces, to get that last quarter inch, since the RAS came out. I have seen several tips on putting a piece under chopsaws to get to the thicker part of the blade. I was surprised that I could gain almost two inches of cut with 3/4" of lift.

Don't forget my fence is set up to work mostly with one by lumber and sheet goods, so I start out with the cross cut maxed out pretty much anyway. As I mentioned, if I need to cut 4x4's or whatever, I simply put a spacer in front of the fence, but I rarely use the RAS for that, I use the chop saw next to it.

I should have mentioned...I do have a DeWalt track saw, and cut the 8' strips a quarter inch wide with that and run them through my table saw. The track saw is great, but I have a special melamine blade on the TS, and when I am done, I know I have two parallel sides. I don't have a parallel guide for my track saw, and I get good, but not perfect parallel sides, ergo the TS.

PS: Just went out and measured my 10" 70's Craftsman RAS. It has the fence set up for max crosscut also, and it cross cuts 15 1/4", as opposed to my 12" DeWalt's 16 1/2". That gives us some real life measurements. I will try to take a pic later today. I bought the Craftsman to dado's in all the closet units I am doing. When done with them, it will be sold. It always has a dado blade set up, and I used it for a lot of drawer lock joints also. I do not like to put a different setup on the DeWalt, because I use it for almost all cross cuts.

EDIT: Here are pics of the Craftsman 10" RAS set up to cross cut about 15 1/4". The fence is set up for dado's right now, and I am in the middle of changing out the dado.


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