Old Tool Gloat

[CPeter James]

This is the replacement for my 34 year old Sears RAS. I wasn't really in the market, but the price was right and the condition seems to be very good. I have the front cover for the arm, but we had the motor off to move it and I plan to clean up inside so left it off for now. It is a GW-5 whatever that makes it. A one hp, 12 amp motor. The carriage slides smoothly and all the bearings are free.

Dev, now I see what you meant about the "V" that the bearing rides in. I envisioned a inverted "V", so was slightly confused. The bearings turn free and smooth, but new ones would be a slight bit smoother. There seems be be no play in it. It cuts pretty good, but needs a tune up.

CPeter

[lou sansone]

those were great saws and in good condition still are. congratulations on it.
lou

[John Bailey]

CPeter,

A couple months ago my Sears RAS of 20 yrs. quit working. I found, and bought, a 1956 Dewalt and have been amazed at the quality compared to the Sears. You will love it.

John

[CPeter James]

Can you get the $100 recall money on your old saw?

CPeter

[Dev Emch]

Good Job. The saw really looks sweet.

The day after you called me, the UPS dude came a callin' with some reading material for the office. You know, the room where the king goes by foot.

The book is a home brew sprial bound book written by Mr. Kunkel himself shortly before he passed away. Now his family are running this tiny publication business and selling this book. The source of the book is

www.mrsawdust.com

I have nothing to do with this site. Got the book to see how things work and what a Mr. Sawdust table is. The book is clearly written for the GW saw although there are a couple if items on the larger saws.

Not having ever taken a GW apart, all I knew about them was that they used four bearings and not the usual eight bearings as I had discussed with you. But on seeing some of the basic computer drawings in the book, it was clear that the bearing scheme is way different. For those who do not know this, the GW has two machined grooves that capture the bearings. There is one groove on the inside of each side of the arm. Two bearings are fixed and do not move. The other two bearings are mounted on eccentric bolts held tight with allen screws in the yoke handle. The bearings appear to have a V or curved shape on the outer race. Most likely, a donut pressed onto the outer race of a bearing. This double V then fits into the groove and thus allows the motor not only to move back and forth but it also restricts vertical motion in both the up and down directions. A nice simple, but quite effective design.

The book also recommends that one seek out a used machine sporting the 1 HP motor. Sounds like you hit the jack pot on this puppy.

I also read the story about the "junk yard". According to Mr. Kunkel, aka Mr. sawdust, there was a large yard behind the Lancaster, PA plant and pallets of rusting arm castings were stacked. Each pallet was labeled with information including how long they need to season or age. The machinsts knew which lot was ready to go and which ones had to wait.

On more than one occasion, production ground to a halt because there were no ready to machine arms available. Instead of risking warpage and other quality issues, DeWalt elected simply not to manufacture anymore RAS machines until a new lot of arms were ready. And the machining of these arms was unreal.

I even saw a photo of a DUAL POST DeWalt RAS. Yup, kiddies, a two post RAS. Each post has its own vertical lead screw and the arm looked like two Dewalt radial arm saw arms attached together at the nose. A long drive rod connected both vertical leadscews together at one end. So what do you call this beastie? An industral grade, Radial Gantry Arm Saw? Unreal!