Radial arm saw placement

[Jon Endres]

I have a question for you guys with radial arm saws. I have a large vintage Delta MX2 series saw (12" or 14" blade) that I want to set up along the long wall of my shop. I will be using this primarily for cutoff/crosscut work and it will always be set at 90°. For those of you who use a RAS in your own shop, how much space do you have to the left and right of the blade, and have you done anything to optimize this space? For example, I don't really want to leave 12' of open bench to the left of the blade if I could place a couple of deadmen roller stands instead and use the space for mobile machines when I'm not using the RAS. I guess I'm looking for ideas. I have been using a 10" SCMS on a folding portable stand for 20+ years now, haven't used a RAS since high school 30+ years ago and I want to utilize this machine instead. The videos of people who have RAS or SCMS in their shop always seem to show 10-12' to the left of the blade and 4-6' to the right and it seems like such a huge waste of space.

[Steve Jenkins]

I have 8’ table to the left and 6’ skinney table to the right. Both tables are a couple feet off the wall and I use that space for vertical lumber storage

[William Chain]

My setup is quite similar to the New Yankee Workshop. Saw set up to the side of my mitre station (10ft long) and uses that as support, and shares the fence. Works great. I have on-wall storage of stuff above the mitre station and RAS so no loss of space.

[Kevin Jenness]

I would want a cutoff stop at least 8' long on the left and space intermittently available for at least 12' but it depends on the work you do. Shorts can be stored vertically behind the bench. We had a rolling bin for drops back there at my old gig. I have a Euro workbench to the right of my cutoff saw at the same height against the back wall. To the left my table saw right side extension is at the same height so stock is supported for either saw. Horizontal lumber racks above.

[Thomas McCurnin]

My setup is quite similar to the New Yankee Workshop. Saw set up to the side of my mitre station (10ft long) and uses that as support, and shares the fence. Works great. I have on-wall storage of stuff above the mitre station and RAS so no loss of space.
+1 for this set up. I do not share a fence though, as I find it more convenient to be able to pull the RAS out for serious work, like long 4x4s. But the table height is the same as the adjacent bench.

[andy bessette]

I have about 10' clear to either side of the RAS blade. So easy to arrange.

https://i.postimg.cc/ZR0bfb5B/shop-1.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[Rick Potter]

Not too long ago, I posted a pic of my setup, which allows use of most of the area for other things. I am a computer idiot, but it is in my previous posts somewhere.

Sorry, I am swamped right now, and cannot spare the hours it would take me to find it. I don't know what happened to my computer, but pics are hidden somewhere. Took hours to take a pic, and get it on craig list yesterday. Ended up getting help.

PS: OK, I felt guilty, and looked for it. The post is titled 'My radial arm saw station', dated 3-1-20. I don't know how to do anything else with the post though. Gotta hit the bed, it's almost two, and I need to be up by 7.

[George Makra]

I built cabnets under my saw and tables. For the tables i used melemine over ply wood.with t tracks to adjust the back stops. The back stops are 80-20 aluminum from Acuright Technologies for Pro Scale stops. the area behind the wood stops is used for storing cordless tools, chargers and that kind of stuff.

With the 8 foot tables and the Pro Scale stops the saw is much more accurate and repeatable than I or the wood will ever be.

[Jim Becker]

I have 8’ table to the left and 6’ skinney table to the right. Both tables are a couple feet off the wall and I use that space for vertical lumber storage

If I were going to put this kind of tool in my shop, I'd do like Steve and maybe even have shorter work surfaces supplemented with temporary material supports if something long needed to be processed. I, too, would be reluctant to dedicated a large run of wall space unless it had multiple purposes embedded. Having portable work supports benefits other tools, too. Flip up extensions work for some folks in the same light.

[Wayne Cannon]

The 12 feet on the left is used all the time, with clear space for 16 feet (above compressor and below storage); however, it is very rare that even 3 to 4 feet is used on the right. I designed it for 8 feet on the right, followed by the drill press, and the outside door.

Were I to do it again, I would stop with 3 to 4 feet on the right, and provide for alternate support beyond that.

[andy bessette]

My solution was quite simple. By locating the RAS just to the right of my table saw, at a right angle, it allows the table saw extension and offcut table/workbench to be used to support material to the left of the RAS blade. To the right of the blade are located two drill presses, whose columns lie behind the RAS back fence.

[lowell holmes]

Mine sits on a drawer unit. I have door hinges on the sides. I have a ledger low on the the sides of the case and I prop up the the 36" 1x12 leaves up with 2X4 that have 45 degree bevels. This leaves me 72 " of extensions to the saw table. The drawer unit has casters to rollout of the way if necessary.

[Curt Putnam]

If just rough cutting to length, then squareness and accuracy are not important. If that is the case, portable stands will work.

[Terry Therneau]

Mine is on a small cabinet with drawers (repurposed bath vanity) with castors, and I carefully set it up to be the same height as the workbench, one the right side, and the carriage of the sliding table saw, on the other. For 9 our of 10 cuts it stays against the wall and I need neither support. Otherwise I pull it out about 12" to clear a wall cabinet.

[John K Jordan]

When I had a RAS in a 16x16 shop I put it on one wall with about 10-12' to the left. To the right was the door so if needed I could open the door for more room on that side.

JKJ

[Tom Bender]

Honestly, I'd set it on the curb.

[John K Jordan]

Honestly, I'd set it on the curb.

A friend and I were discussing this just the other day. We both agreed, if there is enough space the radial arm saw is worth keeping. It will do things that are difficult to do in other ways and makes sense for some people.

Unfortunately, neither of us have extra shop space so we sold or gave away our saws.

JKJ

[Thomas McCurnin]

Honestly, I'd set it on the curb.

You officially made me laugh. Thank you.

[William Chain]

craftsman? Yep. Old dewalt or delta? Nope.


Honestly, I'd set it on the curb.

[Ron Selzer]

When I bought my first radial arm saw I built a portable table for it. (was young and strong then) 4x8x3/4" plywood ripped down, top was cut at 6' left of saw table and 2' right of saw table. 8' piece for bottom with triangle sections on ends to support top. solid strip across the back and strips set in dados in between top and bottom to make compartments. Added 3 2x4x8' to stiffen bottom so it would not flex. made two knock down sawhorses out of 2x4's for it to sit on. Added a 4" sq box with double duplex on the back with 25' cord for power and two removable uprights for a 4' 2 lamp shop light above saw. Traveled for over 20 years with that setup. Now have built in cabinets in basement and garage for those two radial saws. Both have at least 8' to left of blade and right at least 6'. The other two radial saws, one at work has a 36" wide top out of 4/4 cherry it is on rollers, picked up a bigger DeWalt from William Chain and it will replace the work saw. it will go on a pallet and probably have outfeed tables on pallets not certain yet.
Table saw will leave before radial arm saw does. To each there own.
Ron

[Jon Endres]

craftsman? Yep. Old dewalt or delta? Nope.

OP here, I actually have both. I want to set up the 'big saw' but I also have a mint DeWalt MBF 9" saw that will share the space along the wall. Who needs two radial arm saws? Not me, but I have space and I like the old tools.

[William Chain]

I have ...er...5. Down from 9. I have embraced the Frank Howarth approach.


OP here, I actually have both. I want to set up the 'big saw' but I also have a mint DeWalt MBF 9" saw that will share the space along the wall. Who needs two radial arm saws? Not me, but I have space and I like the old tools.

[Jim Becker]

I have ...er...5. Down from 9. I have embraced the Frank Howarth approach.
Frank really does like his radial arm saws...but his approach is also "set it and forget it" for most of them.

Personally, I might consider an "old iron" RAS if one fell in my lap (not literally, of course... :eek: ) but that would require a new shop. Hmmm....

[Jon Endres]

My plan is to "set it and forget it" for both of them. The big Delta has a 12" blade on it now, and will be set at 90°, more or less permanently. I'm going to put a 6" dado blade on the DeWalt and use that for ... well, dados and rabbets. I've had both saws for a decade, used neither, but I've hung on to them for a bunch of reasons. The pair of them cost me less than $100, which is a big argument in favor of keeping and using them. I enjoy Frank Howarth's videos and that's part of my reasoning. He has made very good use of his multiple RAS's. I also dislike my SCMS and I know I can dial in either RAS to be super accurate.

[William Chain]

Yes, "this is the way". I would not recommend using the MBF for a dado stack. It'll spin it, but it's a little 3/4HP motor. I use my MBF's for either small crosscuts or leave them dialed for 45 degree cuts on one of the two axes. I use a 1030RA for bigger cross cuts and another 1030RA or 7790 for dedicated dado work. Those are in the 1.5-1.75HP range.

[Andy D Jones]

Honestly, I'd set it on the curb.

This! LOL!

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[Randall J Cox]

I have an old Delta Turret RAS that i rehabbed. As I needed an "outfeed" table like most, but didn't really have the space to dedicate to just a table, I built a wood storage unit next to the RAS with wood storage above and below the "outfeed" table part. I probably have 250-350 lbs of wood stored above (long stuff) and another 150 lbs (shorter stuff) below. Tried to get more bang for my buck. Oh, and its against the wall somewhat (wood storage behind it also, standing) Randy