dewalt radial arm saw

[paul aubin]

have an opportunity to buy this saw for around $ 200 us anyone know of any issues with the saw or what to look for ?

TIA paul
old to woodworking new to this forum

[Nancy Laird]

Do you have any idea of the vintage of this saw? We have a DeWalt RA saw of late-50s/early-60s vintage that just keeps going and going and going. If it's in good shape, you'll be getting a bargain, IMHO.

Nancy

[paul aubin]

Nancy am trying to get more detail on the saw trying to avoid a 2 hour drive if it is not worth it

[Charlie Velasquez]

Pictures are pretty small, and my eyes are pretty old... but that looks like a Dewalt 790 or 7790 (basically the same) which could have the Black & Decker logo or, for a short time, the Sears Roebuck logo.

If so that is a pretty good machine. Manufactured in the early to mid 70's. It can spin a 12" blade, but many woodworkers use a 10".
Full 2 hp motor, or if you believe in the method they started using to rate hp in the late 70's: a 3hp motor. If it is the 17 amp motor (8.5 @220) it has the power to do just about whatever you want. Could be wired either 110 or 220.

When Black & Decker took over the company they started to make drastic modifications to better compete with the lower cost Sears made saws. They started to downsize the iron and put the column adjusting crank in the front. These were both bad ideas.

The 790 was the "construction/small professional machine. It had the beefier arms and the column height adjustment over the column, which eliminated some play as opposed to the other later models that had the adjustment crank in the front.

Many Dewalt enthusiasts like to fix up the older, pre-1960, mammoth "humpback" saws. But if you went with a "newer" model. the 7790 was the saw of choice.

$200 for a 7790 in good condition is a very good price. Not really stealing it, but certainly worth every penny and then some.

[Bill Pentz]

Paul,

These are pretty amazing tools that can do many good things. They also can be dangerous is used carelessly, so take the time to learn the safety rules and follow them well. I rented a pretty incredible video at least fifteen years ago by Roger W. Cliff who did some incredible furniture making with a RAS. I also bought the Walter Kunkel (Mr. Sawdust) RAS book (http://www.mrsawdust.com/). Both contain lots of good information on adjustments, tune-ups, and keeping all cutting accurately especially in the video where you can see what is being discussed.

I restored a 7790 many years ago and found that some of these do have a few problems. First, the machined races that the bearings run on can become worn if not kept clean. Mine needed honed to restore them to flat and parallel. Some of the units end up with a crack in the riser mechanism if someone too aggressively tries to raise or lower the saw while it is still locked down. It took a small but difficult weld to make repair on mine. Likewise, punching the on off switch too aggressively leaves you holding pieces. A few dollar replacement switch makes repair, but finding these switches today is tough.

After years of faithful service the motor windings finally died and I paid to have the motor rewound restoring it back to good as new. When I bought my Makita SCMS I figured I no longer had need of my RAS. I was wrong as there are some things that it did very well, particularly doing some dado work and complex angle type cuts. Make sure you get a good blade made for the kind of work you are doing. I'm partial to the Forrest chop saw blades, but I'm becoming an old timer or so my son says.

Dust collection is a touch of a pain unless you use a big dust pan or Rosseau collector behind and a powerful shop vacuum on the blade guard dust chute. One other important trick on the dust collection is make sure the fence board you clamp into your table is short so the dust goes over it instead of bouncing into and off that board.

Regardless, I missed mine enough that I bought a couple of more to restore and am slowly making progress. I now have another 790 and one of the old humpback 9" units. One of those that if I can't do woodworking at least I can play with restoring the tools. Dewalt carries some parts, but many require going to Wolfe Machinery and cost a premium.

bill

[Jack Hutchinson]

purchase new in 1976 when we started construction of our house. The only difference I see in the photo is the stand.

It's been good, but though I've tried I cannot tune it to the quality of cut I want for furniture joints (what I get from a sled on a Unisaw). It's not sufficiently rigid and the preset tolerances are not tight enough (change the angle of the arm or of the saw and you won't return to quite the same place).

I still use it often. If I lost it though I might replace with a good miter saw. In fact I've gone to a miter saw for quality crosscuts on long stock.

It is versatile and always ready to work.

How would you use it? Why not a miter saw?

- Jack

[Bill Neely]

The model number is on the plate just below the front of the table. I believe the first two digits of the motor serial number are the year manufactured. I have a model 1400 (1963 vintage) which is similar to the saw you are interested in and it's a pretty nice machine.