New fence for vintage radial arm saw (RAS)

[jack forsberg]

I’m an avid user of the “radio alarm saw” and generally have mine tuned to the nuts and set at 90 . Now while it does hold all of its other settings it is generally a pain in the ass to do miters with . This Fence tries to remedy that by incorporating a standard miter.

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Now at first glance it looks just like a regular wood fence with the typical kerf Cut up the table To avoid Sawdust fouling of the work. But if you look closely to the left you’ll see a slot in the table for a miter .

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It’s location here is in it’s typical arrangement for regular 90° work . And makes for a continuously Ridgid fence. What’s deceiving here is that the miter lifts off a tongue and groove and works by locateing on a slot in the fence

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Here it is in action

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Thats clever, I'm adding that to mine someday.

[Larry Edgerton]

Nice Jack!

[jack forsberg]

thanks guys

[Darcy Warner]

Yeah, Tabb did a nice job saw it when I dropped off his NF BS.

[Rollie Kelly]

Jack, I have never found the miter gauge protractors to be nearly accurate enough. What do you use to set the m.g. for close work?
Too, when you have your "radio alarm saw" tuned to nuts, what kind of music do they play?

[Bradley Gray]

The Nutcracker of course.

Nice mod, Jack. I have that same saw. I screw a pitch block to the table for angle cuts- way too much trouble to turn the arm

[Matt Day]

Thanks for sharing the idea Jack. Very clever.

[jack forsberg]

Jack, I have never found the miter gauge protractors to be nearly accurate enough. What do you use to set the m.g. for close work?
Too, when you have your "radio alarm saw" tuned to nuts, what kind of music do they play?

I did run the miter through the metal shop and tuned it up . this is just another set up i can use in the shop and with the hold downs should be good . AC/DC for tunes

[jack forsberg]

The Nutcracker of course.

Nice mod, Jack. I have that same saw. I screw a pitch block to the table for angle cuts- way too much trouble to turn the arm

anything not to change the saw.

[Bill Space]

Jack,

I am am a fan of over engineering and do appreciate your solution.

But it I can’t help but wonder how many odd angles you need to cut.

Cant help but think that making jigs for the common angles, which would clamp to the existing fence, might be an easier and a more repeatable solution.

No arguments against your fine work though.

Bill

[Jim Allen]

Great idea! This is how I cut (45°) miters.

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[Dave Zellers]

This is brilliant. I’ll be doing this on my old Rockwell with the fence clamping controls in the front.

I have an older Incra V-120 that can be easily pulled off it’s current sled and adapted to this application.

So many possibilites!

[Bill Berklich]

Great idea - thanks

[jack forsberg]

Jack,

I am am a fan of over engineering and do appreciate your solution.

But it I can’t help but wonder how many odd angles you need to cut.

Cant help but think that making jigs for the common angles, which would clamp to the existing fence, might be an easier and a more repeatable solution.

No arguments against your fine work though.

Bill

The way I work bill is I only use a machine for one operation went making set up for production so all this is is an option for miter and 90 at this machine when another machines are set up for something else. I generally like to use the best machine for a specific operation and RAS is for trenching cuts . The more versatile the machine the more options I have to not tie you up more valuable machines. I set the machines up and the help does the rest.