Originally Posted by
Eugene Dixon
I still remember my father going to Lazarus in Columbus Ohio to buy a DeWalt RAS in the late 50's. He built sloped front cabinets and a stylish wall of shelving with that saw in Ohio. We built a house in AL using it when we took over my grandfather's dairy farm. My BIL has that saw now.
I bought a used 12" Original RAS, 5 hp at GovDeals auction a few years ago. Much more substantial than the DeWalt and much longer arm. It was listed as 3 phase but turned out to be single phase when I picked it up. I was happy. I spent several hours building and leveling a replacement table using the outline in the RAS guy's book (sorry don't remember the exact name of the book - the author had passed and the family still published the book) - father of the Dewalt RAS I think he was called. I had access to a large, heavy layout table complete with clamping blocks at the university I was teaching at. Spent a Saturday and Sunday on campus on the glue up. I can find the name of the book if you are interested. PM me.
I took the saw apart far enough to clean the bearing runs on the arm. The carriage bearings seemed solid. The tilt indicator was out of calibration but I didn't worry too much about that until the last shop move. Overall, the saw was tight, i.e., no slop.
I don't use it frequently but have done cross cutting, ripping, and dados. It is, to me, ideal for cross cutting dados.
Glad I have it. But really don't use it enough to justify the floor space. It does remind me of that old DeWalt, however.