Circular saw recommendations?

Nice overview of the RAS at the link below. Evidentally, it doesn't tell "the whole story" (I've never used one). It does say that those made after the early 60's were generally made to loose tolerances.

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Reply to
Bill
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- If a RAS ever *does* kick back, the wood is thrown *away* from the operator.

- The saw carriage runs on *rails*. Don't put your hand in line with the rails, and it's completely impossible to be hit by the blade.

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Things bounce when forced to

Never say "never". People cut fingers off on presses that only travel a straight, repetitive line, unfortunately. Your turn to peel the potatoes!

Reply to
Eric

I grew up around radial arm saws. I used them for many years. I did lots of work with dados and having to cut a lot of stock to length. It worked great for that. I have used mostly large, commercial 12 inch saws. At one time, every house construction project had a radial arm saw on site. I knew this guy who used to fabricate metal trailers which mounted a radial arm saw on it with a roof. He would just tow it to the site. He built about ten of them and rented them out.

I have done thousands of cuts on these saws over the years. I have all ten fingers and toes. Of course, I AM a safety freak. I never understood these irrational fear about these saws. There are an abundance of ways to injure yourself with power tools. People do it all the time. I just wonder what the safety practices are of those folks who fear these saws.

I will be the first to admit that there are more tool options available now that did not exist way back when. So the saw may not be as needed as it once was. And I know those old dewalts were a really good piece of equipment. Folks are buying those and restoring them. I don't have one now, not enough room. But when I get a bigger shop, I will be putting a RAS in. I am comfortable with it and I would use it regularly.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

I have done thousands of cuts on these saws over the years. I have all ten fingers and toes. Of course, I AM a safety freak. I never understood these irrational fear about these saws. There are an abundance of ways to injure yourself with power tools. People do it all the time. I just wonder what the safety practices are of those folks who fear these saws.

I will be the first to admit that there are more tool options available now that did not exist way back when. So the saw may not be as needed as it once was. And I know those old dewalts were a really good piece of equipment. Folks are buying those and restoring them. I don't have one now, not enough room. But when I get a bigger shop, I will be putting a RAS in. I am comfortable with it and I would use it regularly.

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Never used a RAS but wonder how they compare with a good sliding miter saw. I couldn't live without one, even a cheap one. Advantages or disadvantages?

Reply to
m II
[snipped all be the important part.LOL]

There you have it. You HAVE to be 110% awake, NO routine cuts, perfect set-up and materials...

For a super careful, vigilant user, RAS's offer only a small set of advantages that simple aren't worth the danger.

Reply to
Robatoy

13 1/2 inch crosscut. I finally built a crosscut jig to use with a circular saw.

Max

Reply to
Max

I've also made thousands of cuts with one, all with trepidation.

Irrational it is ... nonetheless, I have an uncanny sense of impending danger - I learned not to argue with it.

It's why I'm still here. :)

Reply to
Swingman

If you are referring to a RAS capacity, I fail to see much difference. My $179 10" cuts a 2x12 (hundreds of them) and has a few more space to go. I would have actually check the throat capacity to be sure. I believe I have to do a flip over for 3/4" x 16" shelving to get the last 1"

13 1/2 inch crosscut. I finally built a crosscut jig to use with a circular saw.

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Reply to
m II

Well you may have answered your own question there Doug. While most every one will agree that the RAS is not comforting to use in the rip application, it is indeed built and intended to be used to rip material. So that is probably why most every one would prefer to never use one.

FWIW I owned one for about 5 years and build a lot of furniture that I still own today and did quite a bit of ripping with it. For me I had more problems with it while crosscutting, probably because I did mostly cross cutting but I never got used to cutting into a narley SYP knot and the blade and motor trying to climb up over the board rather than cut through the knot, for what ever reason. ;~)

Three years after buying it I added a contractors saw to my shop and literally never used the RAS again.

Reply to
Leon

I bought my RAS in 1969. I wasn't aware of any sliding miter saws available at the time. Last year I replaced a Bosch 8" sliding miter saw with a Milwaukee 12". I still use the jig I built for crosscutting anything over a foot wide. If I happen to have the Festool TS75 out of its systainer I'll use it just for the dust collection. (and, of course, it'll be out of its systainer if I'm cutting panel goods) But I'm still not selling the RAS. ;-)

Max

Reply to
Max

I *did* have a board (cedar, in fact) bind and "kick back" (actually propelled the carriage toward me). It eventually grabbed hold of the saw blade and stopped it dead. Then I changed my pants.

Not on a crosscut!

Reply to
krw

"Leon" wrote

I've never had a problem with a RAS (I've never tried ripping) but my son cross cut a piece of Oak and it climbed on him, broke a tooth off the blade, misaligned the saw and he hasn't used it since. Contrariwise, I've had a couple pieces of wood slung at me from a table saw. Go figger.

Max

Reply to
Max

Swingman wrote in news:QZ-dnSFOH_mduaLTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I've only made a few dozen cuts with one, but it seems to me that the one place the RAS would be better than any other tool is crosscut dados. Crosscutting on the table saw tends to be a bit of an adventure, especially if table width is limited. (Things may be different if I had a sled. Just haven't needed one bad enough to make one.)

I haven't touched a RAS since high school.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

I think the biggest problem with a RAS is that they can get knocked out of alignment pretty easily and there are numerous adjustments to zero in on. The table has to be parallel to the same plane that the carriage rides on, the blade has to lock in parallel or 90 degrees to the path of the carriage. The arm has to lock in at 90 degrees to the fence to make a 90 degree cut and the fence is not always straight, once cut it can warp or twist. It is imperative that you have flat straight stock when cross cutting or you are going to have at least a little problem. If you ever do rip with your RAS "remember" that you feed against the rotation of the blade. While this sounds like common sense you can rip from either side of the table. Typically for narrow stock you are on the right side of the table with the motor pointing away from the arm column. For wider rip capacity you can rip from the left side of the table but be sure to rotate the motor so that it points towards the column arm. Keep in mind that in this situation the stock needs to be wide so that you can have room to push the stock through with out having the motor interfere. Get any of those positions or steps backwards and you end up with a board launcher.

Reply to
Leon

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Horse pucky!

How can it be anything else unless one is standing behind the saw instead at the operator location? The blade is rotating away and the arm, motor and blade guard (as well as the kickback pawls--you _are_ using and have them set properly aren't you--I knew you were) prevent an material from possibly going up and over and thereby towards the operator.

If anything, the carriage may try to accelerate, but holding a firm hold on it is sufficient.

I've used the RAS for 30 years+ and never had even a hint of such a thing as kickback of material, riding over a board or the other examples cited.

I can only infer that most of these are very lightweight, small machines that aren't rigid enough to prevent such things. Those might, indeed, as Robotoy says, be worthy candidates for abolishing and since they have little if any more capacity crosscut wise than the sliding miter saw if that's all one is doing with one then may as well use them instead since they now exist (as another said, that's a fairly recent development).

IMO a RAS should be nothing less than the 12" DeWalt/Rockwell=Delta/Original Saw or similar; the little 10" things from Sears are just too lightly built. I've the 16" Rockwell-Delta and it's used extensively; primarily for roughing out large stock to length but it rips much more conveniently than the TS as well for sizable pieces; it's not as handy for taking a smidge off the edge.

But, they belong built into a long table so there's support both infeed and outfeed and as such w/ a well constructed table they are both effective and efficient as well as safe to operate.

In my early days, like Leon, it and a jointer were the only power tools I had and it did everything from the rough outs to shaping and even thickness planing w/ the rotary head attachment...also have a chain mortiser attachment that works the cat's meow for larger end mortises and particularly angles. A drill arbor on the rear shaft and it's great for center drilling posts, etc, as well.

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Reply to
dpb

You have mentioned the real deal killer for a RAS. Alignment. There are so many things that have to be just right for a reasonable amount of accuracy. It takes way too long to get it "just right".

Max

Reply to
Max

Agree with most of that, however:

My first RAS which lasted for 32 years was a 10" Monkey Ward universal motor type. It was great, held alignment and did have the "climb" issue until I figured how to set the rail bearings correctly (along with all other adjustments)and started using the proper crosscut technique. It did one rip kickback early on when I tried to cut a narrow piece of 1/4" ply which came back like an arrow and peeled about half my thumb nail off - healed up nicely without any after effects. It had a high speed spindle which was great for overhead routing. I used it for rotary surface planing, horizontal boring, disc and drum sanding and had a variable speed router control that helped with some operations. It's big drawback was the universal motor which probably accounts for the current state of my hearing. Finally, the smoke all leaked out of it - probably as a result of my incorrect replacement of brushes.

My current RAS is also a 10", but a Searz model. It is much quieter as it doesn't have a universal motor. Contrary to Robo's critique of the "control cut" feature, I have never had any incident as a result of it's use. It's main problem is the "safety guard" with all the hangy down things that make blade changing, deep cuts and miter adjustments a real pain in the tookas. I'm considering removing those as the old RAS worked fine without them.

The point about constant adjustments isn't a problem if the saw is set up correctly and proper techniques are used - in other words not having the motor climb or bind.

I use the table saw for what it does best and the RAS for what it does best. I don't shake or tremble at the thought of eithers use, just make sure all setup and technique is done with care.

Reply to
Doug Winterburn

On 8/7/2011 10:06 PM, Max wrote: ...

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I've never had such issues; then again, I have one of the old large (16") Rockwell-Delta's not the little home-store Sears/DeWalt/etc.

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Reply to
dpb

"Doug Winterburn" wrote

The point about constant adjustments isn't a problem if the saw is set up correctly and proper techniques are used - in other words not having the motor climb or bind.

I use the table saw for what it does best and the RAS for what it does best. I don't shake or tremble at the thought of eithers use, just make sure all setup and technique is done with care.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amen to all that. I add that I will not rip on a RAS. Not with a table saw, even a contractor saw or a panel guide saw sitting around.

-- Jim in NC

Reply to
Morgans

On 8/7/2011 11:11 PM, Morgans wrote: ...

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Leaving a good tool to go to waste, then... :)

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Reply to
dpb

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