I am trying to decide which one to buy. If I get a RAS I will not be doing any ripping with it. If I get a scms would I not have the best of both worlds and would it be safer to use and require less shop space and allow me to sell my chop saw? I can get a ras cheap. Thanks for your opinions.
All depends on what you intend/want to do and what else you have.
IMO different tools, different uses.
For one, a small, inexpensive RAS will be unlikely to have the accuracy w/o fiddling w/ it the miter saw (again unless you're going HF or its ilk).
But, still, "all depends"...
--
I started off with a RAS and built half the furniture in my house.
4 years later I bought a Craftsman contractors saw and IMEDIATELY quit using the RAS. 5 years later I bought a 12" CMS to suppliment the TS9 years later I upgraded my contractors to a cabinet saw.
Almost immediately I quit using my CMS.
I do all my of cutting on the 52" capacity cabinet saw.
Assuming you don't want to rip on it, then the *only* thing you can do on a RAS that you can't do on a SCMS is a stacked dado. Even so, you can replicate the results by taking multiple passes on the SCMS.
I had option of free Dewalt RAS or purchasing a Dewalt 12" SCMS. I bought the slider.
~Mark.
I have a 10" Delta CMS that I used quite a bit but never really liked doing so. I bought a used 10" Craftsman RAS this past year which I've set up as a crosscut-only machine. Haven't used the CMS since; it's all table saw and RAS. :-)
...and run a molding head, a spindle sander, do horizontal boring, run a rotary surface planer, and a few other things.
No true. My RAS has a molding head, a planer attachment and a chuck for router bits. It does a much poorer job at any of those tasks than a dedicated tool but it is possible. Being able to rotate the head vertically opens up possibilities that a SCMS cannot touch.
You can probably pick up a 30YO RAS for almost nothing. That said, I have both (and a table saw). The RAS hasn't been used in some time though.
How do you dado on an SCMS, even with multiple passes?
I may replace my slider, though it would be another 10" so it uses the same blades as my table saw. 12" blades are expen$ive, and I don't cut anything thick enough to need it.
Quite true as long as you dismiss planing, molding, routing, using a flex shaft, drilling, polishing, et.
The blade dia. is the only thing that is the same between a 10" CMS a
10" table saw and even a 10" RAS. The same would also apply to other diameters. The hook angle of the blades are different for each saw. This is because of the way the blade moves in relation to the work or vice versa. Many people use the blades on the wrong saw and could injure their tools, their work or even themselves. Always use the blade designed for that specific saw on that saw only.Gordon Shumway
Our Constitution needs to be used less as a shield for the guilty and more as a sword for the victim.
How is the blade going to "injure the tools"? I've looked at a lot of blades and few say anything about the saw they're designed for. THe ones that do tend to be cheaper blades for CMS saws.
So a Shopsmith might be even better? (Except for the price)
Max
Ditto. Unless I have to crosscut something too wide - like a cabinet panel - in which case I use the table saw with a *large* crosscut sled.
Actually the better quality blades, Forrest for instance, do in fact suggest speciffic blades for specific saws.
WW 1 Best for RAS
WW 2 Best for TS
And then there is the Chop Master for the chop and miter saws.
Additionally because the RAS is typically going to be doing more cross cutting than ripping the WW1 has more teeth. When there are more teeth during cross cutting you get a smoother cut. The WW2 for the TS has fewer teeth and as you would suspect the TS is better suited for ripping.
With both those comments in mind I have 2, 40 tooth WW 2 blades for my TS. I would challange most any blade including the WW1 to produce a better cross cut. Then why have more teeth on a more cross cut specific blade? With more teeth you get a faster cut when cross cutting with the same smooth result. With fewer teeth you simply cut slower to replicate a blade with more teeth. Additionally with more teeth doing the " harder on the teeth" cross cutting they stay sharper longer than a blade with fewer teeth.
Last, the blades made for specific saws also have tooth bevel angles that are better suited to cutting wood on that particular saw. Typically with a TS the higher the blade is above the cut the better the cut. But for that you typically have the blade teeth completely clear the top of the work being cut. For a RAS you typically don't want the blade to penetrate the table surface much more than the bottom of the cut. Here a different tooth hook angle is more beneficial and reduces the tendency of the blade to grab the work.
You don't say if you have a TS. If you don't, I suspect the responses would be different. LEON makes the point about dedicated blades designed for the tool in play and that - as well as several other thoughtful responses here is good advice.
The SCM Saws I've seen that seem sturdy and substantial enough cost as much as many of the decent contractor table saws - hence, I've passed and have a RAS and 12" Miter Saw built into a dedicated table and two table saws (one small portable unit and a Sears Contractor).
The RAS sat for years in my small shop with barely any use - I finally sold the dedicated steel rolling stand I'd built for it and it was nearly three years before I finished the table it sits on now. So, not much use at all.
Still, the ability to dado some 12" by 72" plywood to capture the shorter "shelf pieces" is one task I'd rather do on the RAS than the TS because I'll never have enough space to build a big table and out feed for the Sears TS and I plan on building lots of shelving for the new shop. I can fit an 18" wide board on my RAS and it can be 8 feet long or more without tipping.
The 12" Miter Saw has come in handy building my shop - lots of 2x6 boards went into the structure as well as lots of angle cut studs. It was great for building basic saw horses cutting bot angles at once for nicely splayed legs.
But, If I didn't have my Table Saw, I'd not be doing much woodworking at all.
~Mark.
Wow, maybe I should get a ShopSmith and lose my planer, jointer, router table, drill press and sanders :-)
Now, be honest, have you used *all* those functions on your RAS?
I also suspect that a number of those (notably molding, sanding) can likewise be performed on a tablesaw. And apparently you can also do biscuit joining on a RAS as well:
If I was looking for a multi-purpose tool, I would consider a ShopSmith or better and be too timid to try molding/routing/planing on a RAS.
~Mark.
For example, using a blade that isn't designed for a RAS could draw the saw more quickly into the work. This could result in bending the saw blade or possibly bending the arbor on the motor.
Gordon Shumway
Our Constitution needs to be used less as a shield for the guilty and more as a sword for the victim.
On Thu, 3 Dec 2009 21:28:49 -0700, the infamous "Max" scrawled the following:
IMHSHO, discrete tools always beat the combos, especially if you need to do two different setups at a time. My buddy with the Shopsmith curses that he has to tear down one setup to do another one. Going from station to station is _always_ better, given room.
-- Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost. -- Thomas J. Watson
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