mailee

I have the De Walt 10" radial arm saw and wouldn't be without it. I have had a few of them over the years and find them very useful. I should add that I never use them for ripping stock as I use my table saw for that. I mainly use it for cross cutting pieces to length or making dados. i agree with one of the posts that they can be a dangerous tool but used carefully they are no dangerous than any other tool in the shop. They do climb cut timber while cross cutting but the idea is not to pull the blade through so much as ease it through the stock. They will hold the timber firm to the fence and down on the table if the correct blade is used which must be a negative rake blade. If a standard positive rake blade is used on one of these machines then they are very dangerous indeed wanting to lift the timber up and off the table. I have an additon on mine which also helps that is a return spring on the arm which pulls the carriage backwards behind the fence. I am no expert on these saws but have used one for the last twenty years so have learned a thing or two about them and never had an accident with one.

Advertising

harrysin

"Ripping ".... feed work to the blade along the fence-- from your left to right (never from right to left)."


Not necessarily so, see photographs. Whilst Bj's RAS appears at first glance to be the same as mine, I notice the anti-kickback is on the front, that being so, is the blade still turning clockwise when facing it?

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
Harry

bobj3

For me I always rip stock with the motor on the back side of the table top..

And always from the Left to the right...the anti-kickback bar is always on my right,,my top is a split type, that's to say the back stop can be pulled out and moved back by 6" or so , this will let me rip stock up to 26 1/4" wide if I need to..But then if I want to rip stock to 1 1/2" wide lets say, then all I do flip the motor around and put the motor on the front side of the table and feed from the Right to the Left, this in turn always puts the anti-kickback bar on the out feed side of the blade...the blade is ways trying the lift the stock up or to say the teeth are coming up from the bottom side of the stock...

Small story , my son ask if you could use the saw at home and I said sure, so we took of the saw off the base cabinet and he was off ,, he siad I will get it back in a day or two, in a day ,he said here's #%$@$# your Cappy Saw,, He said it would not cut 1/2" plywood... I said show me,,,,you got it he was ripping in the wrong way he said that's the way we do it at work...I said look at you fingers and say good by to them if you still use the saw in the wrong way....then I said don't every push the stock into the blade without using a push stick..and he said push stick what's that...and we had a long talk about how to use a RAS...now he wants is own..they can do so many jobs very well plus you can hang a router on one end to make the real hard router jobs easy...XYZ thing on the RAS...It's like putting a plunge router on your RAS....with a standard base...at one time Delta/Sears/B & D, had a jig saw that just bolt on also to make it like just a band saw in a away..sanding drums also...



=======


======

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
PodCast videos
RWS on YouTube

http://www.routerforums.com/86898-post1.html
Besure and click on the Up Arrow key ▲ on the Youtube video, you can select other youtube videos on router tables
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/?s=dovetail
Machine Cut ▼
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/200...cut-dovetails/

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/woo...podcast-store/

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/menu2.htm

Bob J.

harrysin

Thanks for that Bj. Because I'm right handed, I find (found) it easier to feed from right to left, but I haven't used it for ripping for 7 or 8 years. The table saw really is better for this task. I would hate to have to make a choice between a router and RAS.

__________________
Harry

bobj3

Hi Harry

I like to rip with it because I can take my hands off the stock and move around to the other side and pull it out unlike the table saw... I have two types of hold downs that work well for ripping...the yellow (Orange) wheel type, spring loaded type that only turns one way.. and the spring metal bar type (Shop Smith ) type, that hold it down..

You will now see why I rip from the left to the right, using the Orange hold down wheels.. the Yellow ones will let you rip from the right to the left...but it's not the norm..so they tell me

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_hi...dies&x=19&y=16
http://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Board-B...1619384&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Board-Buddies-...1649223&sr=1-3

http://grizzly.com/products/searchre...oard%20Buddies

But to each his own...

=======

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
PodCast videos
RWS on YouTube

http://www.routerforums.com/86898-post1.html
Besure and click on the Up Arrow key ▲ on the Youtube video, you can select other youtube videos on router tables
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/?s=dovetail
Machine Cut ▼
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/200...cut-dovetails/

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/woo...podcast-store/

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/menu2.htm

Bob J.

pmspirito

A power tool is only as dangerous as the person using it. An RAS upcutting across the grain "to me" is no more dangerous than a chain saw, a Ditch Witch Trencher, a New Holland hay baler, a salami slicer or 300 skydives. I have done them all without incident.

__________________
www.PeterSpirito.com

bobj3

Hey Peter

You don't look like the Evel Knievel type just goes to show you can't judge the book by it's cover

As you know the chain saw as a nick name ( shark saw) it will eat you up in a heart beat, the same for the other items you have posted...

Using the RAS backwards is like jumping out of the plane with the shoot packed by a 5 year old,it will work most of the time but it only takes one time.

You have been very lucky but that's just my 2 cents...

==========

__________________
PodCast videos
RWS on YouTube

http://www.routerforums.com/86898-post1.html
Besure and click on the Up Arrow key ▲ on the Youtube video, you can select other youtube videos on router tables
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/?s=dovetail
Machine Cut ▼
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/200...cut-dovetails/

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/woo...podcast-store/

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/menu2.htm

Bob J.

harrysin

The Good Lord has been looking after you Peter, may HE continue to do so.

__________________
Harry