Radial Arm saws

Thanks in advance,
George

From what I've seen of 8" and 10" cms's, I don't think they are as well-built as the next price-level up.

In the off-brand category, a fasteners store in Ottawa seems to sell King 10" sliding cms's by the truck load.

http://www.this-is-great.com/info/9-xbffffrxjlxcxh

Maybe someone else has experience with these saws.

For framing, my first choice is a Skil Saw. I have a Mag 77 which I use all the time.

Overall my top 10 saws are:

1. Skil saw
2. table saw
3. chain saw (under-appreciated for home building and home improvement projcts ;-) "Put a door here? No problem!"
4. radial arm saw
5. vertical band saw
6. horizontal band saw (ok, for metal but cut me some slack)
7. various abrasive cutoff saws (well, a whole lot of them...cut me some more slack)
8. hand saws (ok, I use them a lot, but they don't justify my tool budget.)
9. torches, etc.
10. any other saw I can reasonably justify to my wife.

Bill

Watch "NORM" on PBS, after a year, he only uses his DELTA radial arm saw 2 times. However, he uses his MITER was a lot.

Hope this helps.
Good luck in BILOXI.....John,PA.

I've seen too many Sears models with motors quitting after very little use. The basic model I bought from Sears in 1970 still works, but a fancy Sears electronic model I bought in the late 80's has cost a great deal in repairs, including circuit boards (none of which now work) and motor.

I use it for all my ripping, though, several thousand feet of material a year. It's a one-man operation with a RAS, and the saw takes up much less space than a table saw. For crosscuts I use a Delta 12" compound mitre saw, the first tool I have ever owned which is accurate. A skil-saw does rare centre cuts on plywood.

Picking up on what Bernoulli said in his earlier post, I've heard that the versatility and portability of power miter saws and compound miter saws has just about made radial arm saws obsolete. A Craftsman 10" RAS was my first major tool purchase (major to me in 1975 being a tool that cost more than $100.) I used it a lot while I was renovating old houses and could leave it set up in one place for a reasonable amount of time. When I started doing more remodeling contracting, it was just too much trouble to haul it around.

I think a RAS, like a full size table saw, is a good tool in a shop. A power miter saw and a benchtop table saw make more sense to take to a jobsite. On the other hand, my BIL has a small production woodworking shop where he has all the common shop tools. When I go in his shop I always note that his Delta-Rockwell RAS (60+ years old and probably only good for another 150) is collecting cobwebs while his Ryobi/Hitachi/Makita/whatever compound miter saw always appears to have fresh sawdust on it. He's nothing if not practical.

Just my $0.02, Stan

The last time I was in Home Depot they had a similar but updated model in their Rigid line.

If I needed to rip sheets of soft metal I'd most likely sandwich the metal between layers of scrap wood and cut away.

A band saw does a great job on aluminum and brass with a regular blade, and is much safer to operate. Just don't try to use a blade for wood after cutting ABS.

Wishful thinking to combine the two.

Could a RAS with metal cutting blade safely make cuts from outside to inside?

Thanks, Mel