Craftsman Radial Arm Saw
My dad bought this saw in 1975. He gave it to me many years later. I see my radial arm saw as an indispensable tool. All power tools demand respect. Ripping is a little iffy. If you get this tool first (like I did) then you are likely to get the holy piss scared out of you once or twice during a ripping operation.
Some claim that Power Miter saws have replaced the need for a radial arm saw, but I don't agree.
Reasons
- More crosscut capacity
- The ability to cut dados and tenons by raising the saw above the table
What I use it for
- Cross cutting – This is the tool for it. Just clamp a stop to the fence and go to town. I once dog eared 200 fence boards that way. There is no way to repeatedly perform this operation as quickly and accurately on a table saw, even with a crosscut sled (mine hangs on the wall waiting for a chance to cut a panel that exceeds the capacity of my Radial arm Saw)
- Dadoes – When cross cutting a dado, this is the tool to use. Clamp a stop to the fence and you can repeat the operation on multiple pieces. It even makes accurate measuring less important because after all, the most important thing is that all the pieces are the same (isn’t it).
- Tenons – I make all of my tenons on this tool just like Norm.
- Drum Sanding - The motor has a Chuck on one end. I use it to sand curved shapes with drum sanders
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