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Comet Manufacturing RAS
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 10:42 am
by dgale
My father-in-law stopped by yesterday and gave me a radial arm saw he got from a friend - too big for his shop so he passed it on to me:
The tag is hard to read but it says:
Comet Radial Power Saw
Patented
Power Speed Accuracy
Manufactured and Distributed By
Comet Mfg. Co
A Division of the Siegler Corp
Model F Serial WK6818
Anyone ever see one of these? He told me it was made in the 50's and will crosscut up to 18" (!). Based on the blade guard size (9"), it would fit a 8-1/4" to 8-1/2" blade. Motor purrs like a kitten. Just curious if anyone has any familiarity with this saw?
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 11:40 am
by rpd
I have never seen one. There is a bit of information on
VintageMachinery.org
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 11:42 am
by heathicus
Never heard of it before but here's the Vintage Machinery page for Comet:
http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgIndex/de ... 1221&tab=0
Yours looks like it says Model F, which I don't see listed anywhere on Vintage Machinery. But it looks a heck of a lot like the model "UB" series that there are pictures of on the "Photo Index" tab (there's a UBA, UBB, and, UBD pictured).
Regardless, it's pretty awesome!
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 4:44 pm
by robinson46176
Back in the early 1950's a neighbor that we rented some farm ground from bought a Skill radial saw that operated in a similar manner to this one in that the whole arm slid in and out rather that moving on a stationary arm.
It was extremely heavy but the cutting head was actually a Skill gear drive power hand saw that you could remove to use by hand. I believe that the sliding arm was a solid steel square bar about 2 inches square. I was pretty young in the early 1950's...
.
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 5:42 pm
by dgale
This one slides on two ~2" steel tubes, very similarly to how the headstock slides on a SS. The difference here is that the motor is mounted to the tubes and the motor/tubes slide back and forth through the stationary/rotating bracket. This is what gives it such a long reach but also requires that it be set up 18"+ from the wall as the tubes extend out the back that far when the blade is pushed all the way back. I need to build a table for it and time will tell how accurate and square it will cut.