Shopsmith Forums

My local Habitat store has an old, but well preserved Black & Decker radial arm saw for $100. It is from when they were a quality tool, before they were acquired by God knows who.... It is in very good condition, but I still wonder if I should wait and get a sliding miter saw... The tool vortex is pulling again!

ChrisNeilan wrote:My local Habitat store has an old, but well preserved Black & Decker radial arm saw for $100. It is from when they were a quality tool, before they were acquired by God knows who.... It is in very good condition, but I still wonder if I should wait and get a sliding miter saw... The tool vortex is pulling again!

Chris, been there, I picked up a Dewalt (Old time) radial saw a number of years ago for $125.00 and never regretted it. Better quality, and the don't make them like that anymore. I also have a sliding miter saw that I bought to install a hardwood floor, that I now rarely use, and may end up parting with.

I use the radial more, and once set up, works great for me.

Plus I the big scheme of things what's a c-note. Short $ to add to the collection.

Steve

I have used a Sears alot for cross cutting or angle cuts, blade always grabs the wood when pulling it towards me, I just had a thought, maybe I am using it wrong and should extend it and cut into the piece. Please correct me if I have been doing it wrong. If you have it extended, and cut into the piece the piece will want to rise off the table, right? I dont have that problem on the compound miter saw, the grabbing I mean.

A radial arm saw should never be used fully extended and then retracted to cut the board. It should always be used retracted and pulled across the board to cut. The cutting action will push the board down on the table and give a clean cut on the top side of the board.

stephen_a._draper wrote:A radial arm saw should never be used fully extended and then retracted to cut the board. It should always be used retracted and pulled across the board to cut. The cutting action will push the board down on the table and give a clean cut on the top side of the board.

This is how it done for sure.

Most modern models have a cable or other mechanism which limits how fast the saw can move so the climb cut can not get away from you. When I worked as a carpenters helper this was the job site saw we used, never heard of a miter box until many years later. The worst job was ripping which resulted in your whole front side being cover in saw dust......... and no one wore dust masks back then.

If you happen to have an model of Craftsman saw they had a recall but I don't recall the specifics. It was the saw my brother has/had. I think they had a defect in the hold back method.

Ed

stephen_a._draper wrote:A radial arm saw should never be used fully extended and then retracted to cut the board. It should always be used retracted and pulled across the board to cut. The cutting action will push the board down on the table and give a clean cut on the top side of the board.

Exactly and pull the stock against the fence.

ERLover, what do you mean "the blade grabs the wood"? It will do that (it is supposed to) but if the wood is against the fence then there is no wood movement as it should be.

I used to use an 8" cast iron Dewalt RAS when I worked for my Uncle in the late 60's. It was sweet. I swear it took almost 5 minutes to stop turning when you shut it off.

ERLover wrote:I have used a Sears alot for cross cutting or angle cuts, blade always grabs the wood when pulling it towards me, I just had a thought, maybe I am using it wrong and should extend it and cut into the piece. Please correct me if I have been doing it wrong. If you have it extended, and cut into the piece the piece will want to rise off the table, right? I dont have that problem on the compound miter saw, the grabbing I mean.

You are probably using a blade with positive hook. A radial arm saw should always use a negative hook blade. Most blades are positive hook since that works well for table saws.

Ed in Tampa wrote:

ERLover wrote:I have used a Sears alot for cross cutting or angle cuts, blade always grabs the wood when pulling it towards me, I just had a thought, maybe I am using it wrong and should extend it and cut into the piece. Please correct me if I have been doing it wrong. If you have it extended, and cut into the piece the piece will want to rise off the table, right? I dont have that problem on the compound miter saw, the grabbing I mean.

You are probably using a blade with positive hook. A radial arm saw should always use a negative hook blade. Most blades are positive hook since that works well for table saws.

Thumbs up for your bring this up, you are correct the correct blade is needed for radial arm saws. While some GP blades will work you get better results using the correct blade.

Ed

On the recall, they gave you a whole new top and blade guard with anti kick back stuff for ripping, that did not go over so good, so then they would give you $100 and shipping to send them the power head.
No I always had the wood against the fence, put not a negative, hook blade.
I think Freud just came out with them in the last year or 2 for miter saws, on my to get list in thin kerf. Since I have a Freud 80 tooth full kerf on the miter saw now, and think it is a positive hook, I bought it about 8 years ago.

ERLover wrote:On the recall, they gave you a whole new top and blade guard with anti kick back stuff for ripping, that did not go over so good, so then they would give you $100 and shipping to send them the power head.
No I always had the wood against the fence, put not a negative, hook blade.
I think Freud just came out with them in the last year or 2 for miter saws, on my to get list in thin kerf. Since I have a Freud 80 tooth full kerf on the miter saw now, and think it is a positive hook, I bought it about 8 years ago.

The recall was the installation of a safety shield. However some machines were not adaptable to the fix. So they offered two options. For one set of serial numbers they would send you the update kit. For the set of serial numbers that could not be upgraded they offered $100 if you sent them the power head,thus rendering the machine useless.
It had nothing to do with how well it went over.