On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 22:25:13 GMT, "CW" wrote:

No. You DO need an education on the RAS.

So educate us.

When I use a spindle moulder (shaper in the US) it's a great big hefty
cast-iron thing. I still have to worry about rigidity.

With a RAS, then the beefiest I can think of is a Wadkin BRA - big
cast-iron thing. Now these are pretty solid machines and not prone to
the "alloy extrusion and undamped wobble" problems that give most RAS
such a bad name. All the same though, there's about three foot of
distance through the column and the arm, and a couple of movable
adjustments or slides, that you just don't have on a spindle moulder. So
concerns over a RAS' lack of rigidity are far from unreasonable.