I just bought a Craftsman RAS. It is the current model and has never been
used. I know it is "crap", but for 1/4 of the retail price it has got to be
a good value.

I expect I will have a number of questions in the future, but for now...

1) Tightening the carriage lock tilts the saw a couple degrees perpendicular
to the arm. As I understand it, the carriage is only locked when ripping,
and then tilting a couple degrees won't matter. Is that right, or are there
other times when the carriage is locked? Or should it not tilt at all? It
seems pretty stable without the lock on.
2) The guy didn't give me the riving knife or hold down. (actually my son
picked it up and he didn't know they existed) They are only used when
ripping, right? I don't expect to ever rip on it, so I really don't need
them, right? I expect he has them squirreled away somewhere in his
workshop, but he feels bad enough about losing 75% of his money without my
hassling him for something I will never use.
3) The laser comes on for about 10 seconds and then goes off. It that the
way it is supposed to work. I guess it is long enough to line the cut up,
but my (now broken) CMS stays on the whole time; so I am not sure and the
manual doesn't really say. It looks to be pretty much the same as the one
on my CMS, so I guess I could swap them, but maybe it is a battery saving
feature?