On 8/7/2011 8:09 PM, Max wrote:
"Leon" lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote


Well you may have answered your own question there Doug. While most
every one will agree that the RAS is not comforting to use in the rip
application, it is indeed built and intended to be used to rip
material. So that is probably why most every one would prefer to never
use one.

FWIW I owned one for about 5 years and build a lot of furniture that I
still own today and did quite a bit of ripping with it. For me I had
more problems with it while crosscutting, probably because I did
mostly cross cutting but I never got used to cutting into a narley SYP
knot and the blade and motor trying to climb up over the board rather
than cut through the knot, for what ever reason. ;~)

Three years after buying it I added a contractors saw to my shop and
literally never used the RAS again.



I've never had a problem with a RAS (I've never tried ripping) but my
son cross cut a piece of Oak and it climbed on him, broke a tooth off
the blade, misaligned the saw and he hasn't used it since.
Contrariwise, I've had a couple pieces of wood slung at me from a table
saw. Go figger. G

Max
I think the biggest problem with a RAS is that they can get knocked out
of alignment pretty easily and there are numerous adjustments to zero in
on. The table has to be parallel to the same plane that the carriage
rides on, the blade has to lock in parallel or 90 degrees to the path of
the carriage. The arm has to lock in at 90 degrees to the fence to make
a 90 degree cut and the fence is not always straight, once cut it can
warp or twist. It is imperative that you have flat straight stock when
cross cutting or you are going to have at least a little problem.
If you ever do rip with your RAS "remember" that you feed against the
rotation of the blade. While this sounds like common sense you can rip
from either side of the table. Typically for narrow stock you are on
the right side of the table with the motor pointing away from the arm
column. For wider rip capacity you can rip from the left side of the
table but be sure to rotate the motor so that it points towards the
column arm. Keep in mind that in this situation the stock needs to be
wide so that you can have room to push the stock through with out having
the motor interfere. Get any of those positions or steps backwards and
you end up with a board launcher.