On 8/8/11 5:34 PM, Doug Winterburn wrote:
On 8/8/2011 3:19 PM, -MIKE- wrote:
On 8/8/11 3:05 PM, Steve Turner wrote:
On 08/08/2011 02:43 PM, dpb wrote:
On 8/8/2011 2:25 PM, J. Clarke wrote:
In , says...
On 8/8/2011 9:38 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
...
While an RAS, perfectly aligned, is a wonderful tool, bump it in the
wrong place and you have to go through the whole process again. I
just
don't get the same repeatability out of the RAS that I do out of a
crosscut sled on the table saw.
...
If a simple bump can do that, it's the POS in "POS RAS" that's the
problem, not that it was a RAS... 
It's inherent in the design. Bump the end of the arm from the side and
something's going to give. It's called "leverage".
...
It'd take a hell of a bump to move the arm on my RAS16; you'll regret
you hit it and learn
not to do that again if you were to do so...
In the roughly 35 years I've not had it be an issue _ever_ so my
conclusion is either
there's something wrong in a shop that one would get hit so hard and
often or it's simply
too flimsy if a casual bump can knock it out of line.
I've seem the small DeWalts (Dad had one for 'round the farm) and I've
also seen several
various Craftsmans of similar lightweight construction; them I'll
grant aren't much of a
tool as far as sturdiness goes altho I used the one Dad had for the
kitchen cabinets rather
than drag mine from VA to KS and it was serviceable. I'd label it in
the POS class, though,
simply because it was so lightweight. It was also seriously
under-powered for anything other
than softwoods or at most 4-quarter hardwoods
Not so w/ the 16RAS; it weighs nearly 400 lb; I doubt the DeWalt
weighed 100.
I have a Craftsman 10" RAS that I use for 90-degree crosscuts ONLY, and
I never adjust it away from that position. I could see how it could get
knocked out of adjustment if got a good wack, and I do check it
periodically but it never seems to do that of its own accord, so I'm
happy with it. I would like to have a *serious* big-daddy RAS to replace
it, but I'm slightly space constrained and I see no immediate reason to
seek one out. If a professional quality RAS is as useless as a lot of
people here would have us believe, I'd like to see what every home
center and lumber yard would do if you tried to take theirs away.
I was just using mine and even though the settings are still dead on,
it's just such a PITA to change the angles of the cuts. You have raise
the height to change the angle (because of how the blade cuts into the
table in order to make a through cut, then lower it back down.
Every time you want to change either angle.
That's a big reason most guys use it only for crosscuts.
You should use a sacrificial table in front of the fence, usually of
1/4" ply. This eliminates cutting into the main table. It also lets you
adjust the saw for miter cuts without raising or lowering the arm by
returning the motor/blade behind the fence, adjusting the miter and them
making the miter cut while only cutting into the sacrificial table. You
do have to raise/lower the arm for bevel cuts though.
I've never had to replace the main table on my RAS as it has never been
touched by a blade. Fences OTOH are a disposable item. I make mine out
of poplar. I use baltic birch for the sacricial table and they usually
last 4-5 years.
I use a sacrificial top. The original is virgin.
I make a lot of bevels, which makes it a PITA imo.
--
-MIKE-
"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com
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