DIYbanter - View Single Post - Craftsman Radial Arm Saw Recall / Free Upgrade Kit

J. Clarke[_4_]

In article om,
says...

On 7/24/2016 2:35 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
In article ,
says...

On Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 4:26:43 PM UTC-4, kimosabe wrote:
This is old news for some guys. Sears will send you a free
upgrade kit.
the new news is they are no longer sending a kit, instead you make
the saw worthless by sending parts to the company and they will
send you $100. Then you can buy a new one for $800, in otherwards
you have been screwed.

That was always the case for some models.

That's correct. My particular model was never eligible for the retrofit
kit like the others. In the end though, IF it is true that
Sears/Emerson Electric is no longer sending out the kits, to say one is
screwed is a rather ridiculous statement.

I'm not sure, but I'm reasonably certain that the retrofit offer has
been out there and fairly well published (and discussed) for at least
two decades, probably more. If you didn't take advantage of it, whose
fault is that?

OTOH, even though my RAS model was only ever eligible for the "turn in"
offer of $100, it still runs as well as it did when I bought it in the
early 70's. AFAIAC, it's one of the better Sears RAS that still had
some "beef" and, when properly set up and tuned was and is a great RAS.

The only thing the recall ever addressed was safety guard issues that,
again, are pretty much "non-issues" if you exercise the due care
required when using such tools.

Just my two cents.

Yep. To say that one is "screwed" is greatly overstating the case.
Getting a new table for free was nice, the new guard was more annoyance
than benefit and has been replaced with the old guard, so about all that
changed is that I saved the price of a half a sheet of MDF.