I have a Craftsman RAS, circa 1980, which has been a good worker for 25
years. My shop is my garage, so the RAS, which hugs the wall, fits better
than a table saw. I agree that ripping with the RAS can be scary,
especially on hardwood, but many times I need to rip pieces less than 36"
long. I made an auxilliary fence that clamps to the regular fence at right
angles. It can be quickly clamped in place at the right distance, trued
with a square and clamped at the other end. Then I can rip with the end
against the regular fence with no problem and no fear of the piece binding
and shooting at me. On the other side of the saw from me is a window - I
have never shot a wood projecile at it.

When I have to rip a longer piece, I use my bandsaw first.

Steve

wrote in message
...
My dad bought a brand-new 12" DeWalt RAS which was eventually offered
to me when he passed and I turned it down. It was too big for my
needs, and frankly I was always tentative with that animal. Can any
of you guys remember when DeWalts were painted a speckled mint green,
had a metal stand and had handles for lugging it around? That's the
baby. We had it semi-permanently located with fixed 8' benches on
either side of it, each bench obviously having a "fence" that matched
the DW and there was a garage door at one end and about 6' of dead
space to the back wall at the other end. Great cross-cut tool, but I
never liked ripping with that blade where it was. I think the saw was
about 36" wide itself.

I have a 10" TS (Sears) and a 8½" SCMS (Hitachi) that can cut 12" if I
need it. I love the Hitachi because it works so well, is soooo
portable, and stores easily. I can honestly say that if I hit the
jackpot and wanted to re-equip, I'd never by a RAS. But that's just
me, plenty of others here love'em. BTW, most times I'm either bearing
down, or pushing the SCMS into the cut... rather than pulling it thru
like I did with the DW.

As many here have said, his decision will be based on a lot of
variables including space, money, quality, type of work, safety, and
more. Whatever floats his boat.

Mike


On 10 Feb 2005 07:46:38 -0800, "Chris Nail"
wrote:

I've got a friend that is contemplating the purchase of a radial arm
saw vs. a sliding compound miter saw. Most of the work will be around
his home as he's doing "home improvement" type work. I don't have a
clue about a radial arm saw but have used a sliding compound miter saw
some. Could you all please give some advantages/disadvantages or
compare the two?

Thanks,

Chris Nail