On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 14:58:31 -0400, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

Lee Michaels wrote:


"Tom Watson" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 02:09:12 GMT, Larry Kraus
wrote:

It goes even more quickly with a radial arm saw. Laying the material
flat on the table top is much more stable than sliding it vertically
along a tall fence.


Wouldn't tolerate one taking up shop space.

Never saw one that could maintain even depth over a twenty four inch
dado.

LOL

I like radial arm saws, but I know EXACTLY of what you speak.

I have a friend who tried to cut a very hard peice of aluminium on his
radial arm saw. It caused the arm to bend upward. If you tried to cut a
3/8' dado on a 9' board, the dado would start at 3/8' and end almost at
the surface.

So what this guy did was to cut the dado from both directions. Then cut
down the sides with a hand saw. Then chisel out the rest.

Not exactly fine woodworking.

What are you people _doing_ to those poor saws? It sounds to me like you're
trying to force the work. Let the saw do the work, feed it as fast as it
cuts. If it flexes 3/8 inch while cutting a dado then you need to _fix_ it
because it's _busted_.


I've owned three radicalalarm saws, the most recent being an Italian
made Dewalt that was intended for cabinet shop use (It was
green-looked kinda funny in a Delta grey shopppe).

The deal on the most recent one was that it would crosscut to 25",
thus making it useful in a casegoods shop, where tops have to be cut.

That sumbitch wouldn't hold a dado to depth, neither.

The geometry of the damned saw is all wrong for doing things that
involve maintaining a given depth over the run of the arm.

It would only crosscut to within about a thirty-second, which I did
not feel was good enough.

I've owned them, I've used them, I've treated them nice - they still
suck.

The geometry is all wrong.


A buddy of mine has one of the old lumberyard style Dewalts, bulky as
Bubba amd heavier than iron mound dirt, and he set it on ninety and
tack welded it,


It still only cuts to within a thirty-second.


To me they are the Swiss Army Knife of fixed equipment - and suffer
the same problems.




Tom Watson - WoodDorker
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/ (website)