I have a lowes cheapo blade. And have some more lowes blades unopened I got at black friday years ago. For an old burned up non carbide blade I replaced it with one of those irwin blades on an old circle saw to cut up my floor to pull the ply and hardwood out. Amazing how good that blade was compared to what it replaced!!! But I was cutting through nails and such. Broke a few car bides off.
The thing is with a radial arm saw a motor, you can't just go and replace it like a table saw band saw, drill press whatever, it has its own proprietary casing
I have a combination blade on the TS that is very good at ripping and cross-cutting. I can't remember how many tooth it is. I have very high tooth count cross-cut blades on the others.
Depends on the thickness of the stock whether or not you need, a rip blade or a high quality 40 tooth all purpose blade
You are correct. I am a hack of a carpenter. And I do get a good bit of tear out on the ends. If its something nice I just go real slow.
Just a little bit of nostalgic tool history here. I located my 1975 Craftsman tool book recently. These saws have/had a time and place for their use. Back when early do-it-yourself home building/carpentry was very popular, radial arm saws were a multi-use tool. Beside making cross cuts, ripping cuts, compound angle cross cuts, these saws had rotary molding head cutters, sanders, drill chucks (like Matt has on his) dado blades(adjustable wobbler and stack), rosette cutters and it goes on. The book has a lot of safety reminders, and there were a lot of jigs required to complete some of the operations. Looking through the book, I say to myself, "There is no way in heck I would even try that." I can see too many potential injuries on some of the operations. For cross cutting, great, more travel for wider boards than a miter saw. There are enough dedicated tools now that are safer and at reasonable prices to not need to try the extra features. It is an interesting read. Rotary planer head. Motor turned 90 Degrees. Cutter head assortments and the profiles they made. My favorite, the outward facing blade for horizontal ripping the edge of a board. This also allowed for making raised panels by setting a slight up angle to the blade.
I found a book like that Jon its got a lot of interesting stuff in it. I still havent been able to see about fixing the saw and Im not sure if its worth it but once things settle down a bit in the fall Ill look at it again. For now its going to have to just sit and wait Ive got way to much stuff on my plate right now only one free weekend until the second week on October
Just take some time to get all the alignments right and they're nice to use. Very fussy to get right, in my experience, but it's been a long time since I used one or set one up. I had one for quite a while, gave it to my FIL for a few years, then recently got it back. Bought it back in the mid-80s. No time to set it up right now, but when I do, it'll most likely be a single use crosscut saw setup. Maybe I'll put my stack set on. Would be a good winter project.
That looks like an MBF! I've seen this view before... Had to replace the bearings in mine as well. This was actually my grandfather's saw, given to him by my grandmother for Christmas in 1958. It's a great saw, but it does like to "climb" in the cut, unless you get the right kind of blade (Forrest Woodworker I)
Get a less aggressive blade. You'll get a much cleaner cut and the "climbing" will lessen. That's a great looking saw. ETA: DOH, I see you mentioned that already. N/M
I can't say if the Craftsman is worth putting in the time, money, and effort to fix, but likely the older, the better. The cast iron DeWalts that myself and HDRock have certainly are, however. Raymond DeWalt invented the RAS, and these were very popular in their day. I can almost guarantee that there's one listed in your local Craigslist within 20 miles of you. In terms of safety, this advice is coming from guys who like to play with chainsaws all day If you never do any ripping with it, there is about zero chance of kickback injury. In a crosscut setup, the blade spins "down and away" from you, instead of "up and towards" you, like a tablesaw. So in the event of a kickback (I've had this happen), it slams the workpiece down on the table and stalls the saw. Lots of noise, but nothing thrown in your direction. The table on yours looks to be in pretty good shape. If you do decide to fix it up, remember - it is not a cutting board! It won't say flat very long if you start cutting into it. You'll want to make a sacrificial table surface, like I have on mine. Just a piece of 3/16" or 1/4" luan plywood, just barely tacked in place, in the far corners where the saw can't hit the nails.
Going through some books in the shop recently,I found these classics - Radial Arm Saw Techniques published 1986.According to the date inside front cover it was purchased in March 1995.Dont know if its still in print (guessing it is) but Amazon used books should have plenty of good used copies for $3-5 max. Also some of the old farts like meself might recognize this ''bible'' of shop work - Cabinetmaking & Millwork by John L.Feirer. First published in 1967 (When McCulloch & Homelite were Kings Of The Forest,The Beatles ruled the charts,I was a rambunctious wee lad just 4 years old & 2 soon to be legends would take the Monterey Pop Festival by storm -Jimi Hendrix & Otis Redding - groovy baby yeah!!!so much for my Austin Powers impersonation ) Anyway....my copy is a 1977 3rd edition,one of the first shop books purchased in June 1982 . Pic 028 is the louvered sawdust collection box I made years ago,out of scraps of 1/4" Masonite & 3/4 doug fir plywood.At least one of the louvers fell outta its slot some time ago,I need to replace it..Since I have dust collector hose in the port of saw guard,this box traps the 20% or so that it don't suck up when saw is running.
Just for chits & giggles (nostalgia mostly lol) I grabbed a mint 1979 revised one for $10/free shipping on ebay today.Also seen a couple others a few years newer.
