[OT] Radial arm saw vs table saw

[J Tiers]

Mitre saw is more or less a miniaturized RAS not quite as useful in general, optimized for mitreing stuff. Most of them cannot cut a shelf board, RAS can.

Disagree with Mr Stumpy a bout using ONLY at 90 deg... it's not that hard to be accurate and get it back to 90 deg. Some have stops for all the usual angles.

Have to agree, the marketing stuff was true, but often pretty "leaky" as a technique. Forget that stuff, but what experienced users of RAS say is normally at least do-able within reason.

[Paul Alciatore]

J, you may have a point there. Yes, the radial arm saw I used did have a four leg support. It may have been better with a better base, I do not know.

It did leave a bad taste in my mouth in regard to RASs. Irrespective of that, I still do not like a RAS for my shop with limited space. I do think my combination of a small, light table saw and a track saw is a very good one. It seems to handle all my wood cutting needs.

OK, I do have a couple of saber saws and my Unimat has at least three saw accessories but they are only useful for small jobs. The table saw is my most used wood cutting saw for small to medium sized projects and the track saw takes over when larger stock must be cut.

Puzzling statement. Evidently your saw had a 4 leg support connected to the base. If the saw is attached to a support that is not flexible, then the problem you complain of is small to non-existent.

Mine is attached to a generally cubical steel base, which essentially does not distort. It has not been a problem when moved.

[Paul Alciatore]

There is no argument that a good fence is a totally necessary accessory for a table saw. But an accurate miter gauge AND accurate, not over width, table slots for it to follow is also a totally necessary accessory.

A sled is also a very worthwhile accessory. I think one of the reasons why a well made sled is so nice is that they can follow, not one, but TWO slots. This can greatly improve the angular accuracy of cuts. Nothing is more frustrating than a picture frame that does not add up to four right angles. And wood filler does not look good under a clear finish.

Paul, are you really that hard up that you need to buy a sub $100 rusty old POS? Neither the Nu-Way nor the Powercraft are worth the $50 they are asking. You'd need to do a bundle of fixes to either of them. And they are cheap now because they were cheap then. Frankly? Instead of either of these two POS's or any similar ones you can find you would be far better off with a nice middle of the road circular saw, a pair of proper saw horses and a few of the easily made cutting jig aids to use with the circular saw for doing anything with sheet goods and more than a few things with boards.

I can say for sure that from my years of wood working with table saws that the rip fence is at least as important as the motor the saw uses. And if you can't buy a good and proper rip fence with proper guides for it then the saw that happens to come with the fence setup as an after thought means precious little. Even if it's the best saw and table in creation if the fence sucks then the saw fails miserably.

And trust me, the fences on the two rusty POS's you have found so far will be enough to drive you to drink... and not in the usual good way.....

[Bob La Londe]

You will get some old razz users who will swear by them, but I grew up using a yaz and later switch to a table saw. The table saw is the more capable machine. There are a couple little things you can do on a Raz that you can't do on a table saw, but usually only on the top end industrial ones.

[PStechPaul]

I am convinced that the table saw is my best option, but at this point I can do everything I need with just my circular saw and possibly the miter saw and various other hand or power tools. I'll still occasionally check the listings and perhaps I'll find a good table saw for sale close enough to me to not involve a long road trip. I'm also looking for a pressure washer, which was discussed here a while ago.

[BCRider]

If you're mostly just breaking down sheet stock and running the odd rip on a board then get onto YT and put in "circular saw guide" as the search terms.

You'll get back a bunch of videos on how to use the commercial guide kits as well as some pretty slick looking home made options for guide plates that you can use with your present circular saw. Try watching a few of them and you may find that your desire for a table saw for basic operations might fade.

Where the table saw shines is times where you're doing more complex tasks. But that's where a GOOD saw with a good fence arrangement AND the good well made table slots (that was a good point you brought up Paul A.) comes into play. You won't get that sort of quality on the contractor saws or the cheap rusty options you've found so far. I'm afraid that if you're after a saw that does good detail work where with a good blade the wood is ready for gluing right off the saw that you won't get that sort of saw for $100. But if you go into it with a focus on doing the fancier work by looking for a good accurate table and fence then the good quality arbor will come with the rest of those things.... but at a higher price I'm afraid.

In the meantime with your circular saw, a quickie table made from saw horses and a few support boards and a home made set of guide bars you can do an amazing lot of normal work.

Even for cross cutting wider boards or "shelving" that won't fit into your miter saw? You can make up a rig from a few boards where your circular saw is supported above a 1.5" gap and you can cross cut that sort of stock easily and quickly. Again go onto YT and look up the terms "circular saw cross cut". You can try putting in "jig" or "guide" as well but in this case using fewer terms gets you more results. Lots of good ideas in the results you can build at home to extend and greatly speed up the uses of your circular saw.

[Bob La Londe]

Speaking of contractors saws. I have one. A buddy of mine talked me into getting it over 20 years ago. Its a Rigid from Home Depot. I am not a fan of Rigid or their fake lifetime warranty or the down turn I observed in the last couple Rigid product I bought which lead me to form the opinion that their lifetime warranty is a fake.

HOWEVER. My buddy and I went through the manual and setup and adjusted that saw perfectly when I bought it. I may misrecall, but I think we spent a couple hours on that. It did many projects as well in my opinion as the giant cabinet saw in his shop. Even my buddy was impressed with it. He worked for me for a few years and he did many projects with my saw. Its only now getting to the point where I am considering a new fence for it.

I am absolutely NOT extolling the virtues of Home Depot Rigid. I am saying if you don't buy the cheapest one a contractor's saw can do very good work if you take the time to set it up properly.

That being said my favorite accessory for breaking down sheet goods is a sheet of styro foam to lay the sheet goods on. Then I use a Skill Worm Drive mounted on an edge guide. I set the width and make the cut. Its far superior to a contractors saw or a RAS for doing that job.

[Shiseiji]

For what it's worth. My garage is full to the brim. I have both a 10" Craftsman TS with a Vega fence and a 10" Craftsman RAS. The TS gets a fair amount of use and is next to the big door so it can roll out when needed.

The TS has the old school cast iron wings and a router table to use the fence. I swapped for another dead TS with CI wings. I added them to mine so I can cut a sheet but don't. Wish I had fixed the 2nd saw as I saw double with a dado set in the second table. Takes up a lot of space with the long wings.

My back is bad so sheet goods are cut on the old hollow door with ridged foam on top and a good guide on the now Bora fold up legs. So very compact. Long and short Guides are in a tube on the ceiling.

The trued up Craftsman RAS with a NEGATIVE TOOTH blade is mostly a bench or an outfeed table for the 12" chop saw. Probably to be sold before moving.

[J Tiers]

Several seem to have mentioned trying to use an RAS, or for that matter a table saw, for breaking down 4 x 8 sheets.

Yah... using one of those 18" x 18" little boxy "contractor saws"? With the sheet hanging over on all sides? Trying those crazy "over the edge" cuts with the RAS? The "over the edge " cuts only work for certain sizes of cut pieces anyhow, whoever came up with that idea was off their chump.

You gotta be kidding! The RAS is not meant for that. The table saw is not meant for that. It's just a case of "I only got a hammer, so everything is a nail".

The right tool for the job is a panel saw. There isn't another right tool for that job.

If you do not have a panel saw, then lay the sheet down on some blocks, get your saw guide, and cut the sheet with a circular saw using the guide. It's basically creating a panel saw without the frame.

Making THAT argument against the RAS is really dredging the bottom of the barrel hoping someone will believe you.

[PStechPaul]

Today I ripped a 4 ft piece of old 1 x 6 lumber to make a 1 x 4 (3/4" x 3.5"). I just clamped the piece to a sheet of 1/2" OSB on sawhorses, using my circular saw, and it was no problem. Ripping an 8' or 10' 2 x 6 or 2 x 8 board would be a bit harder, and a TS would be helpful, but not really necessary for a few pieces. And the circular saw is much easier to store and move. I'd still buy a decent TS for $50-$100 if I found one nearby, but not looking too hard. It would be particularly nice for slotting using dado blades, but no immediate or foreseen needs.

[gellfex]

I have a Ryobi CS that literally moves 6" when the motor is kicked on from the torque. I'm used to it but was alarming when first put to use.(

My Ryobi BT3000 is rock solid. Had to change the bearings 2 years ago after 22 years, but it's a great little saw with some cool design you don't usually see, like the sliding table. When I rented my 1st shop in 86 in a Tribeca basement loft it had been a cabinet shop that went bust, and they left a variety of large tools including a huge ancient 14" Rockwell 3 phase cabinet saw with a full 8'x 6' runout table. That thing was a beast! The landlord offered it to me when I moved but I had no room for it, the pillars in my basement shop make using the Ryobi tricky, and I can't even get full sheets into the basement anyway. I usually have the lumberyard cut em in half one way or the other.

On a renovation site I use the circular saw and a nice clean 1x6 as a fence for sheet goods, but nothing can replace a TS for something like thinning a molding by 1/8". Sliding miter saws have made the RAS obsolete.

[J Tiers]

..................... Sliding miter saws have made the RAS obsolete.

Only for cutting 2 x 4 or other small stuff, and to do that (if you want to claim it) they have "become an RAS" effectively, just of a small and limited type.

I do not give a **** what saw you use..... None of the "substitutes" seem to do what I want done. Not even the sliding miter saw.

[boslab]

Elu used to do a rather neat flip over saw, it operated as a chop and circular saw, quite a solid bit of kit, mostly castings, direct drive saws are crap imho, belted are the standard iron table mandatory try saw stop or somthing
mark

[Bob La Londe]

several seem to have mentioned trying to use an ras, or for that matter a table saw, for breaking down 4 x 8 sheets.

bwahahahahahahahahah

that being said my favorite accessory for breaking down sheet goods is a sheet of styro foam to lay the sheet goods on. Then i use a skill worm drive mounted on an edge guide. I set the width and make the cut. Its far superior to a contractors saw or a ras for doing that job.

The whole thing about sheet goods was really peripheral to RAS vs TS.

[J Tiers]

bwahahahahahahahahah



The whole thing about sheet goods was really peripheral to RAS vs TS.

Agree.... but some brought it up as an argument against.......