What happened to your post?o

 

Nope. Miter saw. 👍

 

I haven't seen a radial arm saw in twenty years.
Large, heavy, dangerous machine that didn't do anything very well.

 

I haven't seen a radial arm saw in twenty years.
Large, heavy, dangerous machine that didn't do anything very well.

You didn’t know how to use it

Mike

 

No.
Radial arm saw is so 1980s.

I started using a sliding compound miter saw in 2004 as a Framer. I took some grief from other framers who thought I didn’t know how to use a worm drive or sidewinder saw like I needed training wheels.

Then my framing jobs we’re getting more compliments for cleanliness and accuracy than the hacks I was competing against. A chopsaw has its place and can really make mass production of accurate cuts possible.

 

Radial arm saws can be an invaluable tool for those who know how and where to use them.

 

Still commonly used in small-scale milling operations. 👍

 

Why would you want to set one up at job site. I guess no one would steal it. To big to be moving each night. Sold my last one in 2006. Was used as a rough out saw before material was moved to more precise finish procedures on table saw in a shop. A miter saw is what you want to use on a job site along with a track saw and table saw. I also would be concerned about liability because of others using one that don’t understand the dangers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Why would you want to set one up at job site. I guess no one would steal it. To big to be moving each night.

Not if made portable & moved properly. I’ve got a lot of chit that is way harder to handle & set up

Mike

 

I got rid of mine in the past year. Way too handy for some things.

 

My radial arm saw has been a dedicated vinyl siding saw since I bought it in the 80’s. I put a 12 foot 2x12 on it for siding and soffit. Don’t do much siding anymore.
nicko

 

We used to use the 8 inch Craftsman radials for vinyl. Put hinged plywood wings on them and had a huge work table.

Now I use a Tapco cut table. Safer and easier to transport.

But the radial was faster to load and do production work.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

I cut my teeth on a redial arm saw. We had one we would tow to the jobsite.


Mike.
___
[emoji631] [emoji631]

 

Better yet, me on the radial & you on the rail

Mike

 

In the blue corner, weighing in at an arduous 97 lbs, the rrrrrrradial arm saw!

 

I dont remember ever seeing a radial arm saw on a jobsite here wether a giant retirement community or a custom home. Most just cut right on the pile not wanting to move material twice.

 

Back in the day we would cut our own blocks.

When cutting 1000 blocks the radial was an absolute necessity. Set up a stop and cut a few at one time.

We had one or two guys that's all they did was cut packages to stay ahead of the framers.


Mike.
___
[emoji631] [emoji631]

 

As for the title of the page -square cuts .I have this pet peeve ,guy goes out and buys the best fanciest miter saw and puts on a cheap saggy stand . Like Mike just posted about the setup being important .Same with any saw ,needs to be set up right .

 

There's radial arm saws and then there's RADIAL ARM SAWS. Like Griz mentioned, your cheap craftsman ain't gonna cut it. That was just a cheap value engineered price point homeowner saw. Get an old school Delta, Dewalt, or even Comet, mounted on a trailer, and you have a cut station that moves from job to job and can handle Joists, rafters, blocking and what all else. Choosing the correct blade is essential. You don't want to take the blade from your miter saw or table saw and try to use it on the Radial arm.

 

Here's my answer. Something like a shed, I may cut on the pile. Interior remodels, I never cut on the pile. Interior remodels was where I was using the RAS just a few months ago.

Like anything, you use a different blade depending on what you're doing.

 

I tried them a couple times over the years, but I don't see how they are worth the trouble on most jobs.

 

Doing remodels, load in, load out, and setup time starts to dominate the project. I made a decision to get rid of as much equipment as I could, possibly more than I should have. If I need something I thought I could do without, I'll buy another one.

 

The only radial arm saw I can remember was in shop class in high school in 1984. I remember that you had to turn the crank to raise/lower the blade above the cutting deck And that the way the blade spun, it was like it wanted to lunge at you if you weren’t paying attention

I don’t think we used it for anything. I want to say that the brand name was Delta because all the big heavy duty equipment back then was mostly delta.

 

With the amount of cutting we were doing and the size of the jobs, there's no way in hell a miter saw would've stayed in one piece or let alone true.

The Radial just made sense.


Mike.
___
[emoji631] [emoji631]

 

Like i said earlier theres not a miter saw that would hold up on a commercial or residential crew.

Be destroyed by lunch...

The big RAS last forever and pretty bullet proof.

Just cuz you've never had a REAL one is no reason to knock them.

Only used to crosscut...

 

Like i said earlier theres not a miter saw that would hold up on a commercial or residential crew.

griz, you've said some silly $#!t, but that has to be about the silliest. Following this "reasoning" you'd drive to work in a tank so you'd never have to worry about a fender bender.

 

Yeah, they were scary for ripping.

First day on the job doing vinyl. Guy tells me to use the radial arm saw to rip a panel.

OK. I spin it, start running it through and it shot that panel 30 feet and then up and over the hood and roof of my car.

Couldn't imagine if that had been a 1x.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

Gears in most tools are sintered metal.

 

I wasn't paying attention in the 80s, but I was seeing them around in the 90s.
Last time I saw a GC have one in the house was about 2010 or so. That guy was old school cool though.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

Way long ago I worked on a commercial job running the survey crews that set line and grade. We were building a major addition to a hardwood paper mill. For one long snowy winter we formed and poured huge foundations for equipment and buildings, with the average day seeing between 30 and 60 redi-mix truckloads of concrete. Pads to 7 feet thickness. 3" dia anchor bolts. The carpenter crew was about a hundred men, and in their large heated shop were two large cut stations, each having a 16" radial arm saw wired to 220V. All the formwork for the 'crete was plywood and 2x lumber, and it all got cut in the shop. The saws ran all day every day.

 

Way long ago I worked on a commercial job running the survey crews that set line and grade. We were building a major addition to a hardwood paper mill. For one long snowy winter we formed and poured huge foundations for equipment and buildings, with the average day seeing between 30 and 60 redi-mix truckloads of concrete. Pads to 7 feet thickness. 3" dia anchor bolts. The carpenter crew was about a hundred men, and in their large heated shop were two large cut stations, each having a 16" radial arm saw wired to 220V. All the formwork for the 'crete was plywood and 2x lumber, and it all got cut in the shop. The saws ran all day every day.

Back in my union days as a young carp, radials were set up on every job. As mentioned above, they ran all day. True & everlasting. Timber framer buddy of mine has parts for all of them ever made. He’s got some old chit, a lot of it 2nd & 3rd gen. passed down

Mike