Radial Arm Saw User’s Advice?

[Hey-O]

...or done this-

View attachment 1597884

At some point you have to do a reach around to push and pull on it. No thanks!!

 

[YY1]

It's fun to say "kerfwidth".

 

[YY1]

On a similar note-

Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.

 

[YY1]

I paid 25 bucks for that saw at an estate sale around the corner.

SN says it's made between 1954 and 1964 IIRC.

It gets a fair amount of use.

Does about 85% of what a table saw can do, plus a few things.

 

[toolmanmike]

On a similar note-

Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.

View attachment 1597887

Lath for snow fence?

 

[YY1]

Lath for snow fence?

Close.

Part of an exterior door frame that's prone to rot at the base.

Second time rebuilding it in 10 years.

 

[Ceedawg]

A chainsaw is the most dangerous tool ever made.

Along with a women

 

[Ceedawg]

In my shop (gone now) we used the Dewalt RAS over 60 years, cross cut and Dados. As far as table level there’s adjusting legs under that carriage for the table. Not once in all those years did I adjust the carriage after the first time.
NOT A MACHINE in my shop was dangerous, it was the unknowingly person using it. My dad and Grandad in the 40s used a 16” Dewalt RAS to rip, crosscut and used a molder head (which I still have) to make window sashes. All in one type machine

 

[Ron H]

Mentioned in my earlier post investigating injuries...wow, there were some gruesome cases, couple of them were at HS shops. I had a couple occasions to get downright pissed seeing inexperienced employees or kids using unguarded machines, recalling some old press brakes and mech presses as well. One shop owner had taken the guards off his machines seeing all those stuffed in a mezzanine. Was doing a survey for the ins co having their work comp. I said geez, you gotta have those guards on them. He said eff-no, they're a PIA. That's it huh? Here's what I have to do, I'm going to the nearest payphone (before cell phones) to advise the company to cancel your WC insurance immediately. Part of being peeved, was a case I investigated around that time; young lady who lost 8 fingers on a brake. She crushed them off, no possibility of reattaching as is possible with a clean-cut. She panicked when her fingers were caught, instead of stopping calling for help...geez, she hit the foot pedal again to complete the stroke. She was a gorgeous looking gal, a mom with a toddler.

Another was a 16-year-old HS kid cutting off his thumb on a portable table-saw in theater shop building stage props. (Ironic as I did the same in HS, plus doing some unbelievably dangerous chit hanging/moving heavy stage lights in the auditorium using an A-frame ladder with the vertical straight-ladder extension. That sucker had to be extended up so far, I'd sway back and forth hanging by one hand holding the 30lb light in the other. Was in gymnastics at the time so teach picked me and like a dumbass I said ok.)
Anyway, I have a photo of this POS saw, no fence, miter, or guard on it...when the kid thought it handy to just try cutting a small section out of a piece of plywood...

 

[j-c-c-62]

For all those with bad luck and missing fingers, I'm the guy that got the good luck, in that I never ever got a single scratch. I worked in HS and college in late 60's for a outfit that at the time probably did the concrete formwork on 50% of the high rises in So Florida. A 4x4 shore was a main stay of the process. The 4x4's were adjusted height wise by two wedge shaped 2x4's approx 12" long hammered oppositely together, to tighten/raise the 4x4 shore against the overhead slab/beam. With thousands of working employees, the company burned thru of thousands of them weekly. Thet were effectively created by cutting a 12" 2x4 diagonally end to end on the 3.5" vertical plane. The problem was the wood shop with 25 union carpenters were constantly suffering cuts/severed fingers in the process. It was very a monotonous and repetitious process. As an 18 year old I offered to take on the process. I removed the 5hp Dewalt RAS motor with a 14" carbide blade, built a custom table and slide feed assembly, put an aux fan on the motor. a fan on me, hired an associate to stack 12" 2x4's on the table as fast as 1 could cut them. Started on one end of the empty shop, and as wedges dropped off the table got to saw height, I'd back the table up eventually all the way to the door. The landlord never understood why on Monday mornings the community dumpster was always full of saw dust. The formwork company bought the 2x4's, loaned me the truck to transport, and I got a check on Monday upon delivery for few thousand dollars. I was living life large.

I shudder today about how dangerous it was with many hundreds of thousands of cuts with my fingers less than 1" away from an unprotected HS blade.
My biggest fear was a knot missing or falling out of a 12" 2x4 unbeknownst and my finger entering the open knot and would be cut it off.

 

[Ceedawg]

For all those with bad luck and missing fingers, I'm the guy that got the good luck, in that I never ever got a single scratch. I worked in HS and college in late 60's for a outfit that at the time probably did the concrete formwork on 50% of the high rises in So Florida. A 4x4 shore was a main stay of the process. The 4x4's were adjusted height wise by two wedge shaped 2x4's approx 12" long hammered oppositely together, to tighten/raise the 4x4 shore against the overhead slab/beam. With thousands of working employees, the company burned thru of thousands of them weekly. Thet were effectively created by cutting a 12" 2x4 diagonally end to end on the 3.5" vertical plane. The problem was the wood shop with 25 union carpenters were constantly suffering cuts/severed fingers in the process. It was very a monotonous and repetitious process. As an 18 year old I offered to take on the process. I removed the 5hp Dewalt RAS motor with a 14" carbide blade, built a custom table and slide feed assembly, put an aux fan on the motor. a fan on me, hired an associate to stack 12" 2x4's on the table as fast as 1 could cut them. Started on one end of the empty shop, and as wedges dropped off the table got to saw height, I'd back the table up eventually all the way to the door. The landlord never understood why on Monday mornings the community dumpster was always full of saw dust. The formwork company bought the 2x4's, loaned me the truck to transport, and I got a check on Monday upon delivery for few thousand dollars. I was living life large.

I shudder today about how dangerous it was with many hundreds of thousands of cuts with my fingers less than 1" away from an unprotected HS blade.
My biggest fear was a knot missing or falling out of a 12" 2x4 unbeknownst and my finger entering the open knot and would be cut it off.

Here’s a little secret, BOTH hands have to be locked onto something (guide, handle, fence) because your mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time. If was doing one handed because of space the other was behind my back.