GoldenPond

Would SOMEONE please tell the bumblers at FW who are stumbling through things electronic to wander off to California, or someplace. We're serious woodworkers, for heaven's sake!

Nice article.

But what the heck's a "hunge"?

I wrote a letter to FW a few years back suggesting that the RAS is overlooked. I've been using one (my second) for many years, and find two main advantages, plus a few others.

The big plus is that the saw takes up far less space in your shop than a table saw. You park it against the wall, instead of in the middle of the shop, as you have to with a table saw. That leaves more space for other things, like a jointer, bench, or assembly table. You don't have to waltz around an RAS the way you do for a table saw -- especially a big one.

Second, as already noted, the RAS is a champ for crosscuts. And for crosscuts on thick pieces (like a 4x4) it's MUCH easier and safer than a table saw.

Blade changes are easier too, and so are dadoes.

Nobody mentioned a feature that sold millions of these saws in the early days: their verstility. With the proper attachments, you can drill (including horizontally), sand, rout and even plane boards. When houses and shops were smaller, that meant a lot of woodworking capability in a pretty small space. Unfortunately the declining popularity of the RAS means nobody makes most of those attachments any more.

On the minus side, an RAS does not do well with sheet goods. The bigger they are, the tougher on ab RAS, long crosscuts on larger sheets just plain can't be done. Cutting box joints is impossible.

Ripping is the RAS's biggest limitation. Unlike the table saw, it takes at least a minute (usually more) to switch from crosscutting to ripping. And feeding some boards -- especially longer pieces of hardwood -- into the RAS to rip is not for the faint of heart. (Safety tip: use TWO push sticks -- one to push the board into the blade, the other to hold its outside edge and keep the cut from wandering away from the fence.)

Finally, there's the issue of quality, especially with the best known brand of radials. On mine, for example, the yoke simply cannot be trusted to pivot exactly 90 degrees when swithching for crosscut to rip mode. Two company installers and a replacement yoke plate could not fix the problem, and there's no excuse for it. (The Emerson co. made mine.) The unreliability means I have to measure the blade angle by hand every time switch to rip mode, and that wastes a lot of time.

Still and all, I love the thing, and will keep it, even when I win the lottery, bump out my shop, and spring for a top-of-the-line table saw.

Bruce Kinsey
Golden Pond Woodshop


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