Radial Arm Saw – What’s this button do??
I have always wanted to own a radial arm saw. Yesterday, I saw this lonely looking Montgomery Ward radial arm saw sitting in a corner of a garage sale, and I could not turn it down for $20. I am really impressed with all the levers and controls all over the saw. I can cut miter, angles tilt the motor, raise up and down. Pretty cool stuff. Problem is – I’m not sure what some of the other levers do. I can use some help ID’ing some of these functions.
1. The saw did not come with a table top. I would have to build a fence and table top, probably out of plywood. I see that the left and right sides have long through rods (front/back) appears to have some fence use (see picture). Does anyone know how I should be using this to layout my fence/table top assembly?
2. The motor is very loud, grindy, and dry sounding. What can I do to improve this performance? Are there user-replaceable parts like bearings that can be benefit from replacement? Are these readily accessible parts I can buy?
3. On the right side of the handle, there are 2 bolts designated for sanding and routing. They are ratioed differently from the blade to give higher or lower spinning RPMs. How does one attach anything on to these bolts? Were there special attachments that one could have purchased at the time (probably impossible to find now) or are there standard attachments once can purchase for these 5/8″ bolts?
Replies
Sorry to say but it would be most useful for rough cutting lumber to size and the tools From MW were not that precision. as with most other Radial arm saws.
Tony
Stream,
I have a Sears RAS. It was way out of adjustment when I inherited it. I downloaded the instruction manual and diagrams and went to work.
I found at least two functions on that saw that were installed incorrectly and never worked. I'm not sure who put the saw together originally. I know my Dad had at least a couple service people look at it, years ago. I guess he gave up.
Your saw looks like it's in not too bad shape. I found all the bearings and parts I needed through Sears, but some were just standard parts I could have gotten locally. I could have bought bearings a lot cheaper, I know now.
I would say get out the wrenches and have some fun. Unless that's not your idea of fun. It's excruciating to some.
--jonnieboy
It looks identical to one I used a lot several years ago. Mostly used it for cutting framing lumber and making a ton of picnic tables and floating docks. It was under the Eaton's store brand here in Canada as the Techomaster Professional Radial Arm Saw. It wasn't the most precise tool ever but it held up to a lot of use.
I can't remember a lot about setting it up but I do remember that initialy squaring it up was a pain.
You can find the manual on the Old Wood-Working Machines web site under 'Powr-Kraft' as the manufacturer.
http://owwm.com/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=657&tab=3
We never attached anything to the auxiliary power 'bolts'.
Good luck,
Adam
I'll second the other opinions, except possibly for rough cross cutting, radial arm saws are more trouble than they are worth, even at $20.00.
That said, the threaded rods are used to clamp the upright fence against the back edge of the table.
If the motor is making unhealthy sounds it will need to be taken apart to be repaired. The power head appears to have a gear box for the accessory drives, they noise is quite possibly coming from there. The gear box can probably be disconnected permanently to simplify the repair, the auxillary shafts are more or less useless anyway. The bearings are hopefully standard sized, but I have run into MW tools that used hard to locate custom sized ball bearings.
Shop Manager for FWW Magazine, 1998 to 2007
Too bad you never got to use a good one.
My ancient Dewalt is very accurate and trouble free. I have also used some Omga's that were very accurate. The offerings from The Original Saw company are also useful for more than rough cross cutting.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
Ahhhh
The RAS vs Other Tools Argument. It never ends. Some people love them, Some thing they are worthless.
Properly tuned, and square, they excell in cross cutting panels and frames. They are especially usefull in making repeatable tenon set ups with a dado blade.
I too have a 1950 something DeWalt, it weighs about 300lbs and is dead one accurate. It does have to be tuned once a year. Regards, Scooter "I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow." WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1934
I had one very similar to this, I took it apart and did some work on it. You can see the details here:http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39209&p=261125Never did get the different speeds working, at some point a previous owner had replaced the shaft with a shorter one so the gears no longer engaged. Dan
I have used good ones and I assembled and tested all of the models that were currently available a few years ago for a FWW article. When I first started to do professional woodworking my only saw for several years was a 1949 Skil radial arm saw, a beautiful machine. I should have been more precise with my answer, the lightweight saws like the MW model that was being discussed are near impossible to keep in tune and aren't capable of precise woodworking. However after 30+ years of woodworking my opinion is that while the best of the radial arm saws are good machines I would still rather have a table saw any day.John White
Shop Manager for FWW Magazine, 1998 to 2007
I agree with you on the light homeowner grade radial arms. Just hated to see the good ones tarred with the same brush. :)
If I had to chose only one it would be the tablesaw, but I sure would miss my old Dewalt. It gets daily use.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
I love my old 1953 12" DeWalt but it gets less use these days. Does fill the gap in cutting depth on some operations. Mine was 100% rebuild by Wolf Machinery at about the same time Original Saw was getting going. Still holds at -1/32 the on repetitive xcuts. Closer to 1/64. But it is only wood.
Would never use it for ripping.
My biggest complaint is that it takes about 3 days for Forrest blade to stop spinning. It's so quiet after power shut off that you really have to pay attention around the blade area. Wish it had a auto brake but too much money/hassle to do it.Interesting bit of trivia - DeWalt Co. started earlier but the company really didn't get going until he got his first major order of 5000 units (The Wonder-Worker saw) in the 1920s for the NYC school system.
Woodshop now? Forgedaboudit.BB
I know what you mean about the lack of a brake, the only thing I have that takes longer to stop is the 20" disc sander. It takes a full 35 minutes.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
I think you can find an instruction manual on line. Truing it takes time, but is worth it. I wonder why spending hours flattening the bottom of a plane, or honing a blade is time well spent but setting up a radial arm saw isn't...speaking for me only.
I would advise to make out run tables for both sides to make the saw useful. I am able to rip an 8-0 long board completely supported on both sides of the blade on mine. It just makes the radial arm saw useful and safer to operate. Enjoy the saw. It looks like it was a bargain.
Peter
I think I would start with the motor. If it is not fixable, then any other work performed on the saw is for naught.
It does seam odd. We will accept having to sharpen blades on hand tools and such as part of the wood working thing but if you have a power tool that take any time to keep in working order it is no good. Odd that.
Still I like RAS. I wish I had one. They are IMHO the best at cross cutting. I personally think they work better then slidders (chop saws) I generally only use them for cross cutting. I do not do any ripping or anything with them.
As for this saw I know that thier is a large number of ward tools that you can find manuals for online or perhaps pick one up cheap on ebay.
One think to keep in mind if you are not a RAS user of old is that a lot of RAS had a three part table that allowed you to put the fence in two places. (The fence was sandwitched between the table parts) The reason for this is that when cross cutting you want the fence in front of the blade when the saw is all the way back. But when ripping you want to have the fence farther back so you can get a deeper cut to rip a wider board. I assume that the funny clamp in the one photo was to make this change fast. My old Sears (circa 1976) had a couple screw clamps that did this but they where a pain in the but to use. On the other hand I almost never used them after I got a table saw.
Oh and all the RAS I have used had a partical board top. You do not want to use plywood as when you cut you will have to cut a bit into the top and doing this with plywood is not a good idea as the plys will get caught and or delaminate but the partical board is solid. Also I tended to put a piece of masonite on time of the partical board tacked down to be replaced as needed. And I would not use MDF as it is not as strong as partical board and may sage.
Doug M
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