wood shop questions.

Given that compound mitres are generally cheaper and more portable than radial arm saws the question has to be whether a radial arm saw can do anything that a compound mitre can't. The fact that you really have to hunt around to find a radial arm saw to buy these days should answer that question.

I think, perhaps, that a radial arm saw would be better at things like cutting dadoes and handling very large dimension stock.

I have both out at the barn. Your answer probably depends on "whatcha gonna do with it?"

My compound miter saw is easier to set up and use, probably because it's newer that my big old Craftsman by about 40 years. If you're looking for something the radial arm saw can do that the compound miter saw can't; the first thing that comes to mind is ripping material with the grain. I can turn my radial arm saw 90 degrees and rip material lengthwise, much like a table saw. Except the finished side needs to be facing down (generally) instead of up like a table saw. The only time I use my table saw is when I need to rip 4 x 8 material in half. The radial arm saw has about an 18" limit on ripping widths.

Another perk the arm saw has is a shaping attachment. The end of the drive motor opposite the blade the ability to have router and shaper bits attached to it. Material can be fed from the side going under the motor and bit. For 99% of the things I've used them for over the years a table saw and the miter saw would probably suffice, especially if you're pinched for space.

Now the table saw is a problem all its own, just because of the name....table. Everytime I need to use it I have to clean everything off the top because my brother uses it for a table. 😉

paden cash, post: 446165, member: 20 wrote: Now the table saw is a problem all its own, just because of the name....table. Everytime I need to use it I have to clean everything off the top because my brother uses it for a table. 😉

Yeah, yeah, that's it. The brother uses it as a table.

I had a radial arm saw many years ago. It went away long ago and I never bothered to replace it.
I have always had a table saw.
For the last decade or three I have had a compound miter saw... I use it the most, second only to my skill saw.

A Sliding compound miter saw with a 10" or 12" blade would be very cool, to cut big stuff. But it would not be at all portable.

I would go with a compound miter saw. Portable! Mine goes up to the third floor, down to the patio, into the trunk of the car, etc.

IF you commonly work with Big stuff that is hard to move around, like Beams, then a radial is best... no way to make a cut on the table saw without 3 well orchestrated men and a boy.

I've used a couple of radial arm saws, one a Rockwell and the other a PowerKraft (spelling?), the latter a Montgomery Ward house brand. My complaint with both is that the arms weren't stiff enough to hold a constant dado depth as the blade/motor was moved outward. That's a problem if you're trying to do accurate finish work. (Keeping the table in good adjustment is a separate issue; a misadjusted table can contribute to the problem.) I don't know if the higher-end saws have figured out how to overcome this, but my experience with those two saws led me to decide that I'd go back to a table saw if I ever needed to buy one.

Radial arm saws have a number of versatilties and capacities not achievable with compound miter saws and even table saws. I don't have time to elaborate but in short a radial arm saw can do longitudinal and cross shaping in ways unique to the radial arm saw.

I've both.
I used to make a lot of furniture.
I'd use the radial arm saw only for furniture.
I treated it like my TS and it returned results consistently and gave silky smooth cuts.
The crosscut capacity will never be reached with a sliding compound saw.

I recently saw an industrial Bosch sliding compound saw on a site I was surveying.
He said he'd fit out an entire house with it.
There's a plethora of saws out there, some ordinary others not so.
I played with some in a shop recently and the quality showed in the tracking as the price rose.

I'd imagine for building, a sliding compound saw would suffice, but furniture making I'd go for a radial arm.

I thought they quit making the radial arm saw, mainly because it was good at sawing arms. I had a chance to buy an old Craftsman version about a year ago. I passed. I have a sliding compound miter saw. But I really only use it to cut boards to rough length. I use my table saw for precise cuts, both crosscuts and rips, as well as dadoes.

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I have both a sliding compound miter saw and a radial. The sliding is very clean and is used all the time. The radial has a lot of dust on it. I do plan to us it more especially for dadoes as Mark mentioned above but I need to build a better base for it ... and keep storing odds and ands on the table top.

I have had all 4, radial, table, miter, and sliding compound miter saw. No matter how meticulous I tried to be with setting it up, the radial did a poor job of cutting angles. While the radial was good for cutting dadoes and I bought all the fun toys for it like a drum sander and planer heads, a person usually doesn't use those that much. I placed an add on craigslist for about a month without any takers, finally put it on the curb for free next to a park that has a high visitation rate and it still took 3 days for someone to drag it away. I feel with a 10" sliding compound miter saw you can't go wrong. I just built an addition on my barn, a new porch for a second house we have, and cut all the boards for the neighbors new greenhouse and all angles fit near perfect.

If there is one thing I do good, it's making shavings and sawdust.

So....a sliding compound miter saw it is. I had no idea that a radial arm saw had fallen out of favor.

Just A. Surveyor, post: 446316, member: 12855 wrote: So....a sliding compound miter saw it is. I had no idea that a radial arm saw had fallen out of favor.

Good choice, tell us how it works out (and what you use it for)
I man can't have too many tools!

Someone upstairs in this post mentioned arm saws and their inherent wobble. I've owned a couple of the lower-end models and noticed some play in the blade carriage travel (which can wreak havoc when you're cutting 6$ a board-foot quarter sawn oak...or even worse, beautiful rock maple).

A lot of the slop can come from the cheap stands they marketed with the tool. Get rid of that and build a good solid bench. Also the bearings and galley on the motor assembly should be adjustable, and they need to be correct and tight. Some of them you just have mess with more than others.

And, in closing: Although I followed my father's path into land surveying, I was also drilled as a boy in the arts of joinery. All of Momma Cash's brothers were carpenters and cabinet makers. I did more than my share of time losing my hearing working at the millworks. There we had two kinds of arm saws: 1. Cut-off, arm or chop saws - what most folks call a "radial arm saw" nowadays 2. A true radial arm saw where the arm pivoted radially. Some of these were huge (and dangerous) with 16 and 18" blades. These weren't used for any finish work, but for cutting large rough stock into manageable lengths.

The only reason I mention this is because the ghosts of all my uncles and the old codgers I worked with at the millworks will surely visit me if I don't correctly differentiate between the two. I would get smacked every time I called an arm saw a 'radial' arm saw...which meant the big one in the back.

Nowadays things are different, but there really is a saw with a "true radial" travel.

Try as I might I cannot see where a fella would grab a hold of that to operate it.....no handle....do tell.

In defence of the radial arm saw, I'm referring to 'serious' saws.
In all fairness all the gizmos made to enhance the usability of the saw are to make lower end saws more attractive.
Sure those things work, but that's not what a radial arm saw was designed to do.
My saw has a solid bench to sit it on , a long 3 plus metre table with a channel and sliding stop for accurate repeat cuts.
If I want to rout I've dedicated machines.
To put it in surveying scenario someone suggested a metal detector on a GPS pole.
Why not add a bracket for a shovel blade, a slasher attachment, perhaps a 10 metre tape, line marking paint attachment and so on.
I'm a firm believer in quality and convenience of use.

Paden those radial swinging saws were awesome. About the best way I can describe them.
[USER=12855]@Just A. Surveyor[/USER] you'd have to pay serious money for a quality radial arm saw but second hand (here) they're affordable.
It really depends on your need, what's its intended purpose.
I like those new well built modern sliding compound saws.
Have a good play with the sliding mechanism and put some sideways force when extended.
You'll soon see the difference between the also ran's.

What ever your choice, don't depend on the device settings being accurate. I spent a long time adjusting my sliding compound saw and while it was tedious it was necessary.

Daniel Ralph, post: 446441, member: 8817 wrote: What ever your choice, don't depend on the device settings being accurate. I spent a long time adjusting my sliding compound saw and while it was tedious it was necessary.

That goes for all saws. Take the time to research and learn how to set your saw up and test it for an accurate cut. I have spent a good deal of time learning how to fine tune my table saw, bandsaw, jointer, as well as my sliding compound miter. Its worth every minute.

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