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I don't get how you're supposed to conveniently rip anything on a radial arm saw. Aren't you limited by the amount of travel of the saw head? Is there a new tool that people are calling a radial arm saw but it isn't? Am I missing something???
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Jun 5, 2011 11:35
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Chauncey posted:I don't get how you're supposed to conveniently rip anything on a radial arm saw. Aren't you limited by the amount of travel of the saw head? Is there a new tool that people are calling a radial arm saw but it isn't?
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Jun 5, 2011 13:17
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Iskariot posted:The sled which travels the arm and the motor hangs in can be turned 360 degrees. So you turn it 180 degrees and you have a ripping saw. Max rip is the length of the arm. (from the blade to the rear guide). The max rip length is half the length of the room you have it in. you can turn the head 90 degrees and just push stock right through. And you can't have the stock climb the blade and shoot back at you.
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Jun 5, 2011 16:38
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Nerobro posted:The max rip length is half the length of the room you have it in. you can turn the head 90 degrees and just push stock right through. My RAS loved to grab wood and stall when ripping. I pretty quickly gave up on ripping with it and bought a table saw instead.
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Jun 5, 2011 16:56
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grover posted:I put a small door in the side of my shop at the end of the workbench to let me run long stock right through the wall. Worked out GREAT. Were you using a thin kerf ripping blade? Or the same crosscut blade that you kept on the RAS for normal crosscutting procedures? Did you have the blade in perfect alignment with the fence? This is the main reason people have a dislike for Radial Arm Saws, it takes a good bit of effort to get them into perfect alignment (but the good ones will stay in alignment once you get them there). (and I know you weren't doing this grover, but I'll list it for others that may have an unexplainable problem) You weren't climb cutting by mistake were you? I have seen numerous instances where the operator simply failed to read the proper feed direction for ripping on a RAS. BTW for the haters, I mean getting them into alignment once, not every time you change the operation you are doing. Proper RAS's have taper-pin or wedge detents that return the saw to its proper alignment settings after you have set it up for a different operation.
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Jun 5, 2011 20:49
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I was using my crosscut blade, which I'm sure was 90% of the problem. It was such a pain in the rear end to set up for ripping, and then to perfectly align back again to crosscutting (it took a lot of work to get my RAS perfectly square), especially when adding in a blade change, that I decided it just wasn't worth the effort. Also, this saw is awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c486ERD7-0
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Jun 5, 2011 21:23
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Nerobro posted:The max rip length is half the length of the room you have it in. you can turn the head 90 degrees and just push stock right through. You can get kickback though. That's why you have the kickback mechanism attached to the arm. The guard should be lowered down to the material in front. You feed sheets at the opposite direction when ripping so the force of the blade is up and towards you. If you don't set the guard and kickback device up properly, material can both climb and shoot back at you. My DeWalt 110, which is a re-branded Elu, has a completely different guard. It has two riving knives at both ends that's attached to a bracket. You can lower the knives as you wish by shifting the bracket. The kickback "fingers" are attached to a lip that slides over the guard. So when ripping something thin, the guard and lip look like pacman mouth down. It's pretty neat compared to the US default DeWalt guards. Mine is damaged and missing the fingers so I have to ponder up something to make it safe.
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Jun 5, 2011 22:09
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I'm thinking of putting in some steps in my yard using railroad ties as treads/risers. Since these things are larger than your average power saw can cut through, what is the best way of cutting them to length?
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Jun 6, 2011 04:27
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GEMorris posted:The status quo absolutely hates being questioned.  pictured is a typical RAS user
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Jun 6, 2011 04:55
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stubblyhead posted:I'm thinking of putting in some steps in my yard using railroad ties as treads/risers. Since these things are larger than your average power saw can cut through, what is the best way of cutting them to length? I think they were discussing that on the previous page or 2. Chainsaw was pretty much the best choice I believe.
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Jun 6, 2011 05:07
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stubblyhead posted:I'm thinking of putting in some steps in my yard using railroad ties as treads/risers. Since these things are larger than your average power saw can cut through, what is the best way of cutting them to length? I'm sure there's a better solution for those with fully equipped shops, but a portable bandsaw attacking from all sides (with the tie on sawhorses/stand) made a pretty clean cut the few times I've had to cut ties.
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Jun 6, 2011 05:22
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stubblyhead posted:I'm thinking of putting in some steps in my yard using railroad ties as treads/risers. Since these things are larger than your average power saw can cut through, what is the best way of cutting them to length?
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Jun 6, 2011 10:54
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stubblyhead posted:I'm thinking of putting in some steps in my yard using railroad ties as treads/risers. Since these things are larger than your average power saw can cut through, what is the best way of cutting them to length?
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Jun 6, 2011 10:57
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Thanks for clarification on the RAS guys. That didn't even occur to me!
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Jun 6, 2011 13:59
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Iskariot posted:Slightly off topic, but are these old risers? Be wary of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creosote I'm still in the planning stages, haven't gotten any ties yet. Are creosote-treated ties something I want to avoid altogether, or just something to be careful of when I'm working with them?
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Jun 6, 2011 18:37
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I really hate cutting any Creosote wood - it's nasty poo poo. I would use a chainsaw or a sawzall with a long aggressive wood blade to crosscut them. Watch out though; they usually have some steel "S" pieces driven into the ends to prevent checking and you really don't want to hit that with your chainsaw. I would lean toward ground-contact treated 6x6 timbers instead of railroad ties. It is more expensive but looks a lot better and doesn't smell like oily poo poo forever.
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Jun 6, 2011 20:02
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I've seen railroad ties mean two different things. Landscaping timbers are significantly smaller, usually around 8' in length and about 6"x6" with rounded corners but they are commonly referred to as railroad ties especially at big box stores like Lowes. These can be treated with chemicals but should be clean from any pieces of metal that would mess up a blade. Second one is an actual railroad tie, usually reused. Those tend to have a bunch of nasty chemicals and possibly metal in them. Just so everyone is on the same page, which ones are you considering using? Anubis fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Jun 6, 2011 |
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Jun 6, 2011 22:07
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The latter.
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Jun 6, 2011 23:08
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stubblyhead posted:The latter. Wear gloves when handling this stuff. It gives off a distinct (and stinky) creosote smell. If you are hauling the railroad ties home in the back of a pickup truck, it wouldn't be a bad idea to lay down a disposable tarp because that poo poo is nasty and sticks around a long time. A chainsaw will work well although you can use another power saw, rotate the block, take another cut, rotate the block, take another cut, and repeat till you get through. A chainsaw should go all the way through the block. My family used creosote ties for a garden border years and years ago. Do *not* get this on your skin, it's itchy and gross. Once in place they should last 25 - 50 years given decent condtions. This stuff is rugged.
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Jun 7, 2011 01:39
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Paint thinner won't clean that stuff off your skin, you'l need to use gasoline.
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Jun 7, 2011 03:03
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Circus Pies! posted:Paint thinner won't clean that stuff off your skin, you'l need to use gasoline. Hmm, starting to think maybe this isn't the best plan. I don't know if I want to be working with something that takes gasoline to get off of me. I have a dog too, I would hate for her to get it on her paws. Maybe ground treated 6x6 is the way to go.
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Jun 7, 2011 05:57
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Well, its not like it will drip all over the place. But creosote is toxic. Probably a good idea to use some other treated wood if you are going to have dogs or kids playing in your yard.
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Jun 7, 2011 07:24
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tworavens posted:Well, its not like it will drip all over the place. But creosote is toxic. Probably a good idea to use some other treated wood if you are going to have dogs or kids playing in your yard. Unless your kids like to lick garden edging, I don't think you'll have a problem. Dogs will tend to avoid the stuff. Once it gets a covering of dust on it from the yard it won't be nearly as sticky/stinky. Like I said, we've used these things for decades. They have their drawbacks - the stench of creosote for one - but they are tough as hell and make for great retaining walls if you bore out a half-inch column and run some piping through them into the ground. This isn't Holmes on Homes approved but stacking them two high with that kind of bracing worked great at our last couple homes. Just to be clear I'm not dismissing your concerns entirely but it's not like creosote is instantly fatal to children due to explosive rupturing of their digestive tracts or something. "If only little Timmy hadn't seen a creosote-coated telephone pole, he'd be alive today!" There are loads of toxic chemicals and byproducts of our modern life that I think would be much more reasonable to worry about. Then again, they aren't my kids so it's worth knowing that creosote isn't something to try and chug in your gatorade. CuddleChunks fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Jun 7, 2011 |
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Jun 7, 2011 17:15
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The creosote smell is nasty and it never goes away. A couple years ago I tore down a railroad tie retaining wall on my property that had been there 55 years and it still smelled like creosote every time it rained. It reeked of it as soon as I started breaking the wall down. The soil all around the wall reeked of creosote. The stuff does not break down in any human-scale timeline. If this is some remote area on a big lot, then fine use the railroad timbers, but I wouldn't want it up near the house at all.
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Jun 7, 2011 19:50
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GEMorris posted:I know what you said, its just that you are wrong. Ripping on a RAS is easier than crosscutting 10' boards on a table saw. This X100. RAS are beasts at ripping and excellent at crosscutting. They will also dado or rabbet like a mother. Burn me but I believe it comes down to knowing and being educated on your tools... there is a place for a RAS, a TS, a jointer, bandsaw, and a planer; the fact that many people find ways to use these tools to replace other tools is more about not having the space, money, or education than about a specific deficiency. If I had a large enough shop, I would own them all, as I was trained on them all.
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Jun 9, 2011 08:15
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wormil posted:Burn me but I believe it comes down to knowing and being educated on your tools... there is a place for a RAS, a TS, a jointer, bandsaw, and a planer; the fact that many people find ways to use these tools to replace other tools is more about not having the space, money, or education than about a specific deficiency. If I had a large enough shop, I would own them all, as I was trained on them all. That seems like a pretty harsh view. There's enough overlap of functionality that lacking one specific tool that can do a number of things can be made up for by having other tools that, combined, can do the same things. Someone might not have a TS but they might have a track saw and a router which can cover a fair amount of the same functionality. That doesn't make them poor or dumb, it just means they don't need a table saw because they already have 90% of the same functionality covered. Not to mention that finding new and ingenious ways to use tools outside of their normal parameters is what the entire jig industry is built on.
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Jun 9, 2011 12:55
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Thought I would crosspost two deals from the coupons forum: Dewalt cordless hammer driver: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3417687 Bosch 12v driver: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3417810 Just bought the Bosch a couple of weeks ago with the same deal, have used it on a few projects and I've been impressed so far, it's a bit early to say for sure though.
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Jun 10, 2011 00:45
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I just bought a Sears Craftsman torque wrench the other day, spedifically model 44595, 20-150 ft-lbs, 1/2-in drive. Paid $60 and it came with the plastic box, which was nice,,, since it seems like they were (or are) still charging $10-$15 extra for the box in many instances. Went to use it today and the handle fell off. :\ As it happens, this page shows the internals of the same wrench- http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/torque_wrench/index.html What happened with mine was the two handle nuts came loose. This guy also claims something I was not aware of- "... every time you put away your click-type torque wrench, you have to back off the setting all the way down, to prevent the internal spring from taking a "set" in the compressed position and throwing the calibration off. ..." There is a little 4-page instruction manual permanently stuck inside the plastic storage box, and in there is says that the torque wrench shouldn't be left above 25% torque setting when not in use. I have just put it back together with some blue locktite, but be warned--you can't reassemble it with regular tools. The nut that holds the handle on is 1.25 inches deep in a hole that is too tight for the regular 11/16" Craftsman socket to even fit in to. I had some steel tube around and the tools to make a quickie socket to get it on fairly tight so I figured I'd just try that at least once. Seems like all these kinds of wrenches are built the same or nearly so. The handle nuts that came loose aren't really under much torque themselves, but they do need to stay tight. This one is a clickie-type, where you twist the handle to adjust the torque setting. I'd MUCH prefer a 200-ft-lb beam-type (the kind that bend) in either 1.2" or 3/4" drive, if anyone knows where to get one. -------- [edit added] I think what got mine to come off was I tried to back the handle off too much. If you screw the handle out (down to zero) at one point it stops, and won't screw out any further but I gave it a moderate backward twist just to see if it would or not, so I'd know if I had to be careful about accidentally unscrewing it all the way and having the handle fall off or not..... The adjustment screw doesn't actually unscrew all the way out, at least in that wrench, and that may have been what loosened the back handle nut. Of course, with not a lot of torque and no loctite it may have loosened eventually, but anyway. edmund745 fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Jun 13, 2011 |
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Jun 12, 2011 23:52
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My wife and I are in the process of buying our first home so at last I am able to start assembling a power tool collection. We are planning on installing crown molding in a few rooms of the new house so I am in the market for a miter saw. I've noticed that prices for 10" compound miter saws are hundreds of dollars cheaper than larger 12" and sliding saws. The saw will primarily be used for cutting small items like molding, however I do have a few projects coming up (bookshelves, raised beds for gardens) where I will need to be cutting 1X8 and possibly 1X10 boards (non-angled cuts). Does it make sense to spend the extra money for a larger miter saw or should I just rely on a circular saw for these other projects? Money is sort of an object here but I'd hate to spend several hundred dollars on a 10" only to regret my purchase and wish I bought a larger saw.
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Jun 13, 2011 13:32
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Pinkerton posted:My wife and I are in the process of buying our first home so at last I am able to start assembling a power tool collection. We are planning on installing crown molding in a few rooms of the new house so I am in the market for a miter saw. I've noticed that prices for 10" compound miter saws are hundreds of dollars cheaper than larger 12" and sliding saws.
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Jun 13, 2011 13:50
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Pinkerton posted:My wife and I are in the process of buying our first home so at last I am able to start assembling a power tool collection. We are planning on installing crown molding in a few rooms of the new house so I am in the market for a miter saw. I've noticed that prices for 10" compound miter saws are hundreds of dollars cheaper than larger 12" and sliding saws. I got a 10" Hitachi not long ago that I've been pretty happy with. It was on sale at Lowe's for $109 I think, but it's back up to $139 now. Still a good buy in my opinion. http://goo.gl/8AXOU
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Jun 13, 2011 16:44
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stubblyhead posted:I got a 10" Hitachi not long ago that I've been pretty happy with. It was on sale at Lowe's for $109 I think, but it's back up to $139 now. Still a good buy in my opinion. http://goo.gl/8AXOU http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brow...n.jsp?locale=en Makes clean cuts and the sliding saw gives it lots of flexability, the laser is dead accurate and quite useful for people like me who are used to measuring once cutting twice.
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Jun 13, 2011 17:06
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I bought a 12" sliding compound miter saw at Harbor Freight on sale for 120 about a year ago. If you go ahead and throw away the blade it comes with and put a decent one on it will perform very well. It has exceeded my expectations.
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Jun 14, 2011 04:38
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Iskariot posted:Get a 10". You rarely need a 12". Mmmmm, I started with an 8.5", moved to a 10" and often wished I'd had a 12. I'd get a 12 and be done with it.
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Jun 15, 2011 08:35
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drat you Americans and your wonderful tool prices! I have a 8.5" myself and I get by comfortably. A 4"x4" would be problematic but I never cut anything that large really. A 10" would do that easily and a 12" adds weight, size and a hefty price tag on new blades. For a DIY-er a 10" will suffice. I would never tag you as a simple DIY-er, wormil. I will upgrade my Hitachi 8.5" at some point. But then I am restoring that RAS which will take care of most of the cross-cut work. Smaller miter saws have size and weight going for them so I can lend mine out to mates without them needing a forklift and truck.
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Jun 15, 2011 11:30
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Pinkerton posted:My wife and I are in the process of buying our first home so at last I am able to start assembling a power tool collection. We are planning on installing crown molding in a few rooms of the new house so I am in the market for a miter saw. I've noticed that prices for 10" compound miter saws are hundreds of dollars cheaper than larger 12" and sliding saws. I have the same Hitachi 10" miter saw that stubblyhead mentioned and it kicks rear end. I've used it mainly for chopping 2x4s down to size and for doing crown and baseboards and whatnot, and I haven't had any issues with it. Anything that would be too big for it to cut would probably be done more easily with a circular saw anyways (unless you're putting up some huge gently caress-off crown or something, at which point you'd have more than enough money for a 12" saw). A nice stand definitely helps out as well if you're not going to be mounting it to a workbench. I bought a folding Delta stand that's pretty awesome (arms extend about a gazillion feet, has a flip up stop on one end, folds down pretty compactly), the only thing that sucks about it is the weight. If you need to move the saw and stand around by yourself, I'd get one that has wheels on one end. I'm not a pussy or anything, but the stand and saw are just big and heavy enough to make moving them around a supreme pain in the rear end, wheels would make things so much easier.
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Jun 15, 2011 16:16
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Jeez, after looking at the price difference between a 10 and 12, you probably should just buy a 10. I guess it's been a while since I priced them. My 10 doesn't slide so that alone would probably take care of many situations where I had wished for a 12.
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Jun 15, 2011 22:52
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Boogeyman posted:I have the same Hitachi 10" miter saw that stubblyhead mentioned and it kicks rear end. The price on that saw is really incredible. The cheapest well reviewed compound sliding saw I've found is the 12" Hitachi http://goo.gl/QNOs1 which is $280 more than the saw you posted. With the difference I could replace my aging circular saw to handle any cuts that are too large for the miter. Decisions decisions... 
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Jun 16, 2011 00:42
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So I picked up an OLD Wilton No. 60 vise on Tuesday. It weighs atleast 100 pounds. The dynamic jaw was seized when I first got it, and it is missing the plate that attaches the screw to the dynamic jaw so that the jaw opens when you turn the screw counter clockwise. Easy fix. Getting the dynamic jaw unstuck was a whole different matter... I ended up using a chisel and a hammer to unstick it initially. Then came the crowbar to move it a little farther, and I was able to progressively open it to about 4 inches and thats all it would go. Then I had an idea....  Two minutes later and the jack had saved the day... I hit it with a wire cup on the angle grinder and I currently have everything soaking in a heavy degreaser to remove the petrified grease from the inside of the box and off everything in general. The screw, as pictured below, is in IMMACULATE shape for the age of this vise as well. Date of manufacture is January 1945. I am open to suggestions on what color to paint the body and a different accent color for the raised lettering. Also, does anyone know how to remove the back cap off of one of these? There are no pins or screws and I don't want to force anything. It will just make cleaning a bit easier... 
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Jun 16, 2011 03:50
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Re: Miter saws - I'd rather have my small 8.5" sliding miter than a fixed 10 or 12". Getting a sliding miter saw is IMO fundamental. Dual bevel is more of a luxury issue. iForge: Any will do as the vise will look great no matter the paint (dare you to paint it pink!). I've recently fallen in love with dark gray hammer paint. Like this: http://www.jamesriser.com/Machinery/GortonPantograph/Restore.html It's subtly pimp.
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Jun 16, 2011 13:55
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