Have to agree with Craig regarding RAS, with this caveat; Any power tool is dangerous if not set-up & used properly. A radial arm saw when used properly by a careful worker is one of the most versatile stationary tools in the shop. I bought this old Craftsman at Sears in 1969, one of the last of their solid cast iron, homeowners models. Put 'er together during the last half of the Ark/Texas football game (Pres. Nixon attended that one) as Arkansas was gettin' their butt whipped & I didn't want to watch it
. Clamped the saw to a couple of saw horses & used it to build the stand that it's been set-up on ever since. Except for occasional realignment, switch & table wood replacement, replacement of cord from motor to arm (dog ate that one
), I've never experienced a moment of trouble from it, & never came near to any kind of accident/injury. I suppose it has literally hundreds of hours of use by me & my sons with never a hiccup ('cept a couple of times when I let the blade get too dull & it 'bogged' down on a long rip & tripped a breaker
). As Craig said, the set-up before ripping is of extreme importance. With the switch key removed I set the rip width desired (whether in-rip or out-rip depends on width of cut), then set the blade guard at feed end to just barely clear the top of material being cut, then adjust the anti-kickback pawl to hold the material as it emerges from the cut. Feed the material into the saw against the rotation of the blade (at the feed point), & with a correctly adjusted saw, I've never experienced any significant kickback. Ripping very thin materials requires slow feeding into a very sharp, fine tooth blade but again that's true of most any cutting tool. This one'll be 37 years old in a few days & with careful adjustment it'll still cut as true as when new. I also have a small (8 inch) cast iron table saw from AMT that's almost 30 years old. It's invaluable when ripping wider stuff but much clumsier to use (at least for me) so the old RAS still gets the nod for most of my work. I have to admit to a growing partiality toward the new miter saw of late
, but it too is limited in certain areas that the RAS excels in
.
Here's pix of my old RAS
Set up for in-rip (feed end)
Pawl set up to prevent kickback