Testing Woodworkings Most Dangerous Techniques

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I was trained on a saw that size in the 1980s in my cabinet making class and again in my wood technology classes. My instructor kept stressing, "never bend your elbow when using a radial arm saw”. Keep your elbow joint in your arm locked and pull the blade back by rotating your torso. That prevents the saw from running away with you and lurching toward you. The second safety rule with it is to never cross your arms. If you keep your arms from crossing, it helps keep your other hand from getting in line with the cut and keeps your hand attached to your body. I still use this rule with sliding compound miter saws. My instructors also warned us to only use the radial arm saw for crosscuts and leave the rip cuts to the table saw. All three of my instructors at two different colleges had all three of these rules in place.

"Nope. No no no no nope." Glad you stopped. I was fully puckered and I wasn't even in the shop.

Quick question.... Are we sure Peter is a fan, and not someone who despises you? LOL 😄

You are missing parts that make the saw a lot safer. The large hole on the front of the blade guard holds a rod with anti-kickback pawls. There also should be a guard in the rear that holds the material down which greatly reduces climb and kick-back as you feed sheet stock in. I wouldn't ever feed a rip cut without the rear hold down guard; the way you did it was pretty dangerous.

I have a 12" craftsman, I would love to have a 16", I also agree with these saws being to dangerous for beginners. my high school woodshop class had one and our instructor had it OFF LIMITS to everyone but advanced class

Helpful hint, always loosen the nut in the same direction that the teeth go. Tighten against the teeth

This video is just 24 minutes of anxiety, so many squirrely moments. Def a machine that'll never be in my shop that's for sure.

My dad has one of these in his woodshop in the garage...I only remember him using it for crosscutting..but even as a kid I was always intimidated by it just because of the sound and the amount of airflow it put out..

When I was 17 years old, I was left alone to rip riser and tread material for stairs after a 5-minute tutorial on how the saw worked. It was terrifying lol

I do run a radial arm saw every day. Mine is a 14" original saw, the most productive tool in my shop. After I assemble a cut list, I mark out stop locations, turn the saw on, and keep feeding it material until the cutlist is finished. I never take it out of its 90 degree orientation, I'll go so far as to cut the long dimension on the radial arm saw then switch to a miter saw for all the angles. When used in the sort of production environment I'm describing, I find these safe, efficient, and more enjoyable to use than any alternative I've found.

When ripping, you turn the blade guard down so it's just above the wood being ripped. That way it doesn't chuck so much wood at you and in later versions they had an anti-kickback tool that was on the guard.

My father had a giant old radial arm saw in his commercial woodworking shop for 20+ years (he made wood windows and doors) and it was pretty much a single task tool, for cross cutting giant rough milled slabs of wood to length, before running through the thickness planer. It just sat on a bench at the back of the warehouse, right between huge racks for lumber storage and I don't think he ever messed with any setting on it ever, except when changing the blade between sharpening, because it was never used for precision. That side of the shop also had the shaper, so I guess it was the "watch your damn fingers!" zone

I bought a 10" Craftsman in about 1975 and used it for many years. When you do rip cuts you rotate the guard so that the leading edge is barely above your wood. That covers the most dangerous part of the blade. A hose from the dust elbow on the top of the guard is run into a dust hood at the back of the saw attached to a shop vac. That gets 90+ % of the dust. It was cleaner to use than most mitre saws today. Straight cut off, mitres, compound bevels, in and out rips were all easy and safe. I did use a dado head on straight dados but would never even think of using a moulding head. Scared the you know what out of me. I finally got rid of it only because a table saw worked better for what I was doing then and I didn't have room for both. But it was a very useful tool. Took a bit of TLC to keep it square though. Adjusted that quite a lot. But the adjustments were easy and straighforward.

Hi John , I ve been a carpenter for over 30 years, I've used many radial arms saws, they are great for cross-cutting and doing dato cut . a big 16" saw is good if you work in a mill or a wood yard . all of those other features are great but should never been done . I like using the saw for the cross cut instead of doing the cut on a table saw

The blade spinning endlessly is a good indicator that the spindle bearings are in need of new grease. Great video John, I think these are excellent for crosscutting.

Graphic Warning Yeah, I was eight when my dad chopped three of his fingers off with his radial arm. Still remember him running out of the garage holding his hand up yelling at me on the swingset to not go in there as he'd left it running. That saw is now mine decades later, and while I love the saw, I have a huge amount of respect for what it can do to me if I'm not careful with it. Still even have the blade that cut his fingers off on it lol. For the record, he was ripping wood using the full travel of the saw with all the guards removed. My mother had to find the fingers in a pile of sawdust and put them on ice. Doctors tried to reattach them, only one of the three was successfully reattached.

DEFINITELY GET A ELECTRIC BRAKE FITTED! Had a similar saw in the place I did my apprenticeship, only used for cross cutting batons before machining down.

My grandfather has a 10" RAS, and got me a 10" one as well. I use it for crosscut only, as I have other tools for the other cuts. I know he has used his for ripping, and has suggested I try it for ripping also. But I have had thoughs similar to what you experienced, and also have a nice table saw,so I use it instead. So much easier for set up, and safer for usage.

Assuming that this is a 3-phase machine (if I'm mistaken then ignore the rest of this) then you could wire it up to a VFD which will give you lots of benefits: - Slower ramp-up start (saw will no longer want to "jump" towards you on start up) - Option to decrease rpm's of blade (may benefit you when making deep cuts in hardwood) - and perhaps the most useful: option to apply "braking forces" on the blade to more quickly stop it once shut off. ... All of these can be programmed to various settings on a VFD. I think the ability to turn your 3-minute spin-down into 10 seconds would be worth the VFD purchase alone. For both safety and convenience. Loved the video! Old machines are sexy.