2015 POTD Thread Archive

Building a plant stand out of a discarded table with the radial arm saw.

-->SAFETY FIRST<-- Although the radial arm saw (RAS) is very useful, it is one of the most dangerous pieces of powered equipment to use. It can eat your hand, drive the carriage (motor & blade) toward you, and throw wood at you. Be sure that the workpiece and carriage is secure. Be sure that you position yourself so the blade doesn't cut you or the cut pieces don't fly out and hit you. Always wear safety glasses and other appropriate safety gear. Lockout or unplug power when setting up, making adjustments or not using the RAS.

This is a project that to build a plant stand for my wife. I did, more for the experience of using a 1968 Craftsman radial arm saw to cut a round out of a square, per instructions from the RAS book (first picture). It had to be built to take a load of at least 150 pounds. Total cost of project was <$10.00.

1. The second picture shows the table top (from neighbor's trash) cut in half and laminated together by glueing and installing several short drywall screws. After that, I determined the center of the workpiece and drilled a 3/16" hole through it.
2. The third picture shows the starter cuts. I had to block up the workpiece so it would fit on my table.
3. The fourth & fifth picture show the workpiece progressively becoming a circle. To do that, you place a wood screw in the center hole of your workpiece, and mount it to the RAS worktable at the appropriate location. After that, you just make a cut, and turn the workpiece in small increments.
4. When you can't cut anymore wood off of your workpiece, you will need finish off the edge so it's as even as possible. To do this, you will need to remove the blade & guard. rotate the motor so the drill chuck is positioned down, attach a drum rasp or drum sander to the drill chuck, position the workpiece and carriage so you can finish the rounding operation. You will need to clamp the workpiece down as the drum rasp is making contact with it. Sorry, I don't have a picture of this step.
5. The sixth & seventh picture show router bits used to shape finished edges of the top & bottom. Again, I'm just spinning the workpiece against the router bit to do this. To ensure that I would turn the workpiece in the right direction, I drew a directional arrow on it with some chalk.
6. The eighth & ninth picture show the finished product. I laid out and drilled 6 holes to mount furniture casters in it. To expedite the job, I used the drill press for the holes. After that, stain & clear coat. When it was dry, I pressed in the casters.

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Very nice plant stand!

I generally understand why chop saws have replaced radials, but had forgotten about the ability to chuck up router bits on the radial. When I've had occasion to make wooden rounds, it's been on either a band saw or table saw
 
Radial Arm Saw: (n, medical, accident and emergency) A Saw for cutting through the Radius in the Arm...

I used mine to make chuck blocks for my lathe (less of a struggle getting the chuck aligned with the spindle for fitting, and a way-saver), angled the blade to make V-grooves to suit the ways, no problem, in a nice 2-foot length of 6x3 timber, flipped it over and turned the blade to 90-degrees to the travel to cut a nice radius to suit the chuck (10"), discovered that even unaerodynamic timber CAN fly - and had a hole to patch in the shed wall, the fence the other side of the garden...

I screwed on a stop fence on for the next cut :)
 
Radial arm saws are spooky. I was using mine to make 1 1/2" deep cuts in 3" wide plywood strips and stuck my finger straight into the blade when shifting the material over to make the next slot. Split my finger in half about half way up the nail. I strap it up with a band aide, and a bit of tape and head to the emergency room. I normally don't bother with stiches, but I was worried I had hit the bone and chipped it.
When I get to the emergency room, the nurse in triage kept trying to get me to fill out the paper work. I kept telling her I could not hold a pen because of my injury - I suppose the band aide was not very impressive to her. Finally, I said in a very loud voice "I CAN'T USE A PEN BECAUSE I STUCK MY FINGER IN THE RADIAL ARM SAW." The whole room when dead silent, and a few people turned green :)
She followed me to a chair in the waiting room with a first aide kit and proceeding to take off my bandage so she could assess my injury. The moment the bandage came off, blood sprayed all over her face and uniform. She looked like she stepped out of a horror film. She frantically wrapped gauze around my finger. I went there with a band aide and some tape, now I had a whole roll of gauze on my finger, and it was rapidly turning red.
They moved me into a room by myself so I would not bother the others, and gave me a bowl to catch the drips.
4 hours later, an intern came around and put a band aide on the wound and sent me home...
True story
 
I love radial arm saws, but know they are just waiting to maim you. just like everything else in the shop. want to get one, but have no room yet. Or money for one. Keep waiting for a cheap one on craigslist. "Radial arm saw, $10, needs cleaned. Can't help load."
 
When my radial arm saw isn't cutting wood, I have a 10" rag wheel in place of the blade and a ScotchBrite pad on the chuck. It's great for polishing and relatively safe.
 
I picked this one up at a garage sale last spring for $20
All I had to do was replace the wood table and a new blade, it was like new again.

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For all of you who bought the latest versions of Craftsman radial arm saws before Sears totally gave up the ghost on American production, there was some kind of recall/mod on them.
 
Today, my son and his buddy came back to help move the last of the heavy items to the basement.

We got the lathe and it's bench set back up, them hoisted the new PM-450G mill onto it's stand.
Notice how the motor goes up into the rafters when the head is raised to it's max height.
This view is into the area where the water heater and furnace are. There is an old workbench there and I will probably add some storage.
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Here is a view into the shop area, you can see my Sieg SC8 11x30 lathe sitting on it's bench.
The lathe bench is made from cement block glued together with construction adhesive. The top is made from 4x4's glued and screwed together, and has a granite counter top surface bedded to the 4x4's with non-shrinking grout. The top is supported above the legs on four 3/4" all-thread bolts so it can be leveled. The whole setup is extremely solid and does a very good job of killing vibration.
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You can get a good sense for how massive the mill is. On paper it is about the same size machine as the G0704 or the PM25mv, but it weighs in at 975lbs.

Still have to bring some shelving down, and install more lighting and power.
I'm feeling really excited about this, it feels like a nice snug work space that is not overcrowded, but not overly expansive.

Here is the old shop before the move with my old PM25mv mill. Excuse the curtain, I needed something to block the light and never got around to putting up something better :)
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Here is a pic of the basement area before I cleaned it out and moved in the machines. The odd looking green tables are model train tables left over from when my son was young. This part of the basement has been collecting junk for at least 15 years. Feels good to get it cleaned out.
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"Still have to bring some shelving down, and install more lighting and power."

You'll most likely get enough lighting.

There's a pretty fair chance you'll get enough power.

Shelving? Hah - good luck with that. And if you figure out how to get enough shelving, please let us know how.
 
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