Thread: Radial saw or combination slide saw.

I presume you are trying to adjust the blade tilt relative to the work surface?
Is it a matter of it can never be setup correctly due to something blocking the adjustment
or
Is it the angle changes with the extent of the cut?

If it has s 90º stop on it it may be easier to adjust the bench work surface to suit the blade rather than the other way.

Hi BobL. Thanks for your reply. I have tried to adjust the work surface as there appears to be no adjustment for the blade tilt except when tilting for angle cuts. I have a TATRY Italian made saw with the table base as integral part of the saw. There is adjustment for the table, however there are nine bolts for this and seems to be extremely time consuming but no way for fine adjustment. It is a great saw and can be used for dado cuts as well as ripping as well as the usual cross cuts and mitres. I am trying to make up my mind whether to sell this one and buy a slide compound saw.

Do you have the instuction manual for your saw?
Tatry made the DeWalt/B&D light weight saws for B&D, rebadging existed even in the sixties. The B&D manuals have a comprehensive set of instructions for aligning the saws after assembly, and I expect the Tatry manual would be similar in this regard. If you don'y have it, search for B&D Radial Arm Saw, and select the B&D US site. You should be able to match your saw very closely to one of the B&D models and download an English language manual from there. Doesn't matter if the machine is not a perfect match, but try for one with the same features. For example some units have direct height adjustment, others have arm mounted remote height adjustment, and some may have below table remote height adjustment. Each has a different configuration of arm swing indicator, and hence different calibration/adjustment requirements. The are a variety of other configuration variations throughout the range as well.

How thick is the material you normally cut. For sub 20mm material, it would be difficult to see a slight concavity in the cut face, but with a part close to maximum cutting depth, you may notice it. If the cut end has a concavity, it is normally caused by the blade be skewed slightly relative to the column, which is corrected by adjusting the rear pivot trunions for the motor from memory. If this adjustment is out slightly, a blade at perfect right angles to the table will not produce a cut end that is square because the skw of the blade means that the blade exits the material offset from the point where it enters and the teeth will shave the material while exiting, taking more from the top surface than the lower surface.

Hope this helps you solve your problem, it is about 8yrs since I did a complete alignment on my 7740/740 saw, and it is 12ft up in the air in storage after moving house. My copies of the manuals are also in storage, so I cannot consult them either.

Many thanks malb. I do not have the manual for this saw as I aquired it when it was being thrown away. It had been left out in the weather for some time and it took a bit to clean the rust off and get everything back in moving order. It is a very heavy machine as it is made from cast iron with rather heavy and legs and base, all steel. I will look on line to try and find a manual.

The only Tatry's I have come accross have been similar to the lightweight DW/B&D units. The only cast iron in them really is the arm and the column socket. The base is generally sheetmetal and the motor mount system and motor housing alloy. The column is a 1.2mm wall bright mild steel fabrication with the key welded on. The DW/B&D units with a factory stand had a bolt together pressed sheetmetal stand, not light but not as heavy as one made of cast iron components. The original DW units were a completely different proposition, mostly cast iron throughout and very heavy.

I have just spent some time looking for an online version of the manual but to no avail. Do you have any clues where on the internet it might be found? I will spend some more time googling to try and find.

Try this
http://vintagemachinery.org/files/PD...D7770-3427.pdf

or this
http://vintagemachinery.org/files/PD...ker/BD7700.pdf

This is good site for old machinery

Many thanks. I have printed the DeWalt manual. My saw is a 12 inch but the instructions should be pretty much the same for both. Again Thanks.

Hi Dwano,

This free online setup guide is extremely useful:

http://www.johnsonphotographic.com/g...l_Arm_Saws.pdf

Another valuable source of information is the DeWalt Radial Arm Saw forum. The following link will get you to the forum, but you'll need to setup a user account to access them. You'll find model-specific posts for both old & newer models of RAS & a host of tips.

The DeWalt Radial Arm Saw Discussion Forum

Coincidentally I'm just finishing a full setup of a rewound DW125, so the process is really fresh in mind. Key points from my setup are:

· Build a ‘Mr Sawdust’ table (this is all over the forums)
· Use an appropriate blade with the saw.
· Use a dial indicator to verify your blade and arm are true in the major directions
· If it’s a newer model with a sheet metal chassis, bolt it down to a heavy surface to minimise torsion & play in the arm.

You can get these saws really accurate if you are patient and work through the variables & sources of errors.

Hope this helps.

Olly

Thankyou for your advice. I was sure the RAS could be an accurate machine but when you have no info of how and only trial and error this takes a lot of time. I will go to this forum and see what I can find. My machine is mostly cast iron except for the legs which are 3mm shaped and pressed steel. the column is machined and 10mm thick, and my thoughts were that it should be able to make adjustments more precise for much greater accuracy. Thanks again for the link and advice.

Is there any chance of you putting up a pic of the saw to help identify the model? If you can, I will try and track a close match DW/B&D manual for you.

I downloaded the first vintage machinery link and the file I received had about half the file missing so did not cover adjustment I was talking about.

However the Johnston photographics link about aligning the saw did, it is the adjusting heel section in that document and they explain it well.

I have an older B&D 1512, 12"blade 15" cut. They are tedious to set up properly, I used Jon Eakes book, Mr sawdust also has one. I stripped my down, had the guards sandblasted and reassembled.
Built a new table etc.

I have been using mine for 45' angles but also 7' and 10' for a job. Personally, I am looking at using the radial arm saw for cut off only and getting a mitre saw for angles, say a 1440 Makita. I also use a stacked dado on it and the table saw.

Best of luck.

Whilst this is not specific to the thread, I find my angle cube invaluable they offer precision at a small cost