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Commercial Furnishings

2013-03-01 11:17:29

Table saw or radial arm saw?

Q-Woodworking is a subject that many people it seems have an interest in…and perhaps more so today than ever before. I have read some of your articles on seating, types of wood, and the vernacular used in the industry, as well as several other topics. I would love to begin doing woodworking as a hobby. While this question may border on a trade secret, I was wondering if you could help me. If I was to begin woodworking and only going to buy one saw, should it be a radial arm saw or a table saw?

A-I would be happy to help. Not only am I interested in promoting the industry, but we never know when we will need more good, skilled people. It’s good to have the opportunity to advise you now. In doing so, I have gathered some additional information from several Internet sites, including Rochester University’s site at cs.rochester.edu…a great school for engineering and applied sciences. Below are the tasks that are performed most of the time with either or both of the two saws you mentioned. Before getting into these, I might say, when you have made your decision, select the saw that is going to give you the features you need and the one that is going to last. In this business, you will get what you pay for. You will find that table saws work best for ripping. Radial arm saws work best for crosscutting, but are limited by their arm’s length. Both saws will perform both tasks. The radial arm is more adaptable for non-sawing tasks. For instance, overhead routing, surface planing, and drum sanding attachments are available for some radial arm saws. You can buy a disk sanding attachment for use on most table saws. Ripping on the radial arm saw is difficult because it is necessary to push the lumber under the motor housing. This problem can be minimized by use of push sticks and hold down wheels. Maximum rip width is normally limited by the length of the arm. Building a secondary rip fence on the other side of the table from the column will enable you to rip wider pieces, but the off-cut piece width is then limited. Radial arm saws are more prone to overheating during rips in thick wood since the teeth stay in the cut longer, unless you cut substantially into the table top and even then there is no place for the sawdust to exit. Crosscutting on the table saw is difficult because it is tough to keep a board much longer than 4 ft square to the blade. This problem can be minimized by building a good sliding panel cutter. Some table saws have built-in sliding tables, and aftermarket sliding table attachments are available for most saws. A couple of saws have sliding arbors, enabling them to work as inverted radial arm saws. The arbors typically don’t slide as far as the length of many radial arms. Both saws are capable of accurate work. The radial arm saw, with its cantilevered arm attached to a cantilevered column, is typically less rigid than the table saw, which usually has its arbor trunions bolted to the table in a wide pattern. A worn arm bearing in radial arm saws can also contribute to wander in the cut. In table saws, play of the miter gauge bar will adversely affect accuracy. Both table saws and radial arm saws need to be aligned to work optimally. There are more aligning tasks to be performed on a radial arm saw than on a table saw. Radial arm saws typically require realignment more frequently than table saws, perhaps because of the stresses put on the cantilevered assemblies. Radial arm saws don’t need as much space around them as table saws for performing equivalent tasks. On the radial arm saw, boards are always oriented the same way whether you are ripping or crosscutting, so you need space to the left and right of the blade, and only as wide as the widest board you’re cutting. On the table saws, boards are oriented at right angles depending on whether you’re ripping or crosscutting. Thus, you need space in front and in back for ripping, and to the left and right as well for crosscutting. It seems to be easier to engineer and manufacture a table saw than a radial arm saw, which has more moving parts that must withstand large forces without deflection or play. It can therefore be argued that if you’re on a budget, a cheap table saw may work better for you than a cheap radial arm saw. Some people say the radial arm saw is more dangerous because the blade is exposed above the work surface, and because the blade’s location varies as the cut progresses. Angled crosscutting is particularly dangerous since the blade is now cutting where one normally holds the work. The spin direction of the blade tends to lift the work off of the table when ripping, and can pull the carriage into the work (resulting in binding of the saw or serious injury to a careless operator) in the crosscut position. So-called "safety-blades" have a shoulder in front of each tooth, thus limiting the amount of pull generated and reducing these tendencies. Some people say the table saw is more dangerous because you can’t see where the blade is like you can with the radial arm saw. On the other hand, the blade is always in the same spot on the table. The spin action of the table saw’s blade tends to keep the work down on the table, but it can also throw the work, and off-cuts, back at the operator. Both machines are very dangerous and should be treated with much respect. As with all tool buying decisions, you should consider your intended applications, both now and in the future. The general consensus is that if you’re building things like jungle gyms, house additions, or trim work (moldings), a radial arm saw may be best. If you’re building things like fine furniture or cabinets, a table saw may be a more appropriate choice. A number of people have reported that the addition of a motorized miter box to a table saw is a satisfying combination.