[Rick Christopherson]

For you radial arm saw haters out there....

 

[Rick Christopherson]

@Rick Christopherson

Wow. It's not fair to call that a RAS. If you do, then what should we call all the ones we are used to seeing?

I never got good pictures of it, but my Craftsman/DeWalt/Montgomery Ward 12" RAS is almost as killer as the Unipoint.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

@Rick Christopherson

Is this the saw you are referring too? I think Sears started selling the DeWalt around 1977. I assume they sold pretty well because they started to sell the same saw as a Craftsman around 1982.

I agree it is an impressive saw, but for me it just doesn't have the style of the Unipoint. I'd put it a little farther away than "almost as killer as...".

In spite of that, I wouldn't mind having the DeWalt/Craftsman (long-time association with Sears, so I'd have to skip the Wards version).

Yes, the picture on the right is my saw. Don't discount the MonkeyWards version, as they were all pretty much the same. American Woodworker Magazine had the MonkeyWards single-phase version, and I had the Craftsman 3-phase version. However, their shop was 3-phase and my shop was single phase. So I swapped their MW motor for my CM motor.

I bought the Unipoint at an auction on an off-day when there weren't supposed to be power tools listed, just windows and doors. So the only person bidding against me was an Amish guy that wanted to rip the motor off and run it from a line-shaft. So I stole it for $600. 🔥 🔥

But before I could even get the Unipoint down into the shop, my father came across the Craftsman, but didn't know how to set up its phase converter. So I bought it from him, and it was way better suited to my shop than the monster Unipoint. So I cleaned it up and flipped it for a nice profit.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Oh, I just remembered that the previous owner of my Unipoint was Pella Windows. They had a massive double-miter fence set up on it where the blade would remain 90-degrees, but both sides of the fence could miter 0-to-90 degrees simultaneously.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

JohnGi my question is "Is your cutter head spinning in the direction of the feed?

I thought I was seeing that too, but wasn't sure. You definitely never want to climb-cut with a back fence, not even with a power feeder.