My new Radial Arm Saw

Brent Dowell

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Well, where do I start...

Had to spend the better part of last weeking in Barstow clearing out my FIL's garage. He passed away last October, and this was the first chance to get the entire family together to go through the garage and house.

I inherited his old Radial arm saw. I would have had it up here on Thursday, but the front left wheel bearing went out on my truck Bubba, so had to leave it in Mammoth Lakes and rent a car to get home. Woke up at 5:00am today and drove down to pick up the truck, with the saw in it. Drove through some snow and sleet on the way down. Timed it just right, as they were starting to get snow as I picked up the truck. Put some plastic over it for the ride home, but didn't get any precipitation on the way home. Go figure :huh: Just glad the old boy didn't get any rain or snow on him while he waited for me to get down there...


I don't really know that much about it yet, other than it is HEAVY! Really really heavy...


Not sure what I have planned for it yet. The base seems stable enough, so I'll probably keep that. I'll need to make a new table and fence for it, and will put it on a mobile base.

The one thing I learned after going through his garage is that mine needs a serious, serious going through. I figure some nice weekend I'll clear everything out of my shop and give everything a good thinking over before I put it back in....

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once you get that cleanup your gonna like it,, that one pivots all directions:thumb::thumb: the only thing i can see is that the newer miter saws are taking the place of radial arms fast,, but your price on this one is right.. thats made like a tank:thumb::thumb:
 
I was right, that is an old Red Star! I want to say that they ended up as the Delta 900? I seem to remember reading somewhere Delta ended up buying Red Star or the design or something??

Anyway, that design is the only one that might temp me to sell my DeWalt. You can do things with it that a 'normal' RAS can not do and I wish I could sometimes.
 
Great hand me down there Brent. Sure sounds like it will be a good piece of old iron to have around the shop. I think soon you will be building a new stand alone shop with all these acquisitions. Space must be getting to a premium in the garage.:D:thumb:
 
From what I can tell, I think Red Star might have gotten bought out by Rockwell around 49 or 50? I'll do some more research on it. I don't know if my FIL was the original owner or not, but there are a few good examples of it on OWWM.

I'm thinking of building a smaller base for it to match what those bases look like on OWWM, and will probably do a full resto on it. Seems like a nice piece of machinery, for sure...

Space is getting tight in my garage, but I'm thinking of doing a serious clean out this spring. Might go as far as to completely redo the shelving units and just getting rid of a bunch of the 'stuff'.

I realize I have a bit of the 'hoarding' gene, and will need to do what I can to fight the temptation at every step... :thumb:
 
I can't tell anything about it because I do neither know the brand nor the model. However, it looks to me like a very sturdy and well made RAS, that is more flexible than most miter saws and that can cut wider boards as well.

With some clean up and grease at the bearings should be a great tool.
 
From what I can tell, I think Red Star might have gotten bought out by Rockwell around 49 or 50? ..................

I realize I have a bit of the 'hoarding' gene, and will need to do what I can to fight the temptation at every step... :thumb:

I have read the story and I am sure it's on the OWWM site. I know Red Star went away and Rockwell/Delta made a very similar saw.

There is an upside to hoarding if kept in control. I have been doing some late winter cleaning and put some odds and ends on Craigslist. So far I have sold all the but two items and I have a couple of hundred bucks in my pocket in exchange for what was essentially junk for me. Stuff I would never use but someone else needed.
 
Your Saw

Your saw is a Red Star multiplex 40-A. They were bought out by Delta in 1947. I have one of these saws and they are a heavy duty beast. So far I have only used mine for crosscutting long boards. It is a bit intimidating pulling a spinning 12" blade towards you.
As for the hoarding gene; I am selling a lot of stuff on CL.
 
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