Ras

[jmarkt]

Looking to but a Radial Arm Saw. I figure I can do a little more with it than a table saw. I have looked at the Craftsman saws, What else is out there that I should take a look at?

[woodman43]

Welcome to the site!
What will you be using it for and how much are you able to spend?

[jmarkt]

I lost my tools in Hurricane Katrina, trying to start replacing some of them. I had a table saw before and my father in law had a RAS. I found that I was using his quite often. I build a lot of swings. Was wondering what the quality of craftsman is these days?

[Terry Mac]

Hey JMark welcome to the forum!

Man, sorry to hear about losing the tools in Katrina.

I'm sure people around here are tired of me harping on old tools. But I love'em, they were built to last. I would look around the Bargain Posts, CL, feebay and Classifieds of your area and find an old DeWalt. Really good machines. Now around here, there seems to be an older 10" Craftsman for sale most of time. I've got a 10" Craftsman, older model, that runs just fine. Again not sure about your area, but around here these Craftsman run around $150 to $250 bucks. Can't help much on newer machines.

Good Luck, and let us know what you get.

[Don]

Hey, Jmark and welcome. Craftsman saws have always seemed to be a nominal saw to me, meaning they will do the job just fine for most home projects and light shop work. Often they have a lot of frills and fru fru that seems to break off or quit working. Some of the old DeWalts, Deltas, Rockwells are pretty good. The best one that I had at a home shop was a turret arm and I really liked it.

Let us know what you decide on.

All the best, Don

[jmarkt]

I read the reviews on the craftsman RAS and they are not real strong,sooooo will probably go with the Table Saw.