Rusty bolt removal

[Bird]

Pat, you mention your small Makita table saw. Well, I have one of the smallest, cheapest Sears table saws because I have very limited use for one. But before I moved back to town, I had a Craftsman radial arm saw. Apparently the radial arm saws are not all that popular, but that was the handiest, most useful saw I ever owned. It cut all the pieces (2 x 4, 2 x 6, and plywood) to build the trusses for my brother's house, it was fast and easy cutting vinyl skirting for a mobile home, it made the cleanest cuts for PVC pipe for plumbing that I've ever seen, not to mention lots of wood for a variety of other repairs and projects.

[egon]

Bird:

Pat's just looking for more tools to make his shop look a littler smaller. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Actually several clamps, a good long straight edge and a skill saw with a good blade is all he needs! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Of course a good panel saw would also be nice! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Egon : [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[LazyJ_Arabians]

I would fall over dead if I ever heard the words, "Honey, go get you a bigger saw".

What I have to do is listen very closely for when she says, "I wish I had ME a bigger saw to trim my azaleas". That's when I come home with the Stihl 099 Turbo forest clear-cutting machine.

[Pat]

Bird, To the man with only a hammer, every job looks like a nail. Seriously, the RAS has lost popularity in recent years (decades?) but I like mine and will keep it. It isn't that you can't replace just about anything it does with some other machine/method but I like the way it does what it does.

I built a surround to support and "trim in" a mostly in ground Jacuzzi on our sun porch in San Diego. I built it out of redwood tongue and groove fence boards, the ones that use 2x4 wilt a slot for a bottom and top rail. I cut 4x4 redwood posts to make the 2x4 and to make octagon corner posts (Jacuzzi was octagonal) and used a special blade with interchangeable teeth to do what a router would have done to put a decorative edge on the 2x4 rails and the mini-posts. The results were quite nice and I got great comments, stuff like, it doesn't look like you made it and other high praise.

My RAS has a 10 inch diameter sanding wheel and a boring attachment, and a jigsaw attachment. It came with a metal chest of drawers for a stand and it was nearly chockablock with accessories and extra blades and two dado sets and on and on. I bought it at least 3rd or 4th hand (but likely more) It is an old Craftsman, lots of cast iron and the instruction manual pictures show folks with hair and clothes that look to be of the style of the 50's or early 60's.

I have a compound sliding 12 inch miter saw but it only cuts so wide of stock and then it is time for the RAS. Somehow the RAS seems to "make sense" and it seems safer somehow to be able to leave the wood clamped down and move the saw. When using a table saw you are required to control the wood. A rip fance is good but doesn't actually constrain the wood it just sort of helps if you pay attention and are skilled. The RAS lets you secure the wood and the saw is constrained in its motion, like a miter saw.

Still there are things that are best done with a full sized table saw and not faked with a temporary clamped on rip fence to slide your Skill saw along.

Pat

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Well Pat, that's a little bit like my wife looking up from reading the latest copy of RIFLEMAN Magazine and saying: "We need to go buy some more guns!" [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img] She spotted a derringer that she liked and of course there was something for me as well; a 5-RD S&W Hammerless Revolver in .357. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool RAS guy and if I do say so m'self I know how to do good work with one. The RAS that I have now is my third one (7-1/2" DeWalt-10" Craftsman-12" DeWalt) and is the ultimate in a RAS. My 240V DeWalt Contractor's Model shares a long table with my 10" Compound Miter saw and between those two I can do lots and lots of good stuff. I recently added a 12" Monkey Ward table saw, (an oldie-but-goodie) to the mix. This is my first 'scary' table saw. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, I thought the 5 rnd hammerless .357 was a girlie gun but no more since I know you are not a girlie man. My wife likes her's (AirLightSmith) which she puts in her pocket when going out by herself more than a few feet from the house. She has some video footage she shot of a juvenile Puma in the back yard, a clip of bobcats by the back porch, and an adult puma sighting in the back yard but it left before she could grab a camera.

Better safe than lunch!

I never built cabinet drawers before and I just did 4 in last two days with 8 more to go. They are all 23 inches deep and 30 inches wide. There are 4 each in heights of 13, 11, 9, and 7 inches. I'll mount them from the floor up in descending sizes.

I also have never built cabinets (to hold the drawers) before either. Well I'm learning as I go. I have made mistakes but haven't scrapped any drawer parts yet. Dumb oops that make one drawer 1/2 inch wider or onger than another. Ahh, no prob dude it will not show after I put the decorative door fronts on.

The drawers will be arranged in three stacks of four drawers. One stack will have minor variations but will not be particularly noticeable. Now that I experienced a couple of types of errors the rest should go better. Every time I free hand cut a drawer bottom on the cute little Makita table saw I wish I had the good sense to just stop the job and go buy a saw. I want decent infeed, outfeed, and fairly large table area on the new saw. I would be happy to find a good used 12 inch cabinet saw with a Bismeyer fence. I'd settle for a good 10 inch with lots of cast iron and strong construction.

As much as I like my old cast iron Craftsman RAS I don't see replacing it with larger or better one, even if it dies.

I need to find someone who thinks as much of Milwaukee as I do who has a table saw for sale and needs a good moter saw. I have a Milwaukee compound miter saw with literally just a few minutes of run time on it. I use my DeWalt slide compound instead.

Oh by the way... I bought an Irwin LASER washer thingy to put on the DeWalt. It worked for a little while and then stuck in the on position and ran the batteries down. IT is supposed to be switched on by centrifugal force and it was but it is also supposed to turn off when the blade slows down but it didn't. Yet another return to Lowe's. It worked so so, the saw didn't cut where the LASER line showed up but you could get used to the offset.

Pat

[egon]

Did you get a new Table/cabinet saw Pat?

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Not yet, Egon, as I mentioned in the post immediately preceeding yours, I need to stop using the thumb biter Makita long enough to go buy a bigger saw with huge expanse of flat surface and lots more extent to the adjustable fence (Bismeyer or such.) I get so tired of tapping on my fence and measuring the blade to fence distance on both leading and trailing edges of the blade to try to get it square and properly spaced. The fence is not precisely square if you just clamp it down and the fence can only be adjusted about a foot to either side of the blade (boo hisssss.)

I know more now than I did when I bought the Makiita but I am still concerned that I don't know enough to buy a used saw. Caveat emptor requires the buyer to know something about what they are buying as it is not often that the seller will be both honest and forthcoming volunteering all information good and bad and besides he may not know as much about saws as I do.

Egon, my friend, I wish you lived just down the lane from me or Jazz or just about any of the guys who know so terribly much more than I do about wood working and woodworking tools. I'd be happy to buy someones lunch for going with mo on a buying expedition.

Pat

[egon]

If you speak of true woodworking knowledge/skills please excuse me from the list. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] I just pass data on! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Several years ago Pete had a thread on cabinet saws over on TBN.

Egon