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Comment by TheCleric

7 months ago

Yeah I wouldn’t use a radial arm saw if you paid me. A friend had one he wasn’t using in his garage he offered to give me and I politely passed.

I've never really used a radial arm saw. What's so dangerous about it compared to the other shop tools talked about in this thread?

  • A table saw is a fixed position blade you feed wood into. A radial arm saw is a moving blade and the wood is stationary. Some of the cuts can involve pointing the blade directly at parts of your body, and then moving it without cutting yourself. A fixed blade is safer since you can try to avoid being in the blade area, but if the blade area is dynamic that becomes much more difficult.

    A good video with examples (of pictures of recommended cuts, not injuries) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Zeg8fHVrJBk

    A good example is at 1:20 of the video.