Two RAS one bench

[Dan Chouinard]

Are there any threads discussing side by side radial arm saws sharing one bench?

[roger wiegand]

Given enough space no reason it shouldn't work, but I think you'll find that only a vanishingly small percentage of folks have even one RAS, much less two.

[William Chain]

Haha, speak for yourselves. I have 7 RAS in the garage at the moment. Yes, you can build a common table. Complication is one levels the table relative to the arm, so two saws may be a slight problem. If you’re just doing crosscuts, no problem so long as the depth of cut relative to the table surface makes it through the material on both saws. Doing dadoes will require a finer calibration though.

Putting the saws side by side and making a table to span the two out of one sheet (two layers I’d strongly suggest), you can. At that point I’d probably span both saw tables with unistrut to address table sag, and go from there. See Frank Howarth’s videos on YouTube for a variety of benches and setups for multiple RAS setups.

I myself am working on expanding my mitre station to include a DeWalt 1030RA and a 7790 as large crosscut and dadoe stations with a large common fence with a tape and flipstops. I’m putting them on opposite ends of a common table (with a kapex in the middle) so I should be able to minimize the leveling problem but fine tuning tables
to the individual arms then each whole saw relative to the common table. Ridiculous? Yes. But I have the room do build this luxury.

[Dan Chouinard]

Right on William. Not concerned with what maybe fashionable!

[Charlie Velasquez]

A number of people on the Delphi DeWalt forum have done this. But like William with multiples, it often works better to have one saw on wheels unless you have an extremely long workshop. So, two in the bench, one on wheels... three altogether? But even three wouldn’t get you in the top ten at that Dewalt group.
I had to get rid of my 2nd and 3rd when I downsized to a small 12x16 that I share with my wife’s garden/lawn tools. Gave one to my brother-in-law. Gave the other one to another member of the Dewalt forum... I think that put him at..... wait for it.... 84 saws. But he is kinda into it a little more than most.

As William suggests, if just for dadoes and crosscuts, adjust the table to be parallel to the travel of the saw wrt the dado saw.

Visit the forum, they will give you lots of insight wrt doing this.
You have to register, but it’s free.
http://people.delphiforums.com/snotz...awdust/faq.htm

[William Chain]

I post over there too.

I think Leo is up to 86 now. He’s an anomaly for sure, and patient zero for Dewaltitis.

A number of people on the Delphi DeWalt forum have done this. But like William with multiples, it often works better to have one saw on wheels unless you have an extremely long workshop. So, two in the bench, one on wheels... three altogether? But even three wouldn’t get you in the top ten at that Dewalt group.
I had to get rid of my 2nd and 3rd when I downsized to a small 12x16 that I share with my wife’s garden/lawn tools. Gave one to my brother-in-law. Gave the other one to another member of the Dewalt forum... I think that put him at..... wait for it.... 84 saws. But he is kinda into it a little more than most.

As William suggests, if just for dadoes and crosscuts, adjust the table to be parallel to the travel of the saw wrt the dado saw.

Visit the forum, they will give you lots of insight wrt doing this.
You have to register, but it’s free.
http://people.delphiforums.com/snotz...awdust/faq.htm

[Dan Chouinard]

I have been using my grandfathers 3/4 hp DeWalt for the past 10 (or is it 12) years. Love that saw but my siblings will not let me take it to my new shop. Just recently bought a DeWalt GP
12" 2hp capable of crosscutting approximately 16" and believed to be from 1939. It will be set at 90 degrees permanently and primarily used for cutting face frame and door parts to length.
I also just purchased a 2019 Original Saw Company 12" 3 hp 3 phase contractor RAS capable of crosscutting 24". This too will be set at 90 degrees and be used primarily for crosscutting plywood.
Both saws just landed in the new shop but have yet to be powered up as electrical in the shop not quite finished.
The Original Saw Company Saw was purchased in what was claimed to be like new condition barely used by a shop that was made an offer they could not refuse from CVS. I paid less than half of what the saw costs brand new. My associate and I however discovered yesterday that the crank at the top of machine that raises and lowers the motor does not do so. Crank just turns with no results.
Provided this issue is solved I may be building a single bench for both RAS that share a common fence. Having no experience with such a setup I can foresee hurdles that need to be overcome.
One is getting two saws calibrated and true to a single fence seems to be a bit of a challenge. Another is designing a flip stop measuring system that can accommodate two saws. Does one tape extend to the left for one of them and the other to the right for the second saw?
Having said all that, its possible that the larger RAS may be a bridge to a future sliding table saw which would make that saw redundant. If building a single bench for two RAS is overly fraught with peril
perhaps that saw gets its own bench. This solution is less than desirable but can be considered.
As always any thoughts/suggestions from you fine folks would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan

[Dan Chouinard]

Thanks for heads up on Delphi.

[William Chain]

Multiple bits here but let’s dive in.

Those saws will be about the same height so a unified table will totally work. Getting them squared to a common fence will be easy. It’ll take time but it’ll be easy. Once you see how the arms are adjusted to the column collar, you’ll get it done. It’s two screws that need to be turned in opposite directions to fine tune the set stop, and then a pair of set screws to hold the setting. The GP is great. A little TLC and it’ll live forever. I’m concerned you dramatically overpaid on the OSC saw. Those are essentially patent copies of the old Dewalt GA’s and GE’s. But if you’re happy, whatever. The crank for the column adjustment may well be a trivial repair but could also be a big problem. Take a look up the column from the bottom while your buddy turns the crank. See what you see.

[William Chain]

And yes, you can build a fence with the tape reading right to left or left to right. All commercially available, imperial or metric or both.

[lowell holmes]

I made drawer cabinet with three drawers. The saw sits inside the cabinet. I attached 1x12x36" boards to the side of the cabinet using door butts.
I put 1x2 strips on the side of the cabinet that I use to place diagonal boards to hold the hinged board level with the saw table. This give me about 10 feet of horizontal table. I always use a push stick to complete the cut. The diagonal boards are 1/4. The whole thing is on casters.

[William Chain]

A member of the delphi DeWalt forum has a similar setup for an MBF, including custom lighting and a frankensaw swap out. And he did dust collection. I believe he has videos on Youtube describing the lot.

I made drawer cabinet with three drawers. The saw sits inside the cabinet. I attached 1x12x36" boards to the side of the cabinet using door butts.
I put 1x2 strips on the side of the cabinet that I use to place diagonal boards to hold the hinged board level with the saw table. This give me about 10 feet of horizontal table. I always use a push stick to complete the cut. The diagonal boards are 1/4. The whole thing is on casters.

[Dan Chouinard]

Just got off the phone with a very helpful gentleman named Dave at Original Saw Company trying to diagnose issue. Awaiting a return call from one of his associates to confirm buts sounds as though there may be something broken in the column. He also informed me that this is a 2015 saw not a 2019 as advertised. I paid $2400 cash. He does not feel like I grossly overpaid but there is an issue to be solved. He did assure me that this is an appropriate saw for my intended use but I am pissed about being misled about the history of this saw.
William, my associate is not currently here with me and the saw so unable to try your suggestion. If I do manage to get this saw issue repaired and get both saws on one bench does one tape read to the left and the other to the right or is there a way to get both tapes reading from the left even though both blades are not at the same starting line? I dont know how better to articulate that question but there it is.

[William Chain]

oof... can you take it back? The Delphi forum guys can help you find a comparable saw for under $500.

how about an inspection mirror? Like a mechanics mirror. Either a broken part or the threads have backed out or come loose on the elevation screw.

Just got off the phone with a very helpful gentleman named Dave at Original Saw Company trying to diagnose issue. Awaiting a return call from one of his associates to confirm buts sounds as though there may be something broken in the column. He also informed me that this is a 2015 saw not a 2019 as advertised. I paid $2400 cash. He does not feel like I grossly overpaid but there is an issue to be solved. He did assure me that this is an appropriate saw for my intended use but I am pissed about being misled about the history of this saw.
William, my associate is not currently here with me and the saw so unable to try your suggestion. If I do manage to get this saw issue repaired and get both saws on one bench does one tape read to the left and the other to the right or is there a way to get both tapes reading from the left even though both blades are not at the same starting line? I dont know how better to articulate that question but there it is.

[james manutes]

On You Tube Frank Howarth has a dual saw / 1 table with dust collection in the fence that really works . Worth a look .