I have a Dewalt 1251 Radial Arm Saw which is a 10” saw with a maximum depth of cut of 68mm. A few months ago I was wondering if a 12” blade would fit in the saw guard/cover without hitting the guard or anything else. I found that a 300mm saw blade would just fit. A 305 might but I am not going to do that. It does not have a big motor so I thought I might be pushing it too far. So I bought the thinnest 300mm saw blade I could find a 1.6mm negative rake blade. Redesigned (moved it forward about 40mm) the fence so that the blade retreats behind the fence and I now have a saw that will cross cut 90mm stock. I have found that the motor copes very well and I have had less of a tendency to grab the stock then before. I have cut some 150mm x 80mm oak with no problem whatsoever. The only downsides are that the dust extraction is a little less efficient but not to the point of being a nuisance. The other problem is the blade runs even longer after switching off. I had read that the larger blade could buckle but so far the cut has been excellent.
So for those of you with a RAS something to consider.
So for those of you with a RAS something to consider.
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