Dewalt 1251 RAS.

[peterdewolf]

Hello folks. Just found one of these locally and bought it. It looks in immaculate condition, the original blade is tooth perfect but all the clamps were stiff from sitting idle for some time, possibly several years. An overnight soak with wd40 and it's all singing and dancing, the blade is SO quiet ! So I did my homework about safety and good practice and found quite a lot of conflicting advice about ripping. Also a lot of ignorance, including a 'safety video' from a 'legend' on youtube about feeding wood from the correct side of the blade in which he advised feeding the wood from the WRONG side. He had to post a video apologizing. Anyhoo, I am going to be crosscutting, ripping, mitreing etc with this saw. Just a little query, I found my way round it easily but was surprised to find that the arm, when swung in mitre positions does not have any 'lock' in the standard 90 or 45 positions. Have I missed a clamp, button or anything else.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I suspect you'll always get conflicting advice about ripping - they're not designed to rip.

 

[manglitter]

I suspect you'll always get conflicting advice about ripping - they're not designed to rip.

Mine is designed to rip - even has anti kickback pawls for this purpose!
I wouldn't use one for ripping without them fitted!!

Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, sorry, it wasn't clear. What I meant was ripping is secondary to what they are actually designed for - many people who use them don't use them for ripping.

 

[Noel]

The original DeWalt Wonder Worker was designed and marketed as a machine for all operations: cross cutting/ripping/tenoning/sanding/overhead router/dado cutting etc machine for the suburban man in main street USA.

Personally I only use it for cross cutting, little else. If you want to rip a circular saw is your best option in the absence of a table saw.

There's a fantastic resource/manual about RAS machines somewhere, 30 odd pages of advice, instruction etc. Aspects like how to make the table more rigid for instance are covered. Problem is, I can't find it but will look. It's somewhere on the net and it's free.
If you haven't seen this, this is a copy of the handbook from the early 80s. 120 + pages with projects too:
http://www.drosera.f2s.com/RAS/DeWalt_P ... ndbook.pdf

There should be two clamp levers at the back.
There are detentes for 45 degrees as far as I recall (I'm nowhere near workshop). One each side. Make sure blade is above cross cutting kerf slot, release rear most clamp and raise the lever just in front of it. Arm will now be free to swing and if you look under the collar where the arm connects to the pillar you'll see 3 slots, 90 degrees in the middle and 45 degrees each side. Swing the arm round and pull the 2nd rear most lever down to engage the slot then clamp the arm with the rear clamp. The detente slots are not accurate so you'll have to check with a square.
Hope that all makes sense.

It could be in the manual I linked too, never looked.. : )

 

[julianf]

I've always had a bit of a love / hate relationship with my dw125

I mean it seems like it should do so very much, and it kind of can, but it's a constant battle with accuracy.

I think that, if you had the space, to set it in a large sturdy table would be the solution. I thought about making somthing up with extruded t slot box section stuff but in the end just bought a cast table saw. Which should have most of the function, probably actually in less of the footprint - and, hopefully, without all the readjustment.

I found that you can get it to do nice stuff - but it is also effort to use.

 

[LancsRick]

Yes there are locks for those angles. On the vertical pillar you will see two orange handles where the arm joins. One is a friction lock for holding the arm at any angle, the other is a tooth lock that will lock at 45 and 90 degrees.

 

[peterdewolf]

Thank you lads, I couldn't figure out what the mitre 'latch' was for as i couldn't locate a lock point for 90 or 45 but now I know to look for it , I'll check it again after lunch. I did download the dewalt manual but while it refers to releasing the mitre latch it doesn't go into detail about using it to 'lock' at the standard points ( unless I missed it ) . I'd be grateful for any other workbooks as well.
This one does have anti-kickback pawls that are in mint condition but doesn't seem to have a riving knife, unless it's siezed within the guard, will do a little more disassemble today. Took the carriage out and the bearings were in lovely condition.
As for ripping with a circular saw, that's why I bought this beast. Been using a circular saw for many years, it's a right pain, binding, siezing, jumping, heating up and cobbling around on planks on the lawn or the workshop floor. I toyed with a table saw but anything worth buying is a min of £400-00 and so many youtube reviews expose lots of saws to have flimsy unstable and inaccurate builds. So fingers crossed and all counted, once I make up my table that'l be me finished kneeling on the floor with a screamer chasing a pencil line :?

 

[peterdewolf]

Noel, thank you for the handbook, lots of stuff worth browsing in this, the dewalt manual is 27 pages :wink:

 

[Noel]

Found the other resource I mentioned, had it in an old bookmark list, not 30 pages but 109 so should help you (and others), (looks like Rik Mayall on the first page):

http://www.drosera.f2s.com/RAS/RadialArmSaw.pdf

I also have Wally Kunkel's (think he invented the RAS) book somewhere so will advise on that when I get a chance but you'll find the link I listed above is likely all you'll ever need.

There's also a good RAS forum on Delphi forums, think you have to register but a good resource too:
http://people.delphiforums.com/snotzalot/sawdust/

Lastly an article from Woodcentral by Roger Hill:
http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/dewaltrebuild.pdf

 

[peterdewolf]

Ok I got the hang of the mitre latch, wasn't what I expected, I was looking for something like what I have on my chopsaw. These indents are seriously engineered, like the rest of it but the latch wasn't for moving, not rusted but solid. Again wd40 is your friend. Defo no riving knife on it though, I'd feel better with one, have to scour the web. My wife just cannot understand me forking out for a 30 year old saw but I'd rather have this than any of the tablesaws I've been browsing lately. Thanks for the reading material, OUCH Rick Mayal, with a radial arm saw, doesn't bear thinking about :lol: .

 

[LancsRick]

Roving knives are easy to make if some kind soul will trace the outline of an existing knife and send it to you.

 

[peterdewolf]

Thank you Rick but the whole assembly is missing, the knife and carrier bracket. Found one on ebay minutes ago, ordered it, bracket, knife, bolts etc £20-00 . Can't be bad EH ? . Just need to crack on and make a table. Browsed a lot of stuff on making one and it surprises me how many times MDF is recommended. I wouldn't touch it for something that needed to remain flat. Where I live MDF sucks moisture like a sponge :shock: ! Guaranteed to deform, swell etc then dry out and deform some more and I don't think steel reinforcing would stop that. Might be ok in a dry comfortable environment but that defo isn't my workshop