1969 Sears, 12” Radial Arm Saw

Although I consider my Delta 10” tablesaw to be the heart of my woodworking activities, radial arm saws excel at cross cuts on long boards. I got by for years with my trusty Dewalt 8” RAS, and would probably still have the saw if my need to cut 4X4 and larger lumber on a more common basis had not risen. Rejecting the idea of up-sizing my tablesaw, and not wanting to spend an incredible amount of money on a new RAS, I decided to keep my eyes open for a used one.

I finally found what I was looking for on The World’s Longest Yardsale. A retired railroad man on the side of the road in Tennessee had exactly what I was looking for – An old, heavy, 13 amp, 220 vac, 12 inch radial arm saw with no work surface in dire need of repair & TLC. Most of the moving parts either would not move, or took great effort to budge them. It was obvious this machine had not run in years, and looked like it had been sitting in a barn. Did I mention “heavy”? It took both of us to slide it from his truck to mine. He laughed that he used his front-end loader to get it out of his barn.

Researching my ‘new’ 242 pound tool, I found it had been made by Emerson. Although able to email me an owner’s manual, they were unsure about the exact year the saw was made as their records more or less indicated “before 1972”. I mentioned the saw to an older man I work with, and he brought in a stack of old Sears Tool Catalogs for me to study. Looking through the stack, I noticed that a version of my saw had been sold for a number of years with only minor cosmetic tweaks separating each new marketing year. Then, there on the cover of the 1969 catalog I spotted my saw complete with the tell-tale, color-coded bevel, miter, and rip indicators. Finding that Sears PartsDirect still supported some parts for my model brought a smile to my face.

Click on the image for a spec sheet

The first order of business was to determine the extent of motor damage present since the arbor would only turn with great effort. Powering it up the first time, the motor hummed loudly, and my overhead fluorescents dimmed, but the blade did not move. No big surprise there, but I had to try! Disassembling the motor, the thrust washer & spring plates were found to be unusually rusty although the sealed bearings were in amazingly good condition. While the rust was probably due to old age & lack of use, I harbor a suspicion that the electric brake used to slow down the blade when the power is switched off had quit in the ON position while the saw was still being used regularly. Located on the accessory power take-off end of the motor, it would not surprise me if the heat generated by the metal-on-brake-disk overheated the thrust washer & cooked off its protective grease. Being a brushless motor, new bearings installed after a good cleaning were all that was needed to bring the motor back to life.

Interesting motor construction. To allow thick stock to be cut, a direct-drive RAS motor needs to be as compact as possible on the bottom side. To accomplish this goal, Emerson’s approach was to bed the armature & bearings with some form of epoxy in the motor case halves. During manufacture, the few small screws holding the halves together were only necessary until the epoxy cured. Neat idea, and it stood the test of time & use well. It was a bear, though, to get the thing apart without breaking anything but the epoxy bond!

With the motor repaired, the rest of the saw was then disassembled down to the last nut & bolt. Everything was cleaned, and either waxed, greased or painted before reassembly. Although the radial arm initially would only go up & down, and not side to side, no unusual wear which could not be adjusted out other than the motor carriage rails was found. Luckily, Sears still had new rails available. A new, one inch thick work surface was not available, but the dimensions could be determined from the various catalog photos available. ½ inch thick high density fiberboard was glued together to make the blank. The work surface mounting brackets were the only thing of consequence missing from the saw, and were no longer available. Luckily, perforated angle iron from the home improvement store filled the void quite well with only minor modification.

The first project for my newest tool was identified during the refurb – A table to put it on.

Click on the picture above to see a design sketch

Tenons were cut on the table saw with the aid of a tenoning jig. Ten foot ceilings are nice to have for times like these!

The saw had originally come with stamped steel legs. But I was just as happy they were missing because I wanted the saw to be supported by a table with mass. My Dewalt saw’s stand, properly sized, and built by me out of 2X4s, seemed more than suitable for the task until one day when the blade hit a knot, climbed up on the stock being cut, and the entire carriage zoomed out to attack me. The spinning blade itself was not the safety issue as much as when the carriage hit the front stop and tipped the table. Concrete blocks on the support table’s lower shelf prevented subsequent scares, but loading deadweight struck me as a “band-aid” fix.

My solution was a table framed with 4X4s big enough to support the RAS, and the chopsaw. The table’s mass coupled with the weight of the chopsaw solved the tipping table issue. And, an old problem of how to support long stock to be cut on the chopsaw was solved by shimming the chopsaw high enough to take advantage of the RAS’s work surface.

While I knew the RAS would be called upon to crosscut the 4X4’s, to my surprise, it was also called upon for use as a horizontal milling machine. Hollowing out many of the mortises was an activity planned for the drill press (lower left picture). But between being difficult to support the work, and lack of quill travel, the operation was turned over the RAS (lower right picture). This was the first time I had ever used a RAS for anything other than crosscutting, and was impressed by the results & ease of use.

I was pleased with how well the new saw crosscut, dadoed, and mortised the various pieces. Incidentally, other than a few wire brads used to hold some members in place until the glue dried, the only steel used on the project was the machine nuts, bolts & washers used to in-place level the five legs.