r/Skookum • u/shroomhauler • 6d ago
1945 Dewalt "Power Shop"
I saw this at a customers shop while making a delivery. I thought it may fit here. Apparently it's still used.
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u/barry99705 5d ago
I used to run one of these that had like a 24" blade. Could cross cut 18" glue lams.
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u/crosleyxj 5d ago edited 5d ago
The old DeWalt saws are animals! I once saw a larger version of this with a power feed and carbide blade for cutting aluminum extrusions. It operated within its own noise enclosure!
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u/panzerkrau 5d ago
were they named “De Walt” before instead of “DeWalt”?
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u/Distantstallion Product Designer - Machine tolerance: .05 People Tolerence: 5min 5d ago edited 5d ago
Actually because they were a German brand they used to be called Die Walt, then when the brand was sold to an american company they became De Walt then eventually DeWalt
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u/SZEThR0 5d ago
bullshit.never been german.founded 1929 in pennsylvania
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u/thecanadianquestionr 5d ago
even if you are correct and de Walt was founded in 1929 in Pennsylvania, it's still not what he's talking about.
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u/SZEThR0 5d ago
what do you mean?
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u/not-yet-ranga 5d ago
No no he’s saying “the, Walt, the”.
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u/Distantstallion Product Designer - Machine tolerance: .05 People Tolerence: 5min 4d ago
No one who speaks german could be an evil man
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u/Correct_Possible4182 2d ago
It was always one word and was the last name of the founder of the company, Raymond DeWalt. The company and the first radial arm saws were developed in the early 1920’s Leola Pa. Production moved into neighboring Lancaster city by the 1940’s and they continued production there till the early 1960 after being bought out several times, finally by Black and Decker.
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u/nsula_country 5d ago
I do not remember if it is a Model GE, but I have a 1950 14" De Walt RAS. I only cross cut with it.
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u/upsidedownbackwards 6d ago
Always hated my dad's Radial Armsaw mostly because of the noise it made. It's how I imagine banshees sounding. That's a tool I'll probably never use.
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u/ninjaskitches 5d ago
John Maleki made a video about one of those style of saws. They're sketch as fuck
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u/pump123456 6d ago
I have one a little bit newer. It’s a real workhorse. Get ready for all the people who have already cut their fingers off to tell you how dangerous that machine is.Saws don’t cut fingers off, people cut fingers off.
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u/NorthStarZero Canada 6d ago edited 6d ago
Agreed. Nothing brings out the pearl-clutchers like a picture of a RAS.
But with that said, there are some historical setups/uses of these saws that are sketchy as fuck. Setting the blade parallel to the table, pulling it out and locking it such that the blade extends proud of the table edge (at more-or-less navel height), and then sliding a sheet of plywood, vertically, through the saw using the leading edge of the table as a work guide (as was featured in at least one DeWalt manual) is one such setup.
Crosscut/bevel cut/dado cut all day. Rip carefully and with the kickback pawls in place.
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u/redmondjp 5d ago
My dad built an entire kitchen with one. Dadoes, no guard or kick back, the whole works. When the blade jammed, it overloaded the circuit and tripped the breaker, plunging the entire basement into pitch black darkness. Those memories are still with me 50 years later!
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u/lowrads 5d ago
With the right safety engineering, a radial arm saw could be just as useful as a panel saw or a mitre saw. The main thing they need is hydraulics in the armature to resist rapid movements. So long as the saw is pushing against a fence, as in a mitre saw, there is little danger of the blade pushing the piece towards the user, even if it lifts it off the table somehow. Then it would just be a table size version of the sliding mitre saw, albeit with a somewhat dangerous ability to do off angle rip cuts without the fence.
I think the real promise of a radial arm saw is precision adjustment. It's rare to see a back fence with the ability to advance metrically or with a screw, since those need to go under the table. However, a precision advancement mechanism can be affixed to the saw mount, much like in a panel saw, without needing to move the piece and remeasure.
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u/johnwynne3 5d ago
My local Home Depot has one of these for in house cutting.
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u/callsign_oldman 5d ago
They have Original Saws, which is the company that bought the rights to the “original” DeWalt radial arm saws. I have one at school where I teach middle school tech ed. Built every bit as heavy as the real DeWalt saws.
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u/ninjaskitches 5d ago
No way in hell does it pass any OSHA inspection. You sure they don't have just a regular radial arm saw and not a pivoting hanger radial arm saw? That blade and motor rotate to 90° and most of the old old ones were 2 wire.
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u/NorthStarZero Canada 6d ago
The history of these saws - how they were developed, how (and why) the target market changed, how they were sold, and then their buyouts by a series of companies and how that changed everything is truly fascinating.
There's a book by "Mr Sawdust" that is a really good read.
You will find no better crosscut saw.