Meet the Beast

My buddy John was kind enough to let me have this 300 pound monster of a saw. It is a DeWalt radial arm saw made around 1945. Believe it or not there seems to be a bit of a demand for this particular saw, and not much comparative in scale or quality available today. It's got a 12" blade and a true 2 HP motor. Everything is fully adjustable and the action and precision is unbelievable for a saw of this age. And this monster will do just about any cut imaginable - it has 24" travel across the arm, arm height is adjustable left/right and up/down, the saw rotates 360 degrees horizontal and tilts 90 degrees down.

After 60 years of service it needed a good cleanup/restoration and it appears to be almost good as new again. My dad welded up a stand for me to make this beast a bit more mobile (yes, this was supposedly their "portable" model!), and I constructed a new surface table/guide based on the original book John gave me with the saw. Now I just need a new blade and get the table "trued" up to the blade and I'll be ready for some serious cutting. One last key tool needed for my trim/woodwork resto shop is a jointer. John has a 4" I can use but I have my eye on a 6" I may lock in this week. Of course I may still use his for smaller work....