Saws: Cut Off, Miter, or Radial? Oh My!
In this article we will review three different kinds of cross cutting saws.
There are three varieties of cross cutting saws that are set up to perform slightly different functions or variations of cutting cutoff, miter, and radial arm saws.
If you are a woodworking hobbyist, you may be familiar with one or more of these.
However, let's look at them from an industrial use perspective.
1) CUTOFF saws are usually used for cutting solid wood to length, although they are also used to cut narrow panel stock to length.
They can have the blade raising from under the material or lowering into the material.
They normally are used to cut material less than 12" (300mm) wide as the blade does not stroke forward and back, only up and down.
These saws can be manually activated with mechanical stops, semi automatic with pneumatic stops or fully automatic with CNC control.
More automated machines also detect and cut out defects.
2) MITER saws can be equipped with 1 blade which can be adjusted for simple or compound angles for cutting mouldings, base boards, etc while others have 2 fixed blades at 90 degree angles for cutting toe kicks from panels or components to length with a 45 degree cut.
They can also have two blades, with one fixed and the other adjustable for cutting pieces to various lengths with angles each end, like for a picture frame application.
Some also have compound angle cutting capability for crown mouldings, etc...
These machines can be from small simple units for hobby workers to fully automated saws controlled by CNC for large production environments.
3) RADIAL ARM saws are utilized for cutting wider boards or panels to length.
They are generally with a single tilting blade from above and the saw head travels (is pulled and pushed) horizontally toward and away from the operator while cutting.
Most radial saws are manually operated with the operator controlling the stroke required to complete the cuts.
Radial saws are popular with hobby workers wanting to do all of their cutting on one machine as the blade head can be rotated up to 90 degrees to allow ripping as well as cross cutting on the same machine.
Generally radial saws have a cross cutting capacity of from 20" (500mm) to 36" (900mm).
Cross cutting saws are made by many manufacturers.
In fact, there are too many to list here and most are probably not familiar names to you.
There are three varieties of cross cutting saws that are set up to perform slightly different functions or variations of cutting cutoff, miter, and radial arm saws.
If you are a woodworking hobbyist, you may be familiar with one or more of these.
However, let's look at them from an industrial use perspective.
1) CUTOFF saws are usually used for cutting solid wood to length, although they are also used to cut narrow panel stock to length.
They can have the blade raising from under the material or lowering into the material.
They normally are used to cut material less than 12" (300mm) wide as the blade does not stroke forward and back, only up and down.
These saws can be manually activated with mechanical stops, semi automatic with pneumatic stops or fully automatic with CNC control.
More automated machines also detect and cut out defects.
2) MITER saws can be equipped with 1 blade which can be adjusted for simple or compound angles for cutting mouldings, base boards, etc while others have 2 fixed blades at 90 degree angles for cutting toe kicks from panels or components to length with a 45 degree cut.
They can also have two blades, with one fixed and the other adjustable for cutting pieces to various lengths with angles each end, like for a picture frame application.
Some also have compound angle cutting capability for crown mouldings, etc...
These machines can be from small simple units for hobby workers to fully automated saws controlled by CNC for large production environments.
3) RADIAL ARM saws are utilized for cutting wider boards or panels to length.
They are generally with a single tilting blade from above and the saw head travels (is pulled and pushed) horizontally toward and away from the operator while cutting.
Most radial saws are manually operated with the operator controlling the stroke required to complete the cuts.
Radial saws are popular with hobby workers wanting to do all of their cutting on one machine as the blade head can be rotated up to 90 degrees to allow ripping as well as cross cutting on the same machine.
Generally radial saws have a cross cutting capacity of from 20" (500mm) to 36" (900mm).
Cross cutting saws are made by many manufacturers.
In fact, there are too many to list here and most are probably not familiar names to you.
Source...