I was thinking of replacing my old radial arm saw with a sliding compound miter saw. Radial arm saws are great but appears to be being replaced since sliding miter saws are more common. The one thing I use the radial arm saw for a lot is raising the blade and making wide dados, too wide for a router and too hard to move the wood over a table saw, and alot of times easier on the radial arm saw. I just use the regular blade in several passes, like when making dados for outdoor furniture using 2x4 framing. Could I raise the blade of a sliding miter saw so I can cut dados? I'm sure each one is different, but in general is this something that most could do?
Thanks

None that I've ever used which includes porter cable 10", and delta and bosch 12". my radial arm virtually never gets used anymore except when I am cutting dados front to back in a a set of bookshelves or making half lap joints for a face frame. I have the 10" porter cable which I can just pick up and carry onto a roof or wherever I need it and the 12" bosch which is a BEAST and sits on a folding wheeled cart. and I use a stacked dado set to cut the dados, uicker than multiple saw passes (but then I aso have the dado set) ront

I have a DeWalt 12" compound miter saw that I really love. I don't like the sliding compound saws; just never needed that feature. For that matter, I never use the compound feature on mine since setting the angle is too much trouble and too prone to error. So, essentially I have a 12" miter saw, and it works great for me. I got the 12" size to handle larger crown molding.

To cut dadoes I use a router and a straight bit. I made a simple jig to guide the router and I clamp that to the piece. That give me long dadoes without the danger of a radial arm saw or table saw.

Your DeWalt is "prone to error"???

I'm quite surprised!

I liked the larger crosscut width on the sliding miter saw. I was hoping that there was one that I could use for all the same things as the radial arm saw. I may keep the radial arm saw, but it just takes up a lot of space and can't be moved easily, its a very old large one and I may need to do some work on the motor since the bearings are starting to go bad.
Thanks

The DeWalt is not prone to error, but the user is! It is very difficult to figure out the corner miter cuts of - say crown molding - but it is very easy to cut the crown upside down and backwards.

I've got a Delta Sidekick SCMS and it will do your dado cuts. You can set the depth of the cut, kinda like a drill press setting for depth, and it works fine. The cut is on the top of the board just like the radial arm saw.

The Sidekick came mounted to a folding stand and has slide out extensions on each side. It's unwieldy to carry, so it just sits in my garage, ready to go. I use it quite often for cross cuts, just like a radial arm.

BTW, I also have a Ridgid 10" compound miter saw that I carry in my truck. It's much more compact, but, has less capacity and no wings or stand.

Bob.

Thanks, I'll check that one out. I also have a smaller 10" compound miter saw that I can carry around, the sliding saw was intended to stay in the shop.

gonna have to take a look esp since the radial arm is BIG and takes up a lot of space and spends most of its time as a catchall for whatever I toss on it. but it has been good to me having among other things cut sawmill lumber into a couple of thousand LF of shiplap for a barn! ront.