Here is a dead-simple method for quickly and precisely lowering the blade of a radial-arm saw just enough for through-cuts. Lay a playing card (which you keep conveniently on top of the arm assembly) on the saw table over the saw’s line of travel. Lower the blade onto the card until it buckles slightly but obviously under the pressure of the blade. The blade is then just at the correct level for through-cutting.

I invented this little trick after lowering the blade into the table with a thud several times, which I figured wasn’t doing any good to the blade, the lowering mechanism or the saw’s alignment.

Raymond Francis, Pelham, N.Y.

Fine Woodworking Magazine, December 1986 No. 61

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