Customer Reviews

DELTA RS830 10-Inch 1-1/2-Horsepower Radial Arm Saw, 115/230-Volt 1-Phase

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I debated for a long time on whether to get this or one of the compound sliding miter saws. I needed something to do rabbet and dado cuts on long pieces of lumber, for making shelves and other furniture, and this was the only real choice on the market. The larger radial arm saws are way too expensive, and from what I read, the miter saws are only good for through cuts, not measured depth cuts.

A radial arm saw is also the only saw to buy if you're cutting oddly shaped items or doing really difficult cuts. It has adjustments on every axis, which makes it very versatile. I've seen people put a chuck on one of these and use it as boring machine and a router for odd shapes. Radial arm saws are almost completely off the market now, except for high end units, so this is the about average consumer's only choice for these kind of cuts.

This came very well packaged, and was easy enough for one person to set up. I had a little trouble leveling the table, and it seemes kind of cheezy the way it is done, but I finally got it right.

This saw generally has enough power, if you don't get in a bind with warped lumber, when it will stall out. This is probablly good, rather than a higher powered saw, which might throw the piece back at you.

My main complaint with this saw is the difficulty of adjustments, especially the height adjustment. Strangely enough, it is easier to raise the blade than to lower it. It goes up easy enough, but trying to lower it back down is very difficult, like it is adjusted too tight. I actually lifted the saw off the floor trying to turn the height lever to lower the blade. Since you have to raise it and lower it everytime you change miter or angle of cut, this can be quite a hassel.

There seems to be only a positive stop at 90 degrees, which I always double check, and the attached gagues aren't that accurate, so you've got to use a sliding protracter for any miter or angle cuts.

The floating lower blade guard gets stuck sometimes, and I ended fixing it in place in its highest position. At least the whole blade guard isn't totally useless like what comes on table saws.

Overall, a pretty good saw, but for the price I'd expect it to have better gauges and some positive stops, plus be easier to adjust. Sometimes I end up cutting a piece on the table saw because this is such a hassel to adjust. I've used this saw for furniture, and to rebuild my deck (a lot of wood hauling). For building projects, I may end up getting a 12" sliding compound miter saw yet. This is a good, but not great saw. A better one would cost twice as much.

UPDATE 2009:

I use this daily as my cross-cut and cut-off saw in the workshop, plus any rabbets and dados on long boards. After having this saw for almost 8 years, I still stand by the original review. However, I see the price has about doubled in that time, so it is no longer competative with one of the many miter saws on the market. If all you want is basic cut-offs and miters, go with one of those portable saws. For the price of this saw now, if you really want one, I'd look at the 12" model, which looks to have better adjustment measurments and controls.

I finally loosened the screws on the shaft slightly to make it easier to raise and lower the blade, and that made a huge difference. I built a hood around it from scrap plywood, with a dust port on the side and a hose on the connector over the blade guard. While this doesn't get all the dust, it does keep it from flying everywhere. This is an issue with any radial arm saw or miter saw. All in all, a good saw that I've never had a problem with, other than the tightness raising and lowering the blade.

This is the fourth radial arm saw I have owned. Like the previous ones, this saw takes time to set up and calibrate. Unlike the others however, the 10" Delta radial arm saw has held it settings well. I found the table a bit too low for my uses so I built a platform with casters to bring it up to a better working height. I removed the cheesy looking stickers that I suspect were the brainstorm of the marketing department. The saw has adequate power to handle thick hardwoods. I particularly like the safety of having the switch right under my thumb for prompt shut off if needed. Adding a Delta lamp has been useful in making accurate cuts. I am very pleased with this machine and wish I had purchased one earlier.

The market for Radial saws is very limited in the $500.- $800. price bracket. I basicly had two choices a Delta or Ridgid. I purchased the Delta because it had a cast iron arm instead of stamped welded steel. The saw went together easily with the exception of leveling the table this took 3 attemps to get it right. The instructions for adjusting the saw were very clear and all the adjusting screws & bolts had a solid quality feel. I feel that this saw will hold its settings.The blade guard binds when it is rotated and must be jiggled to move it.( a little sanding may smooth things out.) The controls for adjusting the height and all other adjustments work very smoothly. The blade & motor unit was a little hard to slide on the arm and had to be adjusted. ( still not as free & smooth as the Ridgid but not a problem ) My first cut was right on the money
a solid 90 Deg. A nice feature is a switch on the motor to change from 115 V to 220V. I have not used the saw much but the more I use it and become familiar with it the more confident I become that I made the right choice. Cross cutting wide lumber is what ths saw is all about & that it does well. If the blade guard moved smoothly I would have given this saw five stars.

I am a professional furniture maker and I use my tools every day. They have to be good. All I need from a radial arm saw is accurate 90 degree cut offs for rough lumber, shelves, turning stock, drawer parts, rails and stiles, door panels, etc. Chop (compound miter) saws are too small and I really did not want to spend more than the $900 I did for this $%#@.

I had an old Dewalt 9" radial arm saw from the 50's that was built like a tank. Dead on accurate cuts. Rock solid. It died one too many times and was just too small anyway. I wish this Delta was half the saw that old Dewalt was.

Here are some of my complaints:

The packing for freighting bites. My saw arrived damaged, fortunately Delta sent replacement parts without too much cajoling.

The sheet metal frame that the column support bolts to is of too light a gauge which helps transfer vibration and a bit of flexing. I removed the column and bolted a 5/16 thick piece of steel the width of the box frame between the column and the frame. This helped reduce some vibration and flex.

The legs are a joke unless you bolt plywood sides to them creating an enclosed stand. The legs by themselves flex around like soda straws completely erasing your careful set up of the saw. You should bolt them to the floor as well. I'm 5' 8" and find the table too low so I raised it up on blocks.

The mechanism for rotating and removing the blade cover completely galls and binds making rotation and removal an irritating task. Bad design.

The spring loaded blade guards actually shift the path of the saw when they travel over the back board and lumber adding to an already sloppy cut.

I removed them.

The backboard and table board of course arrived really warped. Even had they not, they would warp with seasonal changes. The table leveling mechanism (which I don't really have a problem adjusting) bolts to a top that is going to warp because it wants to expand and contract seasonally, but it's bolted to steel straps that don't allow for seasonal movement. I am considering replacing the table top with a laminated kitchen counter top that hopefully will minimize that problem.

I found that all 4 of my bearings that the cutting head assembly ride on within the arm came with wobble/play. This added to the cutting head assembly twisting and tilting slop resulting in jagged inaccurate cuts. ( Yes I replaced the worthless blade the saw came with! And as an avid cyclist that has built and repaired many bicycles I know a decent and well adjusted bearing.) I adjusted for loose play between bearings and arm which remedied it some but the bearings are now riding overly tight within arm and the cutting head assembly still has play.

Delta is sending new bearings but I suspect there are additional problems somewhere I have not located yet. A slight tap on arm and you can see the saw head assembly move and shake. A very light hand must be used when sliding the saw through the cut to minimize flex and unwanted movement. I can not imagine running a dado blade with this saw! Maybe there is a crack I haven't found yet in the support column. Or maybe the armature the motor assembly sits is flimsy....it sure looks it anyway.

I believe my motor has a bit of run out...it vibrates as if it does, even without a blade. This also adds to sloppy cut.

Wish someone had written the review I just wrote before I bought this saw.

If at all possible buy your machinery from someone local that you can go back to if needed. I should have found a good used machinery dealer instead because I don't think there is a decent new radial arm saw out there at this price. Or am I the only one that got a lemon?

I purchased this saw about a year ago and have cut many pieces of trim work for the house and shop.

It appears that some have had bad experiences either with the saw or Delta but that has not been my experience.

It is well built (I am not the easiest person on equipment) and holds it's settings very well and very accurately. Do yourself a favor and replace the factory blade with a quality blade of your choice...I installed a Freud and it made a good saw much better! The table board is flat, square and shows no signs of warping. I'll agree that the platform seems a little light but before I bought a Jet Universal Mobile Base for it, I would drag the saw across the shop floor and everything stayed as it should be.

Just installed an Avenger Laser Guide which is working with a little tweaking on my part but overall seems a good addition to the saw.

I am very satisfied with my choice of the Delta!

I am a female, and thought a woman's point of view helpful. I had considered ordering a more expensive radial, but the shipping was out of sight, so I thought long and hard about this one. I am glad I went this route. The saw was easy for me to handle, and assemble. The directions were clear and precise (once I could figure them out) and most worked well for accuracy aligning. I was able to get it aligned without any problems. The table is hard to level, and I find the arm control lever at the back hard to reach to lower or raise the saw. The guard is hard to manuever and is rigid. The table was not nearly high enough so I have it on sitting on boards (works great). I wish there was more cover with the guard, but it is okay for now. The saw is quiet and seems efficient. I cut a little higher fence for thicker boards. Mine will only be used for dadoes, and I think I am going to be glad I went with this particular model. I have been happy with Delta tools in the past. The price is reasonable, and shipping and delivery were great. Didn't take long to get it put together. It will get a lot of use with my projects.

This is one great saw. It takes awhile to set it up. Once it is set up, it's a very accurate machine. I mean dead on accurate at any angle!!! This saw is built like a tank, yet simple so it should last many years. Like I said, It's a great saw. Possibly the best!!

Maybe you'll get lucky, but I tried twice with this saw and both units went back. The construction of at least some of the parts is cheap and not precise. Both units that were delivered to me had poorly made bases. The arm and column attach to a base that supports the table. This base is formed from two identical metal pieces which resemble squared off "C's". These are butted together and then welded into a rectangle. On the first unit I got, one long side of the base was bent inward about an inch near the middle. The second unit was misformed or damaged at a corner. The short fasteners for the legs weren't long enough to work at the damaged corner without bringing the base back into its intended shape.

Worse than the base problems perhaps, are the poor materials used on the short shaft which locks/unlocks the arm swivel. After attaching the table legs and standing the unit up, the shaft just fell off. Upon closer examination, the shaft -which outwardly appears to be a solid piece of 3/8's inch thick black steel - is nothing of the sort. Mine had sheared off exactly where it meets the column exposing a cross section of the now broken shaft. It is formed from a hollow black metal tube into which a "filler" metal is poured. This filler, so far as I can tell, is simply cheap "pot metal" of no real strength. I surmise it was designed to have enough strength necessary to take the normal screwing motion for the lock/unlock of the arm, but no attention was paid to it's strength should ANY angular force act on it (the same motion as turning on your car's turn signal). I'm not saying one should be able to hang by the shaft or misuse it, but it seems it doesn't have enough strength to stand up to normal wear and tear. Adding insult to injury, the assembly instructions are clearly erroneous in describing leg attachment: they instruct you to put a washer onto the bolt and then put the bolt thru the hole on the base. But the washer cannot go on first or the bolt won't seat properly.

Maybe if you're fortunate enough to get a unit from a good production run AND fortunate enough to have it get thru shipping unscathed, perhaps it will make decent cuts. But I never even got a chance to turn the machine on.

Based on other on-line reviews I purchased an RS830 from Delta and received it on 10/21/2005 with a missing part (the work surface, or board as Delta calls it). It is now 12/07/2005 and I still have not received the missing part after 4 calls to the 800# for customer service and several e-mails to customer care (as they call it). I would like to use the saw some day instead of tripping over it in my workshop. It better be more reliable than their customer support which has gotten me to the point that I will probably never buy a Delta product again.

I bought this radial arm saw to use as a dedicated saw for dados. The pressboard table warps with every change of the weather, requiring frequently releveling. I generally just change blades and use the table saw instead. I wouldn't buy it again.