1st the question. I'm recalibrating my radial arm saw and putting on a new cutting surface. In the past I always used contact cement and it works well. But is there any other method to attach the cutting surface to the table top? I have absolutely no other use for a can of contact cement. It's expensive and does not have a long shelf life. I'm using luan subflooring for the cutting surface. And would there be any advantage to doubling up on it?

EDIT...BTW the table top is particle board.

This should go into another section but since it was part of the job of getting the luan I'll just attach it here. Why can't car designers and engineers use the their heads or has their knowledge been drained by the advertising and marketing people? I have an SUV. A big Chevy TRAVISTY. The interior can easily fit a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood. BUT the hatch opening cannot! What's up with that. Just another reason why I'm sorry I bought that car.

 

Get a piece of 1x12x?? and notch the 1 inch dimension in the middle. Place the cut line on the board to be cut over the notch, set the depth of the blade bottom in the notch and cut away. For larger pieces, notch a larger sacrificial board.

 

BBob, I don't understand what you're trying say. The saw has a bed plate. Over the years I have used a piece of luan to cover the bed plate and the saw cuts into it. A sacrificial cutting top.

This is the old sacrificial cutting top.


This is the table top to be protected


In the past I used contact cement to hold the new sacrificial top[ in place. I was wondering if anybody has another method to secure the less than 1/4 luan in place.

 

Double faced tape might work. Lots of woodworkers use it to make temporary attachments to jigs, etc.

I have also used contact cement in a spray can to glue down small pieces of formica (a window sill behind a kitchen sink), so that might work as well.

Removable glue used for installing carpet tiles would also work, but may not be available in small enough quantity.

For that matter, why not Liquid Nail or any wood glue?

Any of these should fit through the hatch easily.

 

I have always used 3/4" and just screwed it down. The screws are kept outside the radius of the saw blade and countersunk flush.

 

That would ruin the base table. But then I could just apply another top to that.

Yea, I should've used 3/4 or even 1/2 would've worked. Next time.

I think I'll try the carpet tape.

 

Most of the saw cuts marks in the first photo indicate a plunge cut with a few crosscuts. I always thought a radial arm saw was for crosscutting. Lacking in the photo is a fence to support the piece you are crosscutting or plunge cutting. Is it something you remove? My first post was suggesting using a sacrificial board that you put against the stop fence. The 3/8 inch deep notch in the sacrificial board allows quick setting of blade depth versus 1/8 inch for the luan. The line on the board to be crosscut is placed over the notch on the sacrificial board. After the cut, the sacrificial board goes onto the shelf until needed again. You could have sacrificial boards for 90, 30, 45, 60, etc,. degrees. There is no need to glue anything down.

 

BBob,
You're missing the point. No plunge cuts. Can't fathom the need to plunge cut on a chop saw or a radial arm. The pics shows the fence (s) removed. All those cuts are standard cuts by drawing the saw across the bed via the arm or positioning the saw 90° to the fence and ripping by pushing the work into the blade. Over the years I keep digging a bit further into the cutting bed.
I'm in process of recalibrating the whole saw (it's been at least 15 years since). I do lots of rips and cross cuts. As has pointed out to me many times a table saw would've been the better choice. However, I always liked the radial arm. Many years ago I built a several bedroom sets including a large bed with draws. Mitered corners turned out perfect. Anyway, I bought the luan and cut it to size. Now I just need to attach it to the bed plate. I think I'll try the carpet tape idea.

EDIT...BTW the following year (2018) Chevy decided to square off the hatch opening to allow a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood to be inserted in to the car.

 

All done. Gee I hate to put a cut into it.