One of the best parts of my impending construction project is the excuse to finally start a collection of power tools. Being thrifty, I take to craigslist to see my options before buying new, and this past weekend I was looking for a chop saw. I was very surprised to find this Ryobi Miter saw on sale for $15.
After one of the more bizarre craigslist exchanges I've ever had, I realized that it would take a little work to make it really usable:
For one thing there was a LOT guck dried onto the cutting bed. Enough so to get in the way of a piece of lumber sitting neatly on the bed. It honestly seemed to me that someone had tried to used the saw to open a can of caulk, and was very successful.
I started trying to remove it with a plastic paint scraper, but quickly reached for a metal one. Ultimately, the right tool for the job was a sharp chisel, which left some scratches on the bed, but at least it's clean(ish).
Once the guck was cleared away, I turned my attention to the rust. Pretty much everything that could be rusting, was doing so, but it seemed mostly surface level, and the saw still worked. After checking the price of rust remover at the hardware store, I found a betetr deal was to be had with bottled lime juice (I'd used fresh squeezed for the Rusty Shower Rod. There's no difference in case you were curious)
Although I bought 4 bottles of lime juice, I ended up only needing 1/2", so there are some definite margaritas in my future. After another 2 hours of scrubbing each nut, bolt, pin, and screw repeatedly with lime juice, I felt like I'd sufficiently de-rusted the components.
The saw was looking pretty good as I checked the underside to look for more rust, and that's when I found the reason for the super low price tag...
On typical miter saws, there's a knob at the very front that can be used to loosen the hinges and set the saw at different angles. On the underside of this saw, the attachment point for the knob to the cutting table, which I'd just worked so hard to clean, was completely busted. This means that there's no good way to lock the angle of the saw in place. I don't know how unusable this would render the saw, but being able to cut at exact angles is kind of important. Luckily, Ryobi has a spare parts website that might sell the part I need (and definitely has the dust collection bag I also need to replace.) Fingers crossed!