what to do with a second bt3100?

[wlaims]

Just found a used bt3100 at a good price, and so am going to snatch it up. Not exactly sure what I'm going to do with it, to be honest, except I'm debating taking the rails off and putting it on mine for a wide table set. What's the forum's thoughts on connecting them?

Also, if I'm to part out the saw, what parts should I keep as backup? i.e. what parts are most likely to fail and I may as well keep it for the parts bin.

And are there any other good opportunities to enhance my saw with this second unit?


Cheers,

William

[LCHIEN]

Instead of taking the rails off and making a single saw with a wide table, some members have lined the two saws up end to end, rail to rail using the same hardware yo use to extend rails.

This saves you from having to build a stand because the second saw is already at the right height. And now you have two saws, leave one set up for ripping and the other for crosscutting or perhaps one for sawing and the other for dadoing.

Lower one blade, remove the rip fence and miter fence and you have 72+" of rip capacity.

So you can have like 72+" rip capacity with support and two saw motors with two router tables built in.

There's a name for this, one of the guys dubbed it a "Frankensaw" and that name has stuck. You can search here for it.

example:

http://www.bt3central.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=9142&d=1206627029

[dbhost]

What Loring said. You can leave one set up for ripping / crosscutting, the other for dadoes etc...

[wlaims]

Franksaw looks pretty beastly, I like!

However, I'm wondering if you folks have any opinion on the price of this "work and look new" BT3100 w/o the $99 accessory package, but with stand, at $150. Is this a good deal, or should I wait?

[LCHIEN]

Franksaw looks pretty beastly, I like!

However, I'm wondering if you folks have any opinion on the price of this "work and look new" BT3100 w/o the $99 accessory package, but with stand, at $150. Is this a good deal, or should I wait?

I think the BT3100 was a very good buy at its going price of around $300 (and they all included the metal stand, don't let them make you think they paid extra for it). The 99$ accessory kit was free promo for a while but not a real long time. Its value is debateable, anyway (see my FAQ).

So $150 is a good price for a like new $300 BT3100 saw that's a few years out of production. There's not much in new features that tablesaws have today that you would get in that price level.

Talk him down to $99 or even $125 and you've got a steal! (Hey, in the OP I thought you said you were going to snatch this up?!)