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I have an old BT3000 that i bought new over 20 years ago.
I think that it is somewhere between an engineering marvel and a piece of crap but that being said I do use it and the primary reason for keeping it is the small footprint it takes and the fact that I don't want to pay several hundred dollars for another saw.
I was having a problem with the raising and lowering but a little bit of cleaning and repositioning of the shims took care of that. I didn't even have to remove the motor mount to reposition one shim that had slid up to the point where it was almost ready to fall off. I also checked for any accumulations of sawdust and chips inside the saw.
I am currently having trouble with the blade tilt mechanism and I can tilt the blade by pulling the wheel out and then cranking it. To get to zero degrees I usually have to push it the rest of the way by hand and then lock the mechanism with the lever. I pulled the clugth out and it looks OK. When I had the saw partially apart (dust cover removed) and the saw upside down I tried to tilt and the mechanism did move toward the fron ot the saw with the same motion as if I pulled the adj wheel out. It still doesn't tilt back to zero and there is a ratcheting sound like a slipping gear but i can't localize it. After pulling the wheel and handle and cam and putting it back together it doesn't want to tilt at all. I think that i need to reposition the handle, wheel and cam again. I did re-tighten the screw holding the handwheel but that didn't help.
I did contact Ryobi and spoke with Larry in Customer Service and he helped with some of it. I will call again to get further definition of the tilt mechanism. It appears that the spline on the inside of the cam may be worn to the point that it is slipping under pressure and that could be causing the ratcheing sound.
I may be buying a 'parts saw' that has a working tilt mechanism and cannibalize the two saws to get one that tilts and raises the blade. I figure that if i spend a little more than $100 on the parts saw and do the cannibalization I can sell on ebay enough of the parts, such as rails, fences, motor, etc to recoup my investment and even turn a little profit.
Any comments will be appreciated.
2nd subject:
I am planning on building a miter sled - I have three different plans that appear to be workable. They all call for setting the sliding miter fence up with runners to fit the standard slots in the saw base but as we all know there are no slots on the BT3000 unless we buy or build the slotted table insert. My gut feel is that I can set the slot to the right of the blade with the accessory table leaving an approx 3/4" gap for the runner attached to the bottom of the miter sled. On the right side i would set a similar gap with the sliding miter table. As long as I am counting on the saw table itself to be square and parallel I assume that by spacing the areas I mention I would retain that square/parallel situation - if not I am in trouble.
Or, I can buy one or two slot table inserts for about $75 on ebay or I have plans that I can use to build them allowing a slot on each side ot the blade.
I can also perhaps use the sliding miter table for the attachement point for the miter sled.
The reason for building a miter sled is that if it is properly done, once, the 45 degree setting will remain constant and it whould give perfect 90 degree picture frame corners as the mating corners are done on each side of the fence ensuring 90 degrees. Whatever miter sled I build I will have an indexing set-up so that I can make multiple cuts of the same length.
Any comments on either subject will be really appreciated.
Lee
I think that it is somewhere between an engineering marvel and a piece of crap but that being said I do use it and the primary reason for keeping it is the small footprint it takes and the fact that I don't want to pay several hundred dollars for another saw.
I was having a problem with the raising and lowering but a little bit of cleaning and repositioning of the shims took care of that. I didn't even have to remove the motor mount to reposition one shim that had slid up to the point where it was almost ready to fall off. I also checked for any accumulations of sawdust and chips inside the saw.
I am currently having trouble with the blade tilt mechanism and I can tilt the blade by pulling the wheel out and then cranking it. To get to zero degrees I usually have to push it the rest of the way by hand and then lock the mechanism with the lever. I pulled the clugth out and it looks OK. When I had the saw partially apart (dust cover removed) and the saw upside down I tried to tilt and the mechanism did move toward the fron ot the saw with the same motion as if I pulled the adj wheel out. It still doesn't tilt back to zero and there is a ratcheting sound like a slipping gear but i can't localize it. After pulling the wheel and handle and cam and putting it back together it doesn't want to tilt at all. I think that i need to reposition the handle, wheel and cam again. I did re-tighten the screw holding the handwheel but that didn't help.
I did contact Ryobi and spoke with Larry in Customer Service and he helped with some of it. I will call again to get further definition of the tilt mechanism. It appears that the spline on the inside of the cam may be worn to the point that it is slipping under pressure and that could be causing the ratcheing sound.
I may be buying a 'parts saw' that has a working tilt mechanism and cannibalize the two saws to get one that tilts and raises the blade. I figure that if i spend a little more than $100 on the parts saw and do the cannibalization I can sell on ebay enough of the parts, such as rails, fences, motor, etc to recoup my investment and even turn a little profit.
Any comments will be appreciated.
2nd subject:
I am planning on building a miter sled - I have three different plans that appear to be workable. They all call for setting the sliding miter fence up with runners to fit the standard slots in the saw base but as we all know there are no slots on the BT3000 unless we buy or build the slotted table insert. My gut feel is that I can set the slot to the right of the blade with the accessory table leaving an approx 3/4" gap for the runner attached to the bottom of the miter sled. On the right side i would set a similar gap with the sliding miter table. As long as I am counting on the saw table itself to be square and parallel I assume that by spacing the areas I mention I would retain that square/parallel situation - if not I am in trouble.
Or, I can buy one or two slot table inserts for about $75 on ebay or I have plans that I can use to build them allowing a slot on each side ot the blade.
I can also perhaps use the sliding miter table for the attachement point for the miter sled.
The reason for building a miter sled is that if it is properly done, once, the 45 degree setting will remain constant and it whould give perfect 90 degree picture frame corners as the mating corners are done on each side of the fence ensuring 90 degrees. Whatever miter sled I build I will have an indexing set-up so that I can make multiple cuts of the same length.
Any comments on either subject will be really appreciated.
Lee
Loring in Katy, TX USA
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