just about had it with my miter.....

[durango dude]

I spent today making a simple bench hook.
Nothing fancy ---- a chunk of wood (I joined some scraps with dowels, then cut two dado slots, and then filled the slots with some more scraps).

Here's my problem ---- when I was done -- I was looking at the bench hook, and noticed that my foot hooks were a quarter inch closer on one side than the other.

I did some measuring, and calculated 1/8" of drift on either side.

I know dang well the fence was parallel to the blade - I measured it a few times.

The culprit appears to be the miter.

I think 1/8" drift over 1 foot is too dang much.

I'm about ready to make my BT a rip-only machine.

[eezlock]

just about had it with my miter....

If you are tired of that sliding miter table as I was, you'll soon learn to like
the miter slot accessory table # 4060310 available for the BT3000 and BT3100
saws. There are sellers on e bay that have them for a reasonable fee.
After buying (1) or (2) of these tables (1) for each side of the blade and a
quality brand miter gauge, you will find that the saw cutting accuracy
goes up and the stress caused by bad cuts and wasted wood goes way down
and fast too! In my opinion that sliding miter table that comes with these saws
leaves a lot to worry with all the time, and are not that accurate....
I know that others will disagree with me on that point, so what, I still like a conventional miter gauge and milled slots a whole lot better.
Try it you'll like it better each time you use it...I did!

[greenacres2]

Dude--i'm sure you do this from the manual and Loring's pdf, but for others...when you loosen or remove the SMT tighten the levers in pairs. Rear first then the front. Pushing them one at a time may skew the table when you do the first one.

I've been there. Hope it's that simple for you.

earl

[chopnhack]

In practice I never found the smt to be useful, too much slop. I made a simple sled and found it to be more accurate. Ymmv

[Cochese]

I just dumped my SMT a few months ago. Haven't looked back.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

[Black wallnut]

Dude--i'm sure you do this from the manual and Loring's pdf, but for others...when you loosen or remove the SMT tighten the levers in pairs. Rear first then the front. Pushing them one at a time may skew the table when you do the first one.

I've been there. Hope it's that simple for you.

earl

Actually you should close the front first. For those of you wishing to dispense with your SMT's feel free to post them in the site classifieds. Those of us that have had great results with ours may be willing to buy a spare if the price is right. For me the SMT is great, if it is not working for you and after trying to adjust it you just cannot get good results by all means go to a more traditional miter slot guided gauge. There was a time in the first year of owning my BT3K that I had second thoughts; I guess I simply embraced the quirks of the saw and adapted, never since looking back. I've not had the bad results others have mentioned with the SMT but have with other set-ups. Prior to using the accessory table clamp while routing I had the table walk around. I've also had router bits prove to not be tight enough and move out while routing, needless to say safe procedures have kept me safe from harm. My only point here is that equipment failures are a bummer and changing our methods to correct poor results seems smart to me. This is not to imply user error or improper technique, simply different tools/ techniques have different results for different folks. Our hobby should bring us happiness not frustration.

[LCHIEN]

I guess it runs 50/50 - some people love their SMT and some people clearly don't like it.

Don't know whether its a varying quality issue or wherher the setup is difficult and achievable only by a half the people or a technique issues mastered by a few.

1/8" is a lot over a foot. My suspicion is that people who have set up their table but then have results like that have not mastered the various key points:
1. locking the knob with enough but not too much force
2. getting all the hardware in the right places and using correctly: orange pointers, pivot pin, stackup of washers and stuff on the knob, use of the miter clamp (if used) are all important factors if you read my FAQ.

[Brian G]

I never cared for the miter clamp. Instead, I applied 320 grit adhesive-backed sandpaper to the face of the miter fence. I cut away the sandpaper covering the fence slot so that I could still use it for affixing sacrificial fences. This method has made a big difference for me.

I also use sacrificial fences and stop blocks often. This reduces the chance for the stock sliding away from the blade during a cut, and improves repeatability of cuts.

I've often wondered whether the fine-tuning problems that people have are because the stock moves more than what we think it does. I notice this most when I'm using a high TPI blade versus a low TPI blade. As much as I tried to hold stock firmly against the aluminum miter fence, push at the center, and mind the feed rate (all good techniques!), I still ended up with non-square cross cuts. Out would come the measuring tools again; I'd go through the act of setting the SMT and fence all perfect, but then the cut would be non-square.

That all changed with the two additional steps: sandpaper or a sacrifcial fence and a stop block.

[durango dude]

Loring -

I have an outfeed table that interferes with one of the locks for my SMT.

That doesn't seem to be causing any problems, though.

My miter moves - even after I tighten it down.

(when I finish cutting - I see it's moved off the 90 degree stop)

The problem happens most when I do a dado cut (3/8" deep, 3/4" wide --- cut in three 1/8" deep passes). The miter needs to take a lot of pressure - and it doesn't like doing that.

The miter works better when there's less pressure on it (cross cutting 3/4" pine is not a big deal).

I was making some bench hooks -- 18" long, and 12" wide ----- cutting a dado along the 12" length.

[trungdok]

I just dumped my SMT a few months ago. Haven't looked back.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

CocheseUGA, did you use the stock dual miter slots or made your own? If you went with the dual miter slots, how do you like it? Are the slots' size consistent?

[Cochese]

CocheseUGA, did you use the stock dual miter slots or made your own? If you went with the dual miter slots, how do you like it? Are the slots' size consistent?

Haven't done anything that utilized them since I did it (the dual slot table). I am shopping right now for a miter fence, as I'm going to have a flipping big project coming up soon.

[greenacres2]

Actually you should close the front first. For those of you wishing to dispense with your SMT's feel free to post them in the site classifieds. Those of us that have had great results with ours may be willing to buy a spare if the price is right. For me the SMT is great, if it is not working for you and after trying to adjust it you just cannot get good results by all means go to a more traditional miter slot guided gauge. There was a time in the first year of owning my BT3K that I had second thoughts; I guess I simply embraced the quirks of the saw and adapted, never since looking back. I've not had the bad results others have mentioned with the SMT but have with other set-ups. Prior to using the accessory table clamp while routing I had the table walk around. I've also had router bits prove to not be tight enough and move out while routing, needless to say safe procedures have kept me safe from harm. My only point here is that equipment failures are a bummer and changing our methods to correct poor results seems smart to me. This is not to imply user error or improper technique, simply different tools/ techniques have different results for different folks. Our hobby should bring us happiness not frustration.

Thanks Mark--backward is a trait of mine!! Sorry for the misinformation.

earl

[leehljp]

In my opinion that sliding miter table that comes with these saws leaves a lot to worry with all the time, and are not that accurate....
I know that others will disagree with me on that point, so what, I still like a conventional miter gauge and milled slots a whole lot better.

The problem with this statement is two fold:
1. filled with disgust, and I know the pain.
2. The statement is inaccurate as a blanket statment on the SMT use.

I have a BT3000 and bought me some registration triangles and squares. That 3000 would go 2 years or more without needing adjustments to the SMT. I checked regularly with the registration squares. Cuts proved the registration was dead on.

I even moved from Osaka to Nagoya (Toyota City) and all I had to do was put the SMT back on. Registration showed it to be dead on. There have been others here with the same accuracy.

Now, as to the frustration, I purchased a second BT, this time the 3100 to use Stateside when I was home. THAT SMT was not built to specs. At least I think I figured out that the "holes" for the screw that held the sliders was drilled off center by about 1/16 inch. Because I had the 3000 and had replaced a slider due to dropping it, I knew what to do with the 3100 SMT. I could get it accurate but it would not stay accurate long. I finally purchased another SMT from someone parting theirs out. That one has stayed true.

Yes, there are other reasons too, that these SMTs get out of alignment, such as being on unlevel flooring, poor machining in other areas, rails out of alignment, dropping 2x4s on it, dropping the SMT like I did. And other reasons, such as what Mark wrote (technique).

Dave in Australia used to make (and post picts here) of some fine furniture made with the BT3000. While he never mentioned prices, anyone who paid air freight for a table and 8 chairs from Aus to the US certainly would probably be paying 6 figures, - made on a lowly BT3000. You don't make that quality on something that is not accurate.

[Cochese]

Part of the problem to me is uncertainty.

You put it on your saw. Is it accurate? *Spends two hours getting it dialed in*

It's accurate.

*Needs to take it off to make a left-sided fence rip*

Is it accurate? Depends on how well it was made, I suppose. If you have one that needs to be futzed with on a regular basis, it's not worth it. Mine could have been accurate every single time it went on the saw and I still might worry about it going out of square. I wasn't even that lucky, so I decided to go with the slots.

[jking]

Loring -

I have an outfeed table that interferes with one of the locks for my SMT.

That doesn't seem to be causing any problems, though.

My miter moves - even after I tighten it down.

(when I finish cutting - I see it's moved off the 90 degree stop)

The problem happens most when I do a dado cut (3/8" deep, 3/4" wide --- cut in three 1/8" deep passes). The miter needs to take a lot of pressure - and it doesn't like doing that.

The miter works better when there's less pressure on it (cross cutting 3/4" pine is not a big deal).

I was making some bench hooks -- 18" long, and 12" wide ----- cutting a dado along the 12" length.

Is it the miter fence that moves, or does the entire sliding top move when cutting? If it's the entire top, then some adjusting could be done unless something is out of spec from the start. If it's the miter fence moving, there might be ways to help solve that whether it's technique pushing the table, or setup. You might consider putting the sliding table on the right side of the blade. Then, once you have the table moving square to the blade, the flip-up stop will hold the fence from moving.