Throat Plate "Depth"

[dennloug]

On my BT3100 the throat plate sits slightly below the surrounding work surface. For some rips this can result in right to left or front to back rocking of a smaller workpiece as it passes through the saw. I can see where using the adjusting screws under the throat plate at the back of the saw would bring the back up flush to the surrounding work surface but what about the front of the throat plate which has no adjusting screws below it? Won't the under the throat plate tension clamp continue to pull the front of the plate to the same depth as it is now, which is too "deep"? Are the front two empty holes tapped the same as the back and can I therefore add two more adjusting screws to the front of the saw?

[Tom Miller]

I'm not sure of the exact configuration of the BT3100 -- I have the BT3000 -- so I can't say for sure about using the screws for levelers. But the throat plate sitting low is a known issue. I solved it by using tape (specifically, aluminum foil tape) as shim material around the edges of my stock throat plate. I make my own zero clearance throat plates (ZCTPs), so I make those fit correctly in the first place.

Regards,
Tom

[eezlock]

throat plate

On my BT3100 the throat plate sits slightly below the surrounding work surface. For some rips this can result in right to left or front to back rocking of a smaller workpiece as it passes through the saw. I can see where using the adjusting screws under the throat plate at the back of the saw would bring the back up flush to the surrounding work surface but what about the front of the throat plate which has no adjusting screws below it? Won't the under the throat plate tension clamp continue to pull the front of the plate to the same depth as it is now, which is too "deep"? Are the front two empty holes tapped the same as the back and can I therefore add two more adjusting screws to the front of the saw?

Your throat plate should be level/ flush with the table surface or maybe
1/32" below level to give you good clearance for the wood to slide toward the blade. As for the holes...I don't think they are tapped, but they could be
tapped with the proper tap to match the screw holes at the rear of the throat plate. then all you would have to do is by a couple of screws from
a good hardware store (same size as the others) and put them in. eezlock

[LarryG]

Are the front two empty holes tapped the same as the back and can I therefore add two more adjusting screws to the front of the saw?

Yes they are, and yes you can. Those two front screws are used to attach the ZCTPs that come in the optional accessory kit.

I prefer to have the throat plate (of any type) sitting dead flush with the saw's main table. As you noted, short pieces can rock downward unless one is careful; and if the plate is sitting lower than the table, it makes accurately setting the blade height more difficult (and it's hard enough as it is, given the ribs in the top).

[LCHIEN]

I don't use leveling screws. I have a bunch of old outdated address labels on metalized stock that run about 4 mils thick and adhesive on the back.
I split them the long way so that they are about 3/16" to 1/4" wide and apply as many as needed to several places around the perimeter of the throat plate to make it very close to level with the table top.

It would be far worse to have the plate too high - for one thing you're guaranteed to catch and for another, you couldn't shim it to fit. I expect for this reason, given that there are tolerances on everything made, and the low price point of this saw, they probably have loose totlerances on the machining depth of the lip, loose tolerances on the plate itself and even on the paint. So, given a possible +/- .010 stackup, they chose to set the nominal height low enough to never be too high, thus they are all low by 10-20 thousandsth.
Easy enough to tune up.

[scorrpio]

A small note: if I recall right, all the taps are 10-24.