So I'm officially a BT3 owner now - a few questions...

[jtrcy]

I just picked up a rather gloat-worthy Bt setup (see bargains>Detroit CL post), and have gotten it completely set up and tweaked. This is a rather long post..

I'm rather impressed, I must say. I own the Bosch 4000 saw and use it primarily on jobsites, and this BT is a much better saw minus the portability issue. It's a 96 USA 15amp model.

I plan on using this BT in my basement for smaller projects, etc. I mounted it on the (free) HTC mobile base I got from Amazon as a fluke from the Delta saw deal a while back. If anyone's wondering, the HTC base works perfect for the bT stand.

Few questions:

- When calibrating the fence to "0" at the clear pointer, it seems that I'm not able to slide the rails all the way to the right to get the 24" cut width and still use the measuring tape readout. At first, I thought maybe it was a bi-product of having the miter slot installed, but that doesn't really change the relation of the scale to the blade. You can get the fence to the 24" pointer mark, but the right side of the fence front does not bear upon the rail, so it's not really usable.

- I have an extension rail setup with the floatation table and and leg set. I set it up to check it out - but it's much too long for my basement... I'm thinking of cutting the extension rails to give me a 30-35" width of cut and use the legs with a small tabletop insert with maybe a router table cutout for my woodpecker plate. Even though I just got a complete jessem/milwaukee setup, I could see how having two systems could be handy, and there'd be no drawback - anybody cut up a set of rails and have any tips or things to avoid?

- And if I do make a slight extension table of 10-20" with the rail and leg set - I'm thinking I can leave the mobile base as is, cause once the wheels are on the ground in moving mode, the small extension setup would be lifted enough to move the saw and then drop.

- Which pivot point do most of you have your sliding table miter fence hooked into? Any benefit from one to another, or am I missing something very obvious?

- I'll do some searching, so feel free to wait on answering this one, but in a nutshell, how do I know if I need to attend to the shims? Not exactly sure where they are specifically located but as I said, a search may answer this one. The saw raises very smoothly, I blew off and sprayed the gears with drylube.

- Anyone ever do a modification to use the PC handheld spindle sander in the accesory table? May be just as an aside for me as I own the Ridgid OSS, but if I could make it work in this saw, may be worth looking into so that I could lose the Ridgid unit and gain space. (My basement "shop" is approx. 9'x15'...

-Lastly, anyone either make a drawer or modify a contractor's saw dust "collector" for underneath the open body of the saw to catch the sawdust that drops?

Thanks, glad to be a card carrying member now.

JT

[gsmittle]

Hi JT, and welcome to the sick & twisted Ryobi BT cult!

Unfortunately, I can't answer your questions. I do know there have been a couple of threads on collecting dust from under the saw--at least one member has hinged the saw on a mobile base so it can be tipped up and the dust cleaned out. My own saw is on a mobile chest-style cabinet, and every so often I put the crevice tool on my shop vac and suck out the dust.

I would imagine you won't have much trouble mounting the PC spindle sander in the accessory table. You will probably have to drill and tap some holes in the sander's base. I've never seen one up close (only Nahm's on TV), so I may be way off base here.

You might think about running some kind of mobile extension under your table extension. I noticed when I added some half-length rails that the whole assembly sagged a bit. I fixed it by adding another cabinet under the extension (made of scrap melamine and particle board--looks Gawdawful) and using that to support the end of the extension.

At any rate, have fun and welcome!

g.

[LCHIEN]

there's no law saying that the rails must be mounted so that the scale reads zero at the blade. If you move the rail off that one position , farther to the right to made wider rips you'll have to use your tape measure or ruler like many other table saw owners with out a rail scale. No big deal. Don't let the scale rule your saw.

Many owners have cut the 42" extension rails in half to get a modest extension without taking over the shop as you note. By cutting them in half they get a reasonable extension as you suggest and have a salable item - the other halves.

You should attend to the shims, lubricating them periodically, I think that one solution to preventing the shim problem. If you take the throat plate off and blade off, then you can see the arbor goes into the motor housing. As you raise and lower the motor using the crank you should be able to see that the motor housing rides in a rectangular opening the vertical sides of which the shims ride on. THe shims are supposed to stay with the motor housing part; the shims are what actually slides on the saw body. you can only see theedges of the shims. So, dry lube the edges.

yes, people have mounted the PC OSS in the auxiliary table. the PC OSS are hard to find, I think out of production for some time.

[Black wallnut]

I just picked up a rather gloat-worthy Bt setup (see bargains>Detroit CL post), and have gotten it completely set up and tweaked. This is a rather long post..

I'm rather impressed, I must say. I own the Bosch 4000 saw and use it primarily on jobsites, and this BT is a much better saw minus the portability issue. It's a 96 USA 15amp model.

I plan on using this BT in my basement for smaller projects, etc. I mounted it on the (free) HTC mobile base I got from Amazon as a fluke from the Delta saw deal a while back. If anyone's wondering, the HTC base works perfect for the bT stand.

Congrats!

Few questions:

- When calibrating the fence to "0" at the clear pointer, it seems that I'm not able to slide the rails all the way to the right to get the 24" cut width and still use the measuring tape readout. At first, I thought maybe it was a bi-product of having the miter slot installed, but that doesn't really change the relation of the scale to the blade. You can get the fence to the 24" pointer mark, but the right side of the fence front does not bear upon the rail, so it's not really usable.

Which side of the front block do you have the measuing pointer mounted? It can go on either side. One side or the other will naturally give more direct reading distance without moving the rails.

- I have an extension rail setup with the floatation table and and leg set. I set it up to check it out - but it's much too long for my basement... I'm thinking of cutting the extension rails to give me a 30-35" width of cut and use the legs with a small tabletop insert with maybe a router table cutout for my woodpecker plate. Even though I just got a complete jessem/milwaukee setup, I could see how having two systems could be handy, and there'd be no drawback - anybody cut up a set of rails and have any tips or things to avoid?

- And if I do make a slight extension table of 10-20" with the rail and leg set - I'm thinking I can leave the mobile base as is, cause once the wheels are on the ground in moving mode, the small extension setup would be lifted enough to move the saw and then drop.

Many have cut the extension rails. As Loring stated you could sell the offcuts. You are right that having a router set up in the extension is a good thing.

- Which pivot point do most of you have your sliding table miter fence hooked into? Any benefit from one to another, or am I missing something very obvious?

Normal practice is to place the pivot pin in the hole closest to the blade. Read the scale farthest from the blade.

- I'll do some searching, so feel free to wait on answering this one, but in a nutshell, how do I know if I need to attend to the shims? Not exactly sure where they are specifically located but as I said, a search may answer this one. The saw raises very smoothly, I blew off and sprayed the gears with drylube.

You will know with out any doubt if your shims fail. If at any time your blade becomes even slightly hard to raise or lower stop what you are doing, remove blade and find the cause. It may be just the riving knife dragging on the back of the opening or it could be much worse, shims or stripped elevation threads.

- Anyone ever do a modification to use the PC handheld spindle sander in the accesory table? May be just as an aside for me as I own the Ridgid OSS, but if I could make it work in this saw, may be worth looking into so that I could lose the Ridgid unit and gain space. (My basement "shop" is approx. 9'x15'...

-Lastly, anyone either make a drawer or modify a contractor's saw dust "collector" for underneath the open body of the saw to catch the sawdust that drops?

Thanks, glad to be a card carrying member now.

JT

Paint the red line or you might really become a member of the "club"!

[JR]

I'm thinking of cutting the extension rails to give me a 30-35" width of cut and use the legs with a small tabletop insert with maybe a router table cutout for my woodpecker plate.

This router table assembly rests on the BT3K stand, and provides the 10"-20" extension you have in mind. It isn't attached to the rails, making it easier to adjust the rails when required. If you were to hang a table from the rails I can imagine the weight causing some flex at the joint where the extensions meet the main rail.
http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=29285

Lastly, anyone either make a drawer or modify a contractor's saw dust "collector" for underneath the open body of the saw to catch the sawdust that drops?

This might be more than you bargained for, but you asked for it!
http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=29578

[JimD]

My rails are a little shorter, probably less than a foot. They are aluminum so they cut fairly easily but I still got bored with using a hacksaw and got out the reciprocating saw. My saw is on a tilt up base for ease of cleaning. My DC sucks both from under the saw and from the dust chute so little dust accumulates under it. I had to shorten the drawer under the saw when I put the DC suction underneith but it is still large enough to hold extra blades, my stacked dado, and wrenches for the blade nut and the splitter. The drawer is very handy. If you can get suction on the dust chute and preferably under the saw at the back too, you should not need a drawer for dust.

Jim

[jtrcy]

Well,

I ended up cutting the rails in two - (1) 17" section and (1) 24" section. I adjusted the stock rails to hang out about 3" or so past the SMT on the left and that now gives me a full 40" of cutting capacity on the right. I used the legs and installed a 3/4 particle board (what I had on hand) extension table and kept the accessory/router table installed to the right of the saw. effectively locking it in place - it cannot be removed, because my extension table rests on it's lip.

I thought of just doing the extension tabletop all the way to the saw body and removing the accessory insert so that I could utilize it on the left side of the saw if needed, but I wanted the lip to be there as additional support and figured I could always get another acc table if I really needed it.

I glued and screwed a 1x2 maple cleat underneath in the middle of the particle board table top to keep it from warping and also glued and screwed a 1x2 maple edge at the end for the same reason.

Although I initially figured my PB tabletop would just be temp, but it turned out very nice looking so I will keep it and put 2-3 coats of Deftane finish on it.

Also installed a couple of hooks opposite each other on their side to act as a cord wrap on the side of the metal stand - very helpful.

My plan is to never move the rails at all - I may elongate the fence pointer hole to allow for fine tweaking on the fence measurement after I install a new stick-on ruler tape on the combined rails. Not sure why folks suggest using a tape measure - why not take advantage of the precision the unit will give and every once and a while check with a tape measure.

Still thinking of a sheet metal dust chute for the underside and possibly a shelf connecting the base and the extension legs, but I've done enough for now I think.

I have the accessory long smt miter/rip fence extrusion - I'm thinking of cutting that to about 20" or so to allow for a bit more stability in crosscuts but not have it be so crazy long as to be in the way.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Julian

[LCHIEN]

Look at the pics for ideas on how to attach good dust collection to the saw via a belly pan.


http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...097#post174097

[LarryG]

Not sure why folks suggest using a tape measure - why not take advantage of the precision the unit will give and every once and a while check with a tape measure.

This is fine if the stick-on ruler agrees with the tape (or steel rule, or whatever device) you use as your normal measuring device.

Note that I said "agrees with," not "is accurate" or similar. Both measuring devices can be wrong, as long as they are wrong by the same amount, and in the same place. But they almost never are. That's why many woodworkers make a habit of using only one tape for all purposes: if it's wrong, it'll be consistently wrong.

That said, I do -- and always have -- use the scale on my table saws' rails to set the rip fence. I always consider it an approximation, though; my "master" tape is the FastCap 16-footer that lives in the front pocket of my nail bags.

[lrogers]

Hit the link to my webshots page for the way I handled the dust collection issue. Of course, my solution was an entire workbench/cabinet!

Welcome to the fun!