SMT, Do you use?

[Jim Ellis]

I am going to buy a table saw and I am looking at three saws, the Bosh 4000, Ridgid 2400 and the Sears clone. My question is, do you use the SMT on you BT? If so, how good is it?

[LCHIEN]

Yes, I do. Like it a lot.
Big angle scale, large Workpiece support.. smooth action, won't fall out of the slot at the extreme ends, adjustable right or left position. Lots of advantages compared to a miter slot/miter gauge.

P.S. The right-left ability to adjust the SMT and the longer fence allows you to push large crosscut stock through with the center of mass over or at least near the SMT preventing racking and twisting. The first few times I used a miter gauge to cross cut I found it very difficult to push stuff around at the right angle across that 4" width of the gauge.

My SMT has had no readjustments required as far as I can remember. Stays well tuned.

[smorris]

Use it all the time for the reason listed above.

[Ed62]

Yep, me too.

Ed

[crokett]

I use mine all the time. I added an attacment to the fence on it to extend the miter fence out and give me support for longer stock.

[LarryG]

My BT has been retired to an unused corner of the shop for the last year, but I'll be the first to cast a semi-dissenting vote. As I have mentioned here before, I was never much of a fan of the SMT. I didn't hate it, exactly, but I didn't see that it offered any real benefits over a miter slot and gauge (which I had my BT setup to use, on both sides of the blade). My SMT slide lock stayed engaged at least 95% of the time.

The SMT table does provide better workpiece support than other saws of approximately the same physical size, since the SMT effectively expands the front-to-back dimension of the top. OTOH, I found it difficult to cut accurate angles with it, as the degree markings cast into the SMT top are just too coarse to very useful. I also found it easy to knock the 90* quick-stop tab out of whack. Lastly, and has often been discussed here, most jigs and fixtures designed for conventional table saws won't work with the BT. It's generally no harder to build a jig for a BT than for any other table saw, but if you ever buy a more normal saw, you'll have to start over with new jigs.

All in all I regard the SMT as different, not necessarily better.

[leehljp]

Before buying the BT, I thought of it as a novelty and that I might use it some. I had a $180.00 miter gauge from Woodhaven (which I think is the best MG, period), so I didn't think I would use the SMT that much. I immediately bought the miter slot table for the BT.

How wrong I was on my initial thoughts and plans. The SMTs and miter fences on my two saws are as accurate as the Woodhaven. And I am so used to the sliding table itself, that I can't imagine buying another saw without a sliding miter table.

In contrast to Larry's experience, I am not easy on saws per se, but I have never had problems with alignment or quick stops staying perfect. I have registration squares and when I think something is out of alignment and even when I am sure that I knocked something out of alignment, I put the registration squares up - and I have been very surprised that everything is square the majority of times that I check it. This happens on my Japan BT which is used regularly (but not daily) and my US one which is used for several times during the month I am back home.

[dkerfoot]

I use it and love it. Left side, right side, all sizes...

The 21829 has an improved SMT over the BT3s in that it has both a mid and back position for the fence. The BT3s only had the mid position, but many people modded them to have a back position (for cross-cutting wider boards). With the 21829, no mod is needed and you can still use the angle markings, even from the back position. Even nicer, it has the little 90 degree stop for both the back and mid positions.

I did drop mine once and knocked it out of alignment. It is a PITA to get back to perfect, but once I got back to square, it has stayed true. Now I am just a little more careful when swapping it back and forth.

The longer rails of the 21829 also give you some nice options for cross-cutting longer stock. I have used the SMT to trim lots of 7' long, 9" wide engineered bamboo flooring, since my 10" miter saw is fixed and can't handle the width.

Do join the Craftsman Club and wait for a sale if possible. It is often available for under $400. You can even get it for under $350 if the stars all align, but you have to balance the savings against the value of having the saw available to you NOW. A good question to ask is would you pay $50 to rent a table saw for a month?

[steve-norrell]

I felt that angle gauge on the SMT was not as accurate as some other miter gauges (INCRA)(See Larry's comments above) and added a home-made pair of miter slots. And, admitedly, this could be a technique issue on my part.

Nevertheless, I still use the Ryobi SMT all the time, but not for miter cuts. As noted elsewhere in this thread, it increases the working surface and is a great help when cutting larger pieces, As noted in the other posts, there are tons of reasons for using the SMT. I would not be without it.

In short, by using an INCRA miter gauge in a shop-built table AND the SMT, I think I have the best of both worlds, at least for my purposes.

Regards, SN

[poolhound]

love the SMT. I thought I was missing something without a miter gauge so I got one. The first time I tried it I found it....

a) wouldn't slide as easily as the SMT
b) didnt offer enough support before the blade
c) kept falling out

I returned it - no miter gauge for me.

I have never had a problem with the 90 deg stop going out. Its great and always gives me a perfect 90 - every time. I would agree that setting the other angles is a bit of a pain as there are no positive stops. Most of the time (if critical) I set it in the general area and then fine tune with a square. I keep meaning to make some setup blocks for the most commonly use angles but much like many other things I never seem to get around to it.

Also being reversable has advantages e.g. it can act as a panel cutting sled up to approx 20"

[JimD]

I would use the SMT before I would use a miter gauge for something I was concerned about accuracy but I use a sled instead of either. I have a small sled (13 inches) that gets used regularly and a large one (26 inches) that gets used only occasionally. I had to add two miter gauge slots and get them adjusted parallel to each other and the blade but once that was done, the sled is great.

I found the SMT to be good for light stuff but heavy material I could not cut well on it.

Jim

[cwsmith]

Relatively speaking, I'm a newby to table saws and my first was the BT3100-1 that I purchased when it was on clearance. Personally, the SMT was one of the attractions for me, as it certainly provides a much more stable platform for crosscuts over a miter guage. (I'm a long time user of the Radial Arm Saw.)

When rearranging the shop, my SMT found itself knocked to the floor and just this past week had to realign the thing. Took me a couple of "read-thru's", but I finally figured it out and everything is perfect now. It really wasn't that hard, once I understood the adjustments.

For me, this is a great saw and I love the SMT.

CWS

[John Hunter]

Ditto what others have said, I use it a lot!

[plarval]

I'm afraid I am in the minority. I don't care for it. I can't get the thing aligned for the life of me. Every time I use it I wish I had just bought a saw with a miter slot. I'm not sure if it's me or the machine, but it hasn't been a happy relationship. I have the optional miter table, but I don't like it either. There was too much monkeying around getting it level and parrallel. I've always meant to make my own table and miter slot, but it keeps getting pushed down my "to do" list.

[cgallery]

Another dissenter here.

I think my shop-made miter extension and miter sled are far more accurate than my SMT was.

I could never get the SMT fence to stay put. I suppose I coulda put sandpaper on the bottom of it or something, but finally decided to just make my own miter slot extension.