question on BT3100

[old folks]

I keep reading how the BT3100 is such a terrific saw... wondering why so many posts on different problems with it. I am not trying to be smart, I am serious in my question.

John (old folks)

[LarryG]

John,

Three reasons, I think (in descending order of importance):

1. The saw is built largely of aluminum and some parts are a bit fragile. If a cast-iron cabinet saw is heavy duty, a BT is decidedly toward the light-duty end of the scale. It's robust enough to do its job but it needs to be treated with a little more care than larger, heavier saws.

2. For many owners a BT is their first table saw. Some owners screw things up because they're newbies to woodworking and don't yet know all the proper ways to go about things.

3. All table saws have their problems, but what saw other than the Ryobi BT series has its own fansite where owners congregate to talk about the saw and the problems that will naturally arise over time?

[RAFlorida]

John, LarryG said a mouth full there.

It's the owner's first saw and most have no real working knowledge how to set them up and cut wood. There's many who do know the importance of fence alinement, blades sharp, lubricate with dry lub, etc., and they are the ones who don't have too many problems pop up. I've had mine (BT3000) for over ten years with NO problems ever, knock on wood! Hope his answer helped.

[Black wallnut]

It is a great saw! Just like many people rave about chevys you still have to work on them. There are some weak points in the BT3 series of saws as one would expect at the price point they were sold at. The good news is that most can be addressed without major expense. I do not have the production figures for the BT3 saws but am sure there have been tens of thousands produced over the years. With this in mind most never have problems. There is no news in the thousands owned by members of this forum that never had any problems with theirs. One could say the same about most anything that is discussed on forums. Problems seem to get mentioned over and over but the 98% that work fine are not talked about.

An example of this would be Kimber .45 pistols. A few years ago they made a change to how one part fit, in this case it was the extractor. Many worked fine right out of the box. Mine did not. It took two trips back to Kimber for it to be fixed so that it always works. Kimber is know for very high quality. Kimkbers arte priced much higher than many other brands. There have been thousands sold that never had any problems but I happened to get a lemon. About the time I was having problems one could seach the inter net for information. There were so many posts about the problem that one could have thought that Kimber was on its way out of business. The truth was that a very small minority of Kimbers had the problem.

[LCHIEN]

...I do not have the production figures for the BT3 saws but am sure there have been tens of thousands produced over the years. With this in mind most never have problems. There is no news in the thousands owned by members of this forum that never had any problems with theirs. ...

I'm sure the number is in the 100's of thousands. Manufactured for 14 years under the Ryobi name plus more years under Crafstman badges.

[Ed62]

I've had my BT3000 for a long time. No problems at all.

Ed

[BobSch]

Some of the earlier versions had a shaky power switch and were under-powered, but the later runs of the BT3100 work forever with a little bit of cleaning and care.

Have owned mine for 4 years with no problems.

[gad5264]

IMO, it's a love it or hate it type of saw. I had my first one for 10 years and loved it loved it, loved it. When I heard that it was being discontinued I went out and bought another one just to have it around. The only reason I ended up getting rid of it was a deal too good to pass up on a contractors saw.

[poolhound]

IMHO the BT gained its reputation as a great value for money saw. It was much cheaper than many of the alternatives and had some great features such as the SMT. I know I got mine at HD as they were begining to phase them out and with some HD offer they had at the time only paid around $200. There was nothing else out there that could touch it for even twice the price.


I have had my 3100 for over 4 years with no problems other than self inflicted ones. Many of the issues relate to setup and most of those are with the SMT which obviosuly has many more adjustment points that a simple cast iron slot and miter gauge.

[Uncle Cracker]

Unless you run a production shop or cut a lot of railroad timbers, a BT saw may be all you ever need. Many do move up, although some do so just for the sake of doing it or because a great deal comes along, but few will look back on their BT with anything but fond memories. It is the little engine that could, and this is the site that does it justice, in my humble opinion.

[dkerfoot]

Some great points made by all.

If I were buying a used BT3, I would check it out very carefully. They are well engineered saws that are very precise if they are properly cared for and maintained. But because they do have a lot of aluminum, they won't hold up to abuse very well.

I bought the 21829 - Sears' latest incarnation of the saw and the only version still in production. I decided to go that route in part because I wanted to make sure I wasn't inheriting someone else's problems. I also opted to pay $50 or whatever it was for the three year extended warranty.

[Hellrazor]

I keep reading how the BT3100 is such a terrific saw... wondering why so many posts on different problems with it. I am not trying to be smart, I am serious in my question.

John (old folks)

John,

You need to remember this site is supporting the users of the BT3x000. If you go to the Ridgid/Dewalt/etc forums, you will read about everyones problems with the their tools. My 3100 is still running strong and without any problems. The only time I had issues was due to a user error and I can count the issues on one hand. The only thing I really hate about the BT3100 is the SMT, but I would venture a guess that I am in the minority.

[leehljp]

Similar to what Mike wrote above - one of the early users on this forum and on the old Ryobi forum was Norm in Fujino, who started the "paint the red line" motif. He used to regularly post excerpts from other forums such as Delta or Ridgid on the problems encountered with saws of those brands, basically in reply to people who talked down on the Ryobi and held high the other brands. More than several times did he post problems on the $2000 Unisaw as well as others (and no, he didn't re-post the same old problem from one person.

Just about ALL saw models will have problems regardless of price.

The point often was that while everyone knows that there will be problems with a few in every model line up - For some reason, many of those who owned other saws would lambaste the BT because it was an aluminum saw or a cheap saw. Yet they would quickly overlook and even dismiss as normal - the same percentage of flaws on a $800 - $2000 saw.

[drumpriest]

I had my bt for about 4 years, and I bought one for my dad that he is still using. They are pretty impressive saws for the money. I had issues with my SMT, and that's about it. Other than that my saw worked great for me. It was a little light for the workload that I was doing, and I got a great deal, so I moved to the pm2000.

I think the BT could still be doing everything that I needed, honestly, but I certainly don't regret the move. Still, for 300$ I couldn't ask more of a tool.

[RayintheUK]

When I got my BT3000 nearly ten years ago it had already been well used. I stripped it down and - in doing so - realized that a lot of good points were included in the design that were simply not present in other "entry-level" saws. After some maintenance and TLC, a new blade and some minor adjustments, I began working with this little gem. It has served me well and without a single problem ever since.

I designed and made a mobile table for it, using many ideas from this excellent Forum in the process, to extend the ripping capacity in a way that I could safely handle full-size sheet stock (and gain considerable storage capacity too). The fact that wide-table kits were even available put the saw streets ahead of its rivals, even though I had to source mine from Sears as the UK spares position was (and remains) dire.

Given that, when I bought it, I had no idea how great this little saw was, I consider myself extremely lucky to have found it and this Forum reinforced this view when I found it later on.

Ray