Ideas for 2 BT3000's?

[John Hayward]

I just brought home a second BT3000 to join the original one in my workshop. It has wide table rails that I am thinking about using to join the two saws together. Could use one for normal work -- set up the other with a dado blade and take advantage of the combined table width.

Are there any examples out there of setting up two BT3000's in this way? Or perhaps ideas on how best to use two identical saws in your hobby shop?

I would welcome pictures or references to websites to provide me with some ideas.

[dbhost]

I have never seen BTs set up that way, but I HAVE seen a user on one of the forums, and I wish I could find the post, that did that with a pair of Powermatic cabinet saws.

Not sure how you would set everything up, but the additional table space would be worth its weight in Gold.

Good luck with that setup. Post pics when you are done!

[LarryG]

Welcome to BT3Central, John!

There have been a handful of dual BT setups by the members here. Do a forum search on "Frankensaw" -- that's the handle someone hung on this kind of arrangement.

Besides using the second saw for a dado set, other possibilities are to have a ripping blade in one saw and a combination or crosscut blade in the other; or a laminate-cutting blade in one; or set one saw up as a disc sander; etc. There are several possibilities, depending on what your needs are. If I were doing it, I think I'd treat one as my primary table saw and the other as a jack-of-all-trades that could do whatever I needed it to do at any given time.

[LCHIEN]

the original classic "Frankensaw" used a rigid single wide base under the saw bodies without the original leg stands which made the saws line up better. Later versions shown here had two original bases, which made an uneven-ness on the floor and stuff harder to compensate by adjusting 8 different leg levelling screws. You have to not only get each top parallel with the other but also at the same height. I think its much easier to use the original method aside from building the bases, esp. if you have to move them.
The rails were mated end to end always with wide kit mounting hardware or similar, giving an 82-inch rail system. Usually one saw was used for ripping and crosscutting (the left one) and the right saw used for dadoing or retracted for wide rips, IIRC.

[fcpjax]

Ideas for 2 BT3000's?

Hi John,

I also just bought a second BT3000 and hooked them together and it works great. I am going to build a wheeled base to set them in so I
can move the Frankensaw around my shop better.

There used to be several pictures on this site of frankensaws with mobile bases but I think they got lost and I can not find them here any more.

If anyone knows how we can get the Frankensaw comments and pictures back that sure would be helpful.

Anyway, I would be interested in anyones thoughts on building a mobile base for frankensaws.

[tropicaffair]

John,

Here are a couple of photo'sof my temporary Frankensaw setup. It's been temporary for over 2 years. Someday I will find the time to actually build a mobile base base cabinet for it.
The saw on the left is set of for crosscuts & rips and the right hand saw usully has a dado stack in it.

[gerti]

My humble attempt is documented here:

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=2967