BT3100 - is this a good deal?

[TCOTTLE]

I have some kind of BT3K fever now, I just bought a BT3000 with just the basic acessories it comes with for 100.00, and I saw this on craigslist, and I am thinking of going to check it out. I have 750 sq ft. of room to work with, so space is not an issue.

It is about 1 hr. away from me.
I do not currently have a router table, or a router, so this seems like something I could use just for that. I was thinking of keeping them both, and having the 3100 for spares, my 3000 has the 15 amp motor and the nice stand.

Here is the ad.

10" Ryobi Model BT3100 Table Saw in Good Condition complete with stand and Router Table w/Router.
Features a 15 amp motor, built in sliding cross cut table with miter guage, and a router table with 1.5 hp
Ryobi Router with assessories. Also has a miter guage table and rip fence with measuring ruler. Comes with Dado Throat Plate, and casters for easy moving.
Blade included and manuals for the saw and the router.

He is asking 200.00

I called him and he has 1 zero clerance throat plate, setup for 45 degrees, and all of the other stuff that comes with the bt3kit minus 1 zero clerance plate.

This seems like a decent deal if the saw is clean.

[dbhost]

That's not a bad price for the saw and router setup if it is in good condition...

Assuming he isn't blowing smoke lacking only 1 ZCTP from the BT3Kit but otherwise complete is pretty much what you need...

I would suggest getting rid of the dust bag and hooking up to a shop vac with a HEPA filter though. The dust bag doesn't do a whole lot...

There are some improvements from BT3000 to BT3100, particularly in the area of the shims... But 15 amp BTx00 to 15 amp BT3x00 is just personal preference IMHO...

Good luck, and happy sawdust!

[Uncle Cracker]

Ditto... You could put both saws together, and make a Frankensaw, possibly with one of them set up as a dedicated dado machine.

[LarryG]

First of all, welcome to BT3Central!

To answer your basic question: yes, that's a pretty good deal if the saw is as advertised. Not a great deal; but not a horrible deal, either.

However, your opening statement -- "I have some kind of BT3K fever now" -- gives me pause (and here you'll have to excuse my unsolicited meddling). The BT3x00 saws are ... let's say "idiosyncratic" ... and don't always turn out to be every owner's particular cup of tea. If you just bought your BT3000 and don't have a lot of experience with it yet, you might want to wait until you find out how well you like it before jumping in any deeper. You might find, as many of us here have, that it's a perfectly capable saw to get you started but will soon leave wanting something bigger, better, more standard, etc etc etc. That's especially true for someone with as much shop space as you have -- a lot of BT owners, myself included, bought these saws largely because they were the best thing available that didn't eat up too much floor space.

Of course you might prove to be one of the many for whom a BT is all the table saw one ever needs. And that's fine. The point is that right now, you may not be in a position to know.

[TCOTTLE]

LarryG - Thanks for the insight.
I guess it seems like the router/"router table" made it worth it, especially if the saw is in good shape, then I would have ample spares. I need to be able to move the saw around in my shop, and I do not have casters for my current BT3000, nor do I have the tslots/any other throat plates - the borg as you all call it advertises the BT3KIT for 100.00, so I was using that as a reference.

I am really just beginning, and I think if i did upgrade to a 'better' saw, it would be a while, I see how much those larger saws costs, and at this time, This is for some pretty basic stuff.

[JR]

I think for total $300 investment you'd be in great shape if you bought that second system. You really want to have all the "stuff" to make the BT3X sing. Plus you'll have spares, which is a very good thing.

The Ryobi router, if it is like my fixed-based router, is probably no great shakes, although I managed to do a number of routing operations with it mounted in the accessory table. It is a good starter router and will continue to provide value even as you graduate to more sophisticated tools.

With both saws you could set one up for dadoes and one for rips. That would really simiplify a lot of projects.

Note that the sliding miter table and miter slot table, while not mutually exclusive, tend to fight one another. I have MSTs on the left and right, and now have all but discontinued use of th SMT in lieu of shop-made cross-cut jigs. The problem is that the "reach" for the SMT fence is quite long, tending to making cross cuts a little sloppy.

It's also worth pointing out that the casters can be a letdown. They are mounted to the side of the base, meaning you have to lift up on the other end to engage the wheels. The most convenient place to lift is the end of the rails, and that's just wrong. You'll see when you get them mounted. There's a bunch of solutions, but if you're on the fence about the 200 bones, don't let the casters tip you over!

JR

[jziegler]

You would probably be better off spending that money on a higher end router set and materials to build a router table. I have a Ryobi router, and it has served me well and built a small kitchen worth of cabinets as well as quite a few other household projects, but it really is a starter router. I'm still using it since it is mounted in a table and I haven't built a table for my nicer Hitachi router, but once I get the new table build, the Ryobi will probably only be used for chamfer and roundover duties.

The casters that come in the kit are reported to work, but not well. You'd do better installing some kind of universal mobile base or making your own mobile cabinet. The Ridgid Herc-u-lift plus was a good mobile base to use, but has been discontinued, but if you can find one somewhere it works well.

Jim

[TCOTTLE]

Thanks for all the help guys, I think I am going to pass on this one, I am going to build myself a router table and get a jointer instead.
I will do the shim upgrade on my BT3K, and keep my eye open for a spare in the future, this one has seen it pretty rough from what I can tell.
-TIm