What comes around goes around or "history repeats itself"

[sailor55330]

Hello again,

So if some of you will remember, I purchases a used BT3100 a few months ago and had absolute nightmares with the saw in terms of alignment. I ended up giving the saw to a friend in hopes that he could have some luck with it. Long story short, I visited him 2 weeks ago and he gave me gas money to haul it back from TN. He was not impressed.

SO, with that being said, I'm back to owning a BT3100. I have pretty much given up that I will ever get the SMT to be of any use, but I am going to give the router table a shot and I can still use the saw for ripping (I think).

I hooked up my router to the table and messed around with the "fence" which was not very impressive. I need to make a new fence and had a question. Is there any reason I couldn't take the mounting brackets from the orgininal router fence and replace it with a solid board with a cutout for the bit?

I was thinking of using a piece of MDF glued up to 1.5" thick, the length of the table, about 6" high, with a cutout sized to my largest bit. Then to insure clearance with the aluminum fence, I was going to put a 3/4" spacer on the other side of the angle bracket. It seems like this would give me an adjustable fence that attaches to the rip fence quickly with no modification.

The other think I was thinking of was mounting a strip of T-trip horizonally for featherboards pointing down.

Am I nuts?

[Black wallnut]

Yes you could build a router fence like you describe. I have done similar in years past however I made mine at least twice as thick as my largest bit so that if I ever wanted to only use a small part of the bit I'd still be away from the rip fence.

Make sure you use the Acc. table clamp to secure the Acc. table to the rear rail otherwise the table may move around.

[jking]

What aspect of the fence caused problems? Typically, the fence is one of the best features of the saw as it generally locks down very solid. Not knowing what your friend may have done with the saw, is it possible the fence needs to be readjusted?

[sscherin]

Poor mans router fence with dust collection and hammer tap micro adjust.
Don't laugh to hard.. it really works..

[dbhost]

I'm not sure I follow what you are talking about. But if you mean the Ryobi Router accessory fence, yes you can replace the faces with shop made larger faces. I did, and yes You can install T track in the faces for feather boards, again... I did...

I honestly wish you were close by to another member, I still think that SMT can be made to work right... and am a bit perplexed by your issues with it...

[pelligrini]

You're not crazy, the OEM router fence leaves a lot to be desired.

One drawback in using the rip fence to attach the router fence is that you'll have to break down one setup ot the other in order to use them. I picked up a second rip fence to attach my router fence to. There's a couple shots of it in this thread: http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=46021

[August86]

I'm not going to laugh at anything that works. The elevation threads stripped on my 3100 and used a vice grip until I could fix it.

Mike D.

Poor mans router fence with dust collection and hammer tap micro adjust.
Don't laugh to hard.. it really works..

[sailor55330]

Thanks for the confirmation.

To clarify, I mean the wooden part of the router fence accessory. The rip fence itself does lock solidly. I was wanting to use the steel parts of the factory router fence accessory since they mount easily with just 4 t-nuts on top of the rounter. By adding a 1-piece wooden fence to those brackets, it seems like you could remove or add the fence pretty quickly.

Any concerns I am not seeing here?

[eccentrictinkerer]

Thanks for the confirmation.

To clarify, I mean the wooden part of the router fence accessory. The rip fence itself does lock solidly. I was wanting to use the steel parts of the factory router fence accessory since they mount easily with just 4 t-nuts on top of the rounter. By adding a 1-piece wooden fence to those brackets, it seems like you could remove or add the fence pretty quickly.

Any concerns I am not seeing here?

Although you can lock the fence down fore and aft, the router table is fastened only on the front end. If you push too hard on the router bit the whole table can move. DAMHIKT!

I use a clamp on the aft end to make sure the table doesn't move.

Other posters have devised under-mount rigs to give the same stablility.

[sailor55330]

Eccentric,

My aux table/router kit has a clamp that came with it. It is basically a steel plate with "lips" on the edges that tighten with a know. Seems to hold the table at least as securely as the front clamp, if not tighter, so I'm not concerned about the table moving.

[eccentrictinkerer]

Eccentric,

My aux table/router kit has a clamp that came with it. It is basically a steel plate with "lips" on the edges that tighten with a know. Seems to hold the table at least as securely as the front clamp, if not tighter, so I'm not concerned about the table moving.

Any chance of posting a photo? It sounds like your router table has better method than my rusty ol' clamp.

[pelligrini]

Any concerns I am not seeing here?

Are you planning on doing any dust or chip collection?

[sailor55330]

Eccentric,

Let me see if I can steal the wife's digital camera and figure out how to post a pic.

Maybe I'll even get brave and post a pic of my drill press stand and aux table. I'm sure someone could use a laugh

[LCHIEN]

Although you can lock the fence down fore and aft, the router table is fastened only on the front end. If you push too hard on the router bit the whole table can move. DAMHIKT!

I use a clamp on the aft end to make sure the table doesn't move.

Other posters have devised under-mount rigs to give the same stablility.

the Ryobi router mounting kit includes a rear clamp for locking the back side of the aux table to the back rail when using a router and a fence.

[jking]

To clarify, I mean the wooden part of the router fence accessory. The rip fence itself does lock solidly.

Thanks for clarifying. I thought you were talking about the rip fence. I can't help with the router fence attachments, mine are still in the box. I use the aux. table, but, have never installed my router in it.