BT3100-1 Sliding Miter Table is too high. I think my sliders are setup wrong.

[morte100]

I'm trying to get my new BT3100-1 dialed in. It had been pretty neglected, and it has probably been through a number of owners. It's coming together, though. The blade goes up and down and tilts nicely, and the motor sounds really good. I did my first cuts, though, and hadn't noticed that the SMT is about 1/8" proud of the main surface. It creates a pretty dangerous situation, that gave me a lot of pause. I think the sliders are setup wrong, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how it should be setup.

Can anyone please tell me where I'm going wrong here? Thanks! -David

[morte100]

So, the exploded view is detailed enough to show the eccentric screw, but not enough to show the little ridges that are visible in the photo below. Having that upside down raises the bed of the SMT that amount. Flip it over, and my saw is now good to go. One valuable day of the 3-day weekend lost, but problem solved.

[LCHIEN]

Glad you figured it out.
Welcome to Sawdustzone, BT3-zone!

I'll give you one more hint If you need to tweak the SMT height by a hair there's two ways of doing it.

• adjust the locking levers for the rails (four of them)... there's a little play in them and you can adjust the height a hair before you lock them or reposition and then lock
• Ryobi used to recommend putting or removing shim material between the top of the rails and the sliding locking levers for the SMT.

Some people like the SMT perfectly level with the main table (me) and some people think the SMT should be a hair high so the workpiece doesn't drag.
My preference is for the former so that dadoing and grooving are accurate.when setting blade height.

.

[morte100]

Thanks, Loring. Level makes sense to me, as I don't want to have any pressure that could promote binding.

I just read the article, which was incredibly helpful. So, I'll link it here in case any other newbs to this old saw come across this post.

[nicer20]

On a related note about sliding miter table - has anyone used the SMT to build a cross cut sled? I know everyone uses the miter slots to do so but I don't have the miter slot accessory table. So wondering what could be the down side of using the SMT itself as a slider?

Thanks,

NG

[Black walnut]

Glad you figured it out.
Welcome to Sawdustzone, BT3-zone!

Ryobi used to recommend putting or removing shim material between the top of the rails and the sliding locking levers for the SMT.

.

FIFY

Mine has them. I left them installed. The reason most likely that Ryobi on purpose designed the saw so that the SMT fence rides above the main table is because aluminum on aluminum galls. Keeping all surfaces waxed probably prevents this.