Adjusting rail locking levers on SMT

[bonnerj]

Hi all,

My BT3000 came without an SMT, so I picked one up from eBay. I'm having an issue with the locking levers not keeping the SMT stationary. I scoured the FAQ, the manual, and the forum here, but the closest I came to some guidance is a reference to some set screws that supposedly can be used to adjust the levers. However, it's not clear to me how they work.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Thanks!

Joe

[LCHIEN]

Offhand, it is something I never had to do in 20+ years of owning the saw.
Mine locked down fine from the get-go.
I'll look later when I get to the shop and see if anything obvious occurs to me.

[LCHIEN]

Took a look.
Pardon the dust and the upside down photo, this is the spare SMT I have on a shelf I didn't want to pull down because its up high and there's a box sitting on it.


The arrow shows the set screw on the opposite side of the clamp. Looks like this can be used to close or open the gap that fits over the rail by moving the "U" shaped silver rail forwards and backwards. The eccentric of the clamp closes the gap to firmly clamp, but you can adjust the tightness and throw of the clamp with the set screw; looks like its a Allen head set screw. All the fasteners on the original BT3 were SAE (inch, not metric).

[bonnerj]

Thank you. I'll tinker with that and let you know how it goes.

[LCHIEN]

Thank you. I'll tinker with that and let you know how it goes.

Looking at it some more, I think I figured out how it works.




There are 8 screws #17 that fasten the holder plates 16 and the miter base 14 to the front and rear guide bars (15).
If you loosen the #17 screws then you can use the 10-24 set screws (29) to push the guide bar tighter or less tight to your liking then tighten the 8 screws (17) to lock everything together.

[bonnerj]

This is great. Thanks again!

[Black walnut]

Once you have them set just right make sure to follow the instructions for sliding table adjustments, base first then top. If the base is skewed in reference to the plane of the blade you will never get the top adjusted correctly.