Miter table in the 8 peice accessory kit

[waterpro]

I am just getting started with the BT3100 and am going to be getting the accessory kit. I am a noob when it comes to wwing. I am curious, what is the point of the slotted miter table in the accessory kit? The saw already comes with a sliding miter kit, just not sure what this extra miter kit is used for.

[Wood_workur]

Crosscut sled, tennoning jig, and any other assessory that you would use with a "normal" tablesaw. I personally think that you should but an extrusion that is a t-track, so that the majority of aftermarket assessories fit in it, unlike the rectangular slots in the DMST

[monte]

It will give you 2 miter slots to the left of your table saw blade. They are handy for mounting feather boards, and various jigs.

[leehljp]

The truth is there are two camps on this: One where people want and need the miter slots and those that don't.

I purchased one of the very best miter guages ( here ) on the market from Woodhaven about 10 years ago and loved it. It had a optional aluminum fnece and cost over $150.00 at the time. It took my fine woodworking up several notches in accuracy on both my bandsaw and table saw.

THEN I bought the BT3000 in 2000. I bought the miter slot table because I was used to it. I used the Miter guage and miter slot table for about 6 months off and on until I got used to the SMT for miters. I finally realized how accurate the SMT and fence was on my set up - in addition to the greater support of the SLIDING miter table.

I rarely use the Woodhaven miter guage now. Most people can do the same on the SMT that they can on the MST. The MST does place the SMT farther away from the blade to the point that the SMT's fence cannot touch the blade, thereby eliminating the possibility of cutting off the end of the fence (in normal circumstances).

As Alex and Monte said though, it helps in adding various jigs and cross cut sleds. Some people make the cross cut sleds (CCS) fit their SMT, some make the CCS fit over the narrow table top itself - but this does not work unless the blade is perfectly aligned to the saws table top itself. The imaginative people here have come up with super adaptations of variouos miter slot jigs to fit on the BT without using the miter slot table.

[scorrpio]

And some made their own miter slot tables for a fraction of cost by taking a board, cutting a couple dadoes, and installing T-tracks...