New Owner - Assembly issues...

[knimac]

Pictures are a little fuzzy on my computer, and I am somewhat of a newbie myself,but I don't mind sticking my foot in my mouth. If my installation is correct, then it would seem to me that the back rail needs to be flipped end for end, and then rotated 90 degrees. At least that's what mine looks like. Have I got my rails incorrect. (would seem that in configuration posted rip fence would'nt fit either.)

[kmk]

Yes, I realise they are (SMT and the fence) not mounted correctly. I was playing with different settings last night. One time I mounted the table too close to the blade (in flush with blade table) and SMT was not gliding smoothly. Then I reversed and tried. Later I realised that it should not be mounted too close to the blade table. Now, the SMT table glided smoothly.

I will reverse them.... Thanks.

[knimac]

kmk, and others, now you have me thinking! I don't have access right now to my shop, but the slot you have attached to the saw on your back rail is the bottom on my setup, and your "bottom" is attached to the saw on mine, I think. Not sure how to say it rather than show it, but in effect the widest part of the rail, both front and back, are on the bottom. As I say I can't check now but would seem that attaching back rail as you have may change hight of the rails relative to each other? The two large slots are different widths, and the rail mounting "nut" fits both depending on the orientation you use. On both front and back the nuts' longer side ride in the slots, not the short side (on mine). Looks to me that you have back using short side and front using long side. If you used short side for the front, then tape would not be pointing up I don't think. Has this made any sense to anyone?

[kmk]

I'll post clear pics tonight... But I think once I reverse the SMT and the fence, my setup should be correct.

I got into all this confusion because my front and back rails when I installed them did not glide smoothly. I kinda struggled to put them in. The guy in the DVD just turn those square bolds and glided the rails so quickly.

[scorrpio]

I dunno... I have the BT3100 manual pdf here at work. It got enough illustrations to eliminate all secondguessing. In particular, page 37 (checking miter table for parallelism) clearly shows how everything should be mounted. Were you so impatient to try out your 'new toy' that you did not read the manual?

[JimD]

I consider it a bit of an insult to have to resort to the manual but I sometimes have to swallow my pride and look.

With respect to the rails not sliding smoothly I agree. The stock levers are very hard to set where you can tighten them adequately and also have the rails slide smoothly. The levers that will ratchet I bought from somebody on this site are a big improvement and a very worthwhile investment.

Jim

[kmk]

scorrpio: Thats partially true. I didnt pay close attention to instructions on the manual. I watched the DVD as a first thing and skimmed the manual little bit. Also, I saw many pics of the saw and observed different SMT configuration and got confused more.[^]

JimD: I didnt understand last part of your response. what ratchet?

[Black wallnut]

quote:Originally posted by LarryG

quote:Originally posted by Black wallnut

You do know that your SMT base is mounted backwards, right? Also your SMT fence is also backwards!

Well ... that's a POV thing. The fence as shown IS correct in relation to the blade, but wrong in relation to the sliding part of the SMT. I think it might be less confusing to kmk to say that when he reverses the entire SMT, he will then need to also reverse the fence on the SMT. Or, alternatively, remove the fence, set it aside, reverse the SMT, and then reinstall the fence so it is facing the same way overall as the picture shows.

Gosh, I hope my attempt at clarification doesn't make matters worse ... []

Uhhhhh which Point of View are you talking about? If you mount the SMT fence backwards to the normal way the degree markings are meaningless! Try it and you will see that I am right.[]

With the SMT in the "normal" position i.e. long part of base towards front of saw, the user pushes the fence to make the cut. A few inches in material width can be cut by turning the entire SMT assembly 180° and then pushing on the stock as you make the cut. In my "view" noting is gained and much is lost buy incorrectly installing the SMT fence reletive to the SMT table's surface. Including the quick-stop tab!

[Black wallnut]

See T-nut.com for the ratchets

They are a ratcheting lever that can be used to replace the rail's finger levers that hold the rails on.

Well at least Jeff had them at one time I just looked and can not see them so you might email him.

[LarryG]

Mark, I absolutely agree, but if you look at the way the SMT fence is oriented OVERALL, i.e. with the longest face AWAY from the operator, that, insofar is it goes, is the correct orientation with respect to the blade and the operator. NOT correct WTR to the SMT ... no argument there. But if you consider the "big picture," the fence IS facing the right way.

If you say, "The SMT is backwards, and the SMT fence is also backwards," that could be interpreted to mean that removing the SMT, with the fence still attached, and turning the entire assembly around, without changing the fence, will correct both problems. But of course that's not correct.

[kmk]

Finally, I assembled the saw the yesterday and made couple of cuts. No surprise that I extremely happy with the cuts (smooth as silk!). I made these (cross) cuts without even going through the alighment procedures using the SMT.

Mark, I checked out T-nuts.com. Under Table Saw parts, they have something called rail levers but it looks like they don't carry them anymore. I did email jeff though...

[kmk]

quote:Originally posted by jxyoung

Craftsman micro torque wrench $26 off. Now $48. 9/16 to 9/18

I would consider something else.
These do not have lifetime warranty, Husky@HD,and HF ones do. I have both and the Husky is better in 1/2" drive size due to 250

[kmk]

I'm making slow progress in getting the system fully assembled and aligned!
I guess I need more help from you all.

I performed few cuts without performing any of the alignment procedures and
this evening I started with aligning the fence.

As per the manual, I put the fence 2" off of the blade (and I locked it down) and attempted to adjust the front rail to get the scale indicator at 2". It wouldnt budge.

( As I indicated in my previous posts, the rails did not go in smoothly when I first installed them... )

I had the rail levers in approbriate positions still the rail wouldnt budge. So, loosened the fence lock and now I was able to adjust rail but the fence also moved along with it. (

After couple of attempts, I kinda gave up because I didnt want to endup breaking the parts...

What did I do wrong...?

[LCHIEN]

I'm making slow progress in getting the system fully assembled and aligned!
I guess I need more help from you all.

I performed few cuts without performing any of the alignment procedures and
this evening I started with aligning the fence.

As per the manual, I put the fence 2" off of the blade (and I locked it down) and attempted to adjust the front rail to get the scale indicator at 2". It wouldnt budge.

( As I indicated in my previous posts, the rails did not go in smoothly when I first installed them... )

I had the rail levers in approbriate positions still the rail wouldnt budge. So, loosened the fence lock and now I was able to adjust rail but the fence also moved along with it. (

After couple of attempts, I kinda gave up because I didnt want to endup breaking the parts...

What did I do wrong...?

You locked the fence (which locks down to both the front and rear rails)
so when you loosened the rail locks it still would not move because
you had the fence locking the front and back rails together and the back rail was still locked.

[kmk]

I did unlock both the front and back rails before I started this procedure.

I just couldnt adjust the front when the fence was locked down. So, I shouldnt the lock down the fence? I'll give it a shot this evening.

( I'm hoping to get the rail levers from t-nuts so that the rails can glide smoothly. )