Extreme frustration with sliding miter table

[ksu93]

While setting up my brand new BT3100 today I noticed that, when I attached the sliding miter table, secured it, and then slid it back and forth, the space between the edge of the table top and the edge of the sliding miter table increases as I slide the miter table from front to back. Clearly the sliding miter table is not parallel with the table top.

I went to the page in the instructions titled "To Check Miter Base Parallelism," which confirmed that they're not parallel. Then I went through the instructions on the next page titled "To Adjust the Miter Base." After doing that five times, I still cannot get them parallel. According to my measurements they're parallel, but the space between the sliding miter table and the table top still changes visibly as I push the miter table from front to back.

I'm getting very angry because I never had to do anything like this with my BT3000, and I shouldn't have to spend an entire afternoon doing something that Ryobi should have done in the factory. What on earth am I doing wrong?

[charliex]

Hi ksu93:
Travel of the SMT parallel to the table is not important. SMT travel parallel to the blade is what is important and that is what the adjustments are all about. My SMT does just what yours does, gets wider at the far end of travel,.but since it runs parallel to the blade my cuts come out square. It some times bugs me that it looks odd, but it's only a sign that the edge of the table is not square with blade. Don't affect my cuts, no problem, I can live with it
Hope this helps.
Chas

[LCHIEN]

Hi ksu93:
Travel of the SMT parallel to the table is not important. SMT travel parallel to the blade is what is important and that is what the adjustments are all about. My SMT does just what yours does, gets wider at the far end of travel,.but since it runs parallel to the blade my cuts come out square. It some times bugs me that it looks odd, but it's only a sign that the edge of the table is not square with blade. Don't affect my cuts, no problem, I can live with it
Hope this helps.
Chas

That's right.

To keep costs down, the engineers at Ryobi elected not to put a adjustable motor and bracket carriage assembly in which would need to be mechanically stout to bear the weight of the motor and move for tilt and elevation. Most saws need this to align with the miter slot cast into the table.

Instead they made the miter slot "equivalent part", the SMT, moveable at a cheaper cost and somewhat better performance since the SMT provides a lot more support and bigger angle scale than your typical miter bar.

So alinment to the table is non-existant, if you have it, it's purely by luck. The key is the alignment of SMT to blade.

[LarryG]

Hi ksu93:
Travel of the SMT parallel to the table is not important.

That is technically correct. Whether the sliding part of the SMT table moves parallel to the blade matters not; it can "dog walk" and not hurt a thing as long as the non-sliding base to which it is attached is parallel to the blade.

HOWEVER (there's always a "however," isn't there?) if you want the miter scale markings cast into the top of the SMT to be meaningful, then it must be adjusted so that it slides parallel to the blade. If the sliding table is cockeyed, the miter scale will be too.

Adjusting the SMT until it's perfect in all respects takes one to two hours and will consume an entire five gallon bucket of Industrial Strength Patience.

[LCHIEN]

...
Adjusting the SMT until it's perfect in all respects takes one to two hours and will consume an entire five gallon bucket of Industrial Strength Patience.

And it still likely won't be parallel to the table.