T Nuts and Shark Guard

[Mike P. Wagner]

I am very close to puchasing a bt3100, I even have permission from the person from whom I need permission

I have been reading the forums, and a lot of folks rave about the T- Nuts and the Shark Guard.


1) Are the T-Nuts used to attach jigs to the fence? Is there another motivation for getting them? Do they replace things that don't work on the stock bt3100, or are they high quality replacement for things that do work but wear out?

2) The Shark Guard looks very cool. But the standard riving knife looks pretty functional as well. In fact, one of the reasons that I am buying a bt3100 is that its the only saw in my price range that has a riving knife. I have a very old (late 50's) Craftsman table, and I added a splitter recently. The truth is that when I am cuttting 1/2 plywood, it's a long way from the back of the lowered blade to the splitter. So the riving knife (which maintains it position relative to the blade as the blade is raised or lowered) looks like a very good idea. Is there something fundamentally wrong with the riving knife/guard that comes with the Ryobi? What problem does the Shark Guard solve?

Thanks,

Mike

[dlminehart]

Mike, the T-Nuts are used for jigs, table add-ons, etc. The Shark Guard has at least 3 benefits, compared to the guard that comes with the BT3100. I rank them in this order:

(1) It slips onto a clamp on the top of the riving knife, and can be quickly removed by simply lifting up and forward. Equally important, it can be quickly replaced on the riving knife by just reversing the above operation. Result is that you're much more likely to have it in place when you need it, while the standard guard is enough of a hassle to take off and put on that it tends to stay off, putting you at risk. The downside of using this clamp on the riving knife is that it reduces the maximum depth of cut by about 3/4". The clamp can be very easily removed and reattached, though, in literally a matter of a few seconds, for times when you need maximum cutting depth.

(2) The riving knife that you can purchase with the Shark Guard is slightly lower than the blade height. This means you can use it in situations where you're not cutting completely through a piece of wood. The knife that comes with the saw is slightly higher than the blade, meaning it must be removed for incomplete cuts.

(3) The Shark Guard has a dust collection vent at the top, to supplement the dust collection below the table top.

[drumpriest]

About the shark, don't forget easy on and off. If you want to make a non-through cut with the ryobi splitter, you have to unbolt it from the table, after removing the throat plate. With the shark, you just pop the guard off, no tools required.

T-bolts are also useful, btw... Not just T nuts. I used several T-bolts to mount my wide table extension in some aluminum angle (1/2 rails, the other guy got the mounting hardware). I also used those bolts to mount my table top for the wide table setup, and for the legs to support the rails.

[lrogers]

I have both, best upgrades you can get for the saw. The t-nuts make it easy to add/remove extended or sacrifical fences. I've also used them to mount my router table between the rails and to mount the over arm blade guard I used before the Shark. Dust collection is greatly improved with Shark.

[Mike P. Wagner]

Thanks to all - the idea of having the blade of the riving knife be slightly lower than the top of the blade so that you can leave the knife in place when making a "partial" cut is very cool.

I can see having a quick disconnect feature as being pretty useful.

Thanks to all,

Mike P. Wagner

[BobSch]

quote:Originally posted by Mike P. Wagner

Thanks to all - the idea of having the blade of the riving knife be slightly lower than the top of the blade so that you can leave the knife in place when making a "partial" cut is very cool.

I can see having a quick disconnect feature as being pretty useful.

Thanks to all,

Mike P. Wagner

Not to mention that the Shark is bound to start a conversation when anyone sees it Seriously, the Shark is probably the first accessory I'd recommend for anyone buying a TS. Mine has saved a couple of fingers already. Plus Lee's a good guy.