Ryobi BT 3100

[sawdog]

Greetings! Any opinions regarding the Ryobi BT3100 Table Saw?

I DAGS, and seem to have found that about half the worlsd hates it, and the other half likes it. No help there. So I thought I'd turn to "the group", and see if any of you have any experience with it, or opinions to share.

Why? A friend has offerd his to me, at about half the cost new ($150 to me). He's moving to an apartment, and has no home for it anymore! :( *He* liked it, but he also had NO other reference point. Any opinions would be appreciated.

AtDhVaAnNkCsE, Hal

[PK]

I'm reasonably fond of mine, but I wouldn't buy it again as my only table saw. The lack of a fixed miter-slot is *not* made up for by the sliding table. For $150, though, I might buy another one and fix it up as a dual saw with the one I have. :) PK

[SonomaProducts.com]

I don't know too much about this saw but I've got to believe it's worth $150 if you need a saw and have none. This is the only saw that I know of that has it's own newgroup. Can't remember where it is but there is a big user community and they have a newsgroup somewhere.

I'll bet you could buy it and sell it in that group for $200.

BW

[Glen]

[John DeBoo]

[Lobby Dosser]

Half the people will 'hate' it and the other 'half' will like it. The 'half' that likes it will own one or have owned one. I own a 3000 - essentialy the same saw. Sears sold them for a while under their own name and parts are still available there. Though I 'like' the saw, I would not buy it again knowing what I know now. The sliding table kind of sucked me in, but I don't find it all that useful and the lack of a mitre slot was so annoying that I bought the mitre slot add on. The saw does work, does what I need it to do, sometimes bogs down on 8/4 HW, and has the best dust collection I've ever seen except for my Dewalt DW621 router.

[Darrell Dorsey]

Did you try this site:

seem to have lots of good info.

Darrell

[JGS]

[WillR]

I have the BT3000SX. I made a miter slot for it. Have a look at the shop =

section on my web page.

I have added the extension table, and made an outfeed table as well. The =

router table gets a lot of use as well.

As long as you take some time to learn the setups it works great. Dust=20 collection is excellent. I use a shop vac with a HEPA filter and the .1=20 micron filter bags.

Check out... Great BT3K site.

fellow uses a BT3K as well as I recall. His stuff seems ok to me. R. Jewel Boxes and Wood Art power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those=20 who have not got it.=94 George Bernard Shaw

[Kevin Craig]

That's pretty much how I've envisioned modifying mine, but I think I'd prefer a single slot on each side.

Kevin

[sawdog]

Thank you (All) for your input. Sound like I could do a whole lot worse for the price...And if I *outgrow* it, I may even get most of it back!

Thanks again!

Hal