Adapting Ryobi rails to SS. Alternative to 520 rails?

[gac5ss]

Martin,

Yeah, I didn't want to complicate your decision on your shop, but knowing you have a BT3000 and potentially want to get into Shopsmith equipment, I thought you should at least see what some others have come up with by marrying the two together. Of course, there might be wearable parts or parts that tend to break on the BT3000 that this may be a fools errand because of maintaining it into the future. I just don't know. I liked the sliding crosscut sled that is built into the table on the BT3000 so I was impressed when I saw someone add it to a Shopsmith Mark V.

That crosscut sled was a nice feature but also a weak point. It slid on little plastic doohickeys that broke and the supply of replacements soon disappeared. I got a few more from a used machine to get mine going again but those were already old and brittle and didn't last long. I did really enjoy the router table that worked in conjunction with the fence and crosscut table. I also wish I had the mythical router table for my Sawsmith 2000. I have a box for one but haven't seen any sign it actually existed.

Here is an eBay page link where you can purchase replacement table slides. https://www.ebay.com/itm/303807046129?h ... R7jAguH5Yg

I am picking up my machined BT3100 SS rail adaptors today at the machine shop. Maybe sometime in the next two weeks I can get it together and post some pictures.

[twistsol]

The Sawdustzone also has a forum dedicated to BT3000/3100 replacement parts and sources.

https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/discu ... arts-forum

[RFGuy]

That crosscut sled was a nice feature but also a weak point. It slid on little plastic doohickeys that broke and the supply of replacements soon disappeared. I got a few more from a used machine to get mine going again but those were already old and brittle and didn't last long. I did really enjoy the router table that worked in conjunction with the fence and crosscut table. I also wish I had the mythical router table for my Sawsmith 2000. I have a box for one but haven't seen any sign it actually existed.

Ed,

Thanks. Yeah, I kinda thought that is what I remembered from discussion about the BT3000 before. I assume the plastic hdokickeys you mention are for the table to slide on, or is this another part? Not sure if suitable replacements could be made out of some HDPE, UHMW or other suitable low coefficient of friction material. I know others have even made custom sliding tables to mount on their Ryobi BT3000 so if they did this, I would assume they came up with a good way for it to glide on the fixed main table without too many issues. One example is over on the sawmillcreek forum (pic below). I just know the built in sliding miter capability is rarely seen on saws in the US unless it is a very expensive high end cabinet TS for very pro shops. I do believe it is a more common occurrence on more easily obtainable woodworking tools in Europe compared to here. One exception is the light duty Festool CSC SYS 50 cordless tablesaw that has a sliding miter table on it and is available in the US now. (https://www.festoolusa.com/products/saw ... -sys-50-us)

I have never had the router table built in, but I have seen it now on so many standard tablesaws where a woodworker drops in a router on one wing of the TS. IF I didn't have a Mark V in my shop, this is probably what I would have and it is a great space savings by combining the router table and TS all in one - for some the two most used machines in a woodworking shop.

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php ... obi-BT3000

[edma194]

I tried to work out replacement slides with some HDPE washers. It was never quite right. Then I got my Sawsmith 2000 with the sliding carriage. A sliding table would be a better solution, I'm thinking of a single sided sled similar to the Shopsmith version so I don't wear out the sliding carriage. I did use it to cut 2X12s for stair treads, very convenient since I don't have a huge miter saw for cross cuts, but it's rare I'd cross cut wide stock like that.

The router mount was a great feature of the BT. I think did more routing than sawing on mine.


BTW: Here's the box that a Sawsmith table I bought from eBay came in to show that Shopsmith did plan on a router table for the Sawsmith, at least as far as printing a label. Someone out there may have purchase one. I saw in the list of prizes at the 75th anniversary included some refurbished Sawsmith tables. Not all that long ago they had a part number for the standard tables and I asked someone there to check to see if there were more but they said there weren't. None for sale I guess, but there were some in the back. I have all the tables that will fit on my rails now, but I'd replace one if a router table was available.

router.insert.box.jpg (32.24 KiB) Viewed 13969 times

[dusty]

If you plan to put Ryobi bars on a Mark, study the potential impact of the bars on the ability to put the Mark in drill press mode. Depending on the specific installation, there may be a problem (maybe).