Ryobi BT 3000 saw
#11
There is one on an auction close to me. What are your opinions about this saw?

Thank you.
Reply
#12
There is an interesting review on Wood Central.
"the most important safety feature on any tool is the one between your ears." - Ken Vick

A wish for you all:  May you keep buying green bananas.
Reply
#13
(05-15-2023, 11:22 PM)gear jammer Wrote: There is one on an auction close to me. What are your opinions about this saw?

Thank you.

They were a great idea, had some features that looked great on the surface, but they don’t really work as well as you’d want them to. 

Probably better off getting an Emerson made craftsman cast iron contractor saw, and making your own router table. 

Ryobi has made some things over the years that look like good ideas in the store but fail once put to use. 

One such example was the RA200 radial arm saw. It was an 8 1/4 inch saw with universal motor that was horribly underpowered and had a gear train on the opposite end with a 1/4” router collet. 
Power was to low for either function, there wasn’t enough rigidity for either to be safe, and the thing was the loudest screaming tool I ever had in my shop. 

The slider on the saw your talking about was one of those ideas that probably was better engineered than the accounting department would approve and as such isn’t really all that great. 

Don’t get me wrong there were a bunch of them sold, enough that they had their own forum for a while that was fairly active (definitely more active than this one has been over past few years). Lots of good work put out on them, and probably a ton of great ideas to improve their functionality.

If your looking for a very first saw to make a few cuts, you can probably make it work, but there are better options for long term use.
Reply
#14
Thanks. I read the review and J Duke's comments. Best if I stay away.
Reply
#15
I had one of those. It was pretty good for lite duty stuff. There were some problems with the blade height mechanisms and once the motor goes, you are stuck trying to find that specific one again.  Otherwise, the features were pretty good. If it was cheap enough, I'd consider it again if I had the need. A regular contractor saw will last a lot longer though.
Reply
#16
Was my first table saw. Mainly because I had no idea of what a TS was capable of doing. And it was easily moveable, something I needed since my shop was basically storage space and I had to move the macxhi8nes outside to work.

I did not like it. Not easily repeatable being the main reason. Too small, underpowered, difficult to get parts to repair(mainly because I tried to make cuts the saw was not able to make).
Reply
#17
I had one before I bought my SS PCS.  I  thought it worked quite well for me, but there were some issues with sliding table needing to be tuned quite regularly, and as Stav said, there were some issues on some models with blade height adjustments.  The dust collection was well thought out, and I liked that the rails could be adjusted from side to side .
Reply
#18
I have one too. Don't use it. Don't want it. Too many moving parts that won't when you want, and will when you don't.
Sign at N.E. Vocational School Cabinetmaking Shop 1976, "Free knowledge given daily... Bring your own container"
Reply
#19
Went to the sale yesterday. Ryobi saw went for $265. Had a 2hp unisaw that went for $325 with a 48 in. fence. On a movable frame but needed new wood on the right half. Also a 3 hp with a 52 in biesmeir? fence and movable frame that went for $535. Would have like to had one  but to much foot print.
I did get some other stuff so it was not a wasted trip.
Reply
#20
(05-22-2023, 12:54 PM)gear jammer Wrote: Went to the sale yesterday. Ryobi saw went for $265. Had a 2hp unisaw that went for $325 with a 48 in. fence. On a movable frame but needed new wood on the right half. Also a 3 hp with a 52 in biesmeir? fence and movable frame that went for $535. Would have like to had one  but to much foot print.
I did get some other stuff so it was not a wasted trip.

Something to consider with table saws. Just because it has a 52" fence doesn't mean it has to have a 52" fence. I have a 3 h.p. Grizzly 1023. It came with a crap fence - awful knockoff of Delta's Jet fence but I got the saw on clearance and planned to replace the fence. I ended up with 27" to the right of the blade. Space was/is an issue and I didn't see ripping more than 24" wide. I had neither the room nor the ability to deal with 4' X 8' sheets so I cut the pieces oversized then trim them on the table saw. I can see 52" fences for cabinet shops but they probably have the room and a second person to deal with full sized sheet goods. So far so good with the smaller setup for me, YMMV. Today there are track saws for the occasional large piece that take little storage space when not in use.
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

Product Recommendations

Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.