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Mike

wrote:
I am considering purchasing either the Ryobi BT3100 or the Delta
Shopmaster TS300. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Both of
these are 15 A machines and I am assuming that they will therefore be
fine on a dedicated 15A line.

I have yet to hear anything good about any of Delta's Shopmaster line
of tools.

The Ryobi BT3100 is exactly the same saw as a Craftsman model that I
have. One of the big selling points with this saw is the sliding miter
table. I am not a big fan of it - it is difficult to get it set at a
specific angle, there are no stops for common angles, and the cutting
capacity is way too small when cutting miters. The reason for the small
miter capacity is that the miter table is pretty wide, so the miter
gauge pivots about 6 or 7 inches away from the blade - with the miter
gauge set to 45 degrees, buy the time the workpiece gets to the blade
you are at the end of the table's travel.

Another thing to consider is that the saw does not have a standard
miter slot - so you cannot replace the sliding table with a standard
miter guage. I was able to purchase a small miter slot extension table
from Sears, but the slots in it are sloppy and don't end up working
very well.

Also, the table top on the saw is pretty small - once you start using
the saw a good bit, you will wish you had a bigger table.

If I were you, I would take a look at the next step up in saws. Have
you looked at the Rigid saws at Home Depot? I think that if you spent
another $75 - 100 on a better saw you would be MUCH happier in the long
run.

Let me know if you have any other questions about the Ryobi saw.

Mike