Sunday, September 8, 2013

Ryobi 10" Table Saw (BTS12S) Stand


I was assembling an old but unused Ryobi table saw stand recently, and I must say I was quite impressed by the thing. There's some very clever engineering that went into it. Here's a view of it.


Ryobi employs a neat 'holes-and-nubs' method that makes all the joints self-aligning, and contributes to rigidity when the bolts are tightened. This view gives an idea of it.



The only flaw that I noticed, and it's nothing serious, is the length of the fastening bolts. They're all 5/16" x 5/8" carriage bolts, and the 5/8" length is about 1/4" longer than what's needed. That extra length makes it impossible to use a socket wrench for final assembly and tightening, like so.



In fairness to Ryobi, 5/8" is the shortest length of 5/16" carriage bolt that can be had, as far as I know. (One would think, though, that an outfit like Ryobi could obtain bolts of any length it pleases.)

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Assembly

You'll only need a 12mm open-end wrench.

It's a pretty simple stand, and however you go about assembling it, you really can't go wrong. For what it's worth, the following sequence went smoothly for me.

a) Assemble the shorter rails, parts 'L2' and 'U2' to the legs.

b) The remaining longer rails, parts 'L1' and 'U1', fit over top of the shorter rails. Install them, tighten all the nuts and you're nearly done.

c) Install the four feet. The feet only fit snugly at the very corners. Hammer the corners down to seat them. The extremities of the feet will find their own alignment when the stand is placed upright on the floor.

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