New Ridgid saw very similar to BT3K

[cgallery]

I was at Home Depot a couple of days ago and came across the Ridgid R4516, which I think is a newer jobsite saw (pic below).

The R4516 is left-tilt. I removed the throat plate and noticed that the mechanism for the blade adjustment seems very similar to the BT3K. It has a riving knife and looks pretty decent for $300. Max cutting depth is 3.25" as opposed to the 3-5/8" of the BT3K. I imagine they're still using belts but I didn't have a chance to look under it as it was bolted down.

I'm thinking of buying one for those times that I'm helping friends/employees with projects at their houses. I would buy a Bosch 4100 but I think I actually like the little Ridgid saw more and they're significantly less expensive.

Anyone try one of these?

[kevincan]

It looks like Sears has a red version of this saw. Their version is a direct drive according to the specs on the web page.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...ame=Table+Saws

[LCHIEN]

hard to see any BT3 genes in that saw.
No more than in any table saw.

[Rich P]

No SMT either.

[Wood_workur]

Is the front wheel dual purpose? That's the only thing that I can see.

[pelligrini]

Just going by the photo; The fence clamping tab doesn't look too robust. It's kind of similar to a Ryobi BTS16.

Personally, I'd go with a Craftsman 21829 instead of the Bosch 4100. (Actually did ) If you're really thinking about helping folks at other locations it might be a better choice being that it has a router table built in.

[cgallery]

Is the front wheel dual purpose? That's the only thing that I can see.

The front wheel is dual-purpose like the 3K. They use the same sort of geared half-moon for adjusting the angle of the blade when you release the little lock lever. This is nice as most of the portable table saws just swing freely when the the tilt lever released. That's fine for rough work, but not so great when you're trying to get to 45.1-degrees.

Under the hood it looks like the same sort of shim/guide scheme for the blade height adjustment as the BT3K, just reversed for left-tilt.

I'm surprised it is DD. 3-1/4" cutting height is pretty amazing in that case, as I don't know any other saws with that depth of cut that are direct-drive.

[Dudester]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see any resemblance at all with the BT3's