Sounded like a good idea at the time.

[kmealy]

Just re-read an article in FWW from 1992 about some new innovations in table saws.

 

First was the Ryobi BT3000 table saw with a sliding table on the left side of the blade.  It seemed like these were all the rage back then.  The article also had a similar Makita with a sliding version.  Not sure what happened, if they were any good or not.  But RIP.  https://sawmillcreek.org/threads/anyone-have-any-experience-with-a-ryobi-bt3000-table-saw.242159/

 

Second was the table saw that had a blade that would slide forward when you pulled a rod in the front of the saw.  A push-pull saw.  Shopsmith had a version called the Sawsmith.  Mafell also had one in the article.  While this could work for short crosscuts, does not work for long rips.  Even though Craftsman made one in the 1940s (that seemed to die), Shopsmith gave it a shot.  RIP https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=34472

Edited July 17 by kmealy

[JimM]

I had one of the Ryobi saws for several years.  It met the needs for occasional woodworking and was a step up from an older RAS. 

The table was aluminum and did not have the grooves to accept the homemade jigs. Dust collection was through a port into a bag. 

One plus was the provision for undermounting a router to the right of the blade, including a switched outlet for the router.

[ASteinfield]

Yeah, the BT3000 was pretty cool for its time. The sliding table and modular add-ons were ahead of the curve, and a lot of DIYers loved it. But the non-traditional layout threw some people off, and once Ryobi dropped support, it kind of faded out. The push-pull saws like the Sawsmith were an interesting idea and kind of a cross between a table saw and a radial arm saw.