Is it possible to clear a JTable using an AbstractTableModel so that it can be reloaded with different data and not destroy/recreate the JTable from scratch?

I haven't tried the method you want but the following method works well for me:

public void removeAllRows()
{
  for(int i=this.getRowCount();i>0;--i)
    this.removeRow(i-1);      
}

I add this method to a class that inherits the data model class I need and then call this method as part of retrieving a new set of data.