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What to do with my old working bench TS?

3K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  jtobs 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
So this past weekend after months of searching I found a Delta Contractor saw 1 1/2 hp on Craigslist for 150.00 and it was only 5 min from my house! Its in great shape and runs great. So what now with my old bench TS?

I had been using a Delta Shopmaster TS220ls table saw that I had also found for very cheap. I picked that one up for 35 dollars a few months ago. It served me very well for the time being until I was able to get a bigger one. I actually have grown a bit attached to the shopmaster. If I was to sell it I don't think I could get anymore then 50 or 60 dollars and after thinking it over there has to be something I can transform the saw into that would serve me well in the shop. It has a decent aluminum top and a decent amount of power.

I was looking through my ShopNotes magazines and saw that in issue #12 they have plans to build your own disc sander. Their plan has a motor with a sanding disc attached and a small table with miter track. I was thinking I could turn my old bench saw into a disc sander. I actually have a 10 inch plate with same arbor size that I could stick paper on. I plan on doing this and seeing how it works however I thought I would check to see if anyone had any other ideas?

Another idea I thought of was to take the motor out of the saw and attach my router turning the table into a router table. Then i would have the table saw motor to do something else with. Looking at the price to buy or even build a nice sturdy flat top with miter slots and a fence it makes no sense to sell it for what I could get.

Any other ideas?
 
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#2 ·
After I got a new table saw, I've been wondering what to do with my small, cheap Ryobi. I like your idea of a disc sander, I may considering doing that myself. However, I make lots of small boxes, and I love the look of miter splines/keys, so I''ve been thinking about making mine a dedicated miter spline cutter. All I need is a jig and a flat tooth blade of some sort, could even be a cheap blade. Saves me from switching blades and digging out my current jig. Don't know if that's something you'd be interested in, just a suggestion. I'm really interested in seeing what everyone else has to say…
 
#4 ·
I thought about keeping a fine cut blade in it so I wouldn't have to switch blades as often but I don't know that I would get the most out of it that way. At this time I don't have anything more then a palm sander for sanding boards. It can be a pain edge sanding longer boards so I figured this would work great. Using it as disc sander would not require me to change anything other then the the blade so I could always use it for cutting if needed in future..

I like the bandsaw table idea however I don't have a bandsaw yet. I will keep that in mind for when I get one though. I like the sharpening idea also..

Thanks for the ideas so far
 
#5 ·
I also have a Ryobi bench top (as well as a Craftsman bench top!) in addition to my Walker-Turner cabinet saw. I also have a disc sander.

I built a small bench around the Ryobi and keep a thin kerf blade in it. I find that it often comes in handy when I'm doing "production cutting" or dadoing on the cabinet saw and don't want to have to reset the fence or change back to a regular blade. I can just take the piece over to the Ryobi, cut what I need, and return to my cabinet saw.

I keep the Craftsman as a stand alone up high on a shelf. When I was contracting, it was my job site saw. Still comes in handy every once in a blue moon in that configuration.

Just a thought. Cheers.
 
#6 ·
A couple of years ago, I gave my Delta ShopMaster to Habitat for Humanity … they have a ReStore here where they sell donated goods to fund their operations.
 
#8 ·
Would it be worth it to you to set it up for 45 degree cuts & leave it there? That would be my preference & fits my needs, but maybe not yours. The disk sander may be a good idea too but the bearings in the arbor/motor may not be sufficient for side loads like that. On the other hand it could last a long long time before failure. For a home shop I'm sure it would get light enough use. You got a few good ideas here.
 
#10 ·
After some feedback and hearing some good ideas I think I am going to have it set up as a Disc Sander. As I said I have a plate all ready that was used for the same thing. If I go with that then I can always take the sanding plate off and put a blade in it if I should want to use to cut. I do cut a lot of "dirty" wood so I like the idea of having a blade just for cuts on boards that have dirt, sand or other stuff on them that could hurt my nicer blades.

As for the motor and bearings being a possible issue, I wouldn't think it be used nearly enough to hurt it. However I wont know till I get it set up and see how it works. I will probably just use for some touch up sanding on board edges and to round over edges.

Also doing this requires no change to the saw so I can always turn it into something else later. I liked all of your guys suggestions. If anyone else has more please post as I would like to hear all ideas.
 
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