Bandsaw Table Pins & Air Sanders

[Steve H Graham]

Two questions.

1. How far in should a bandsaw table pin go? I just bought two Grizzly pins for my Shop Fox W1729 19" saw, and the pin appears to go in about half an inch. I have never seen this saw with the pin installed, so I have no idea whether this is normal. The manual photos are not very helpful. I'm not positive the Grizzly pins are the right size, but it would be pretty weird to change this detail when designing a sister to an existing saw. Also, how hard do you push the pin in? I tapped it with a piece of wood, just enough to get it snug.

2. What's a good choice for sanding on a small scale? Now that I can finally do a few things with my tools, I want to make a few little boxes, to get some experience. My air compressor puts out around 17 CFM pretty much regardless of pressure. I posted earlier about Dynabrade air sanders. I thought they might be good choices, because they're light and have no motors to wear out. I'm not too worried about the duty cycle, because I don't plan to do really big projects. I don't know which model I should get. It would be nice to have one with some provision for dust control.

[Chip Lindley]

The function of the pin in a bandsaw table is to align the halves either side of the slot which permits installing the blade. The pin should go in with only the head/knob protruding. Measure the hole depth. Pin should slide in with some tight friction, without the need for pounding on it. I use a pair of vise-grips with an old piece of leather to keep from marring the pin, to twist the pin in or out. Just a firm friction fit. If this is not the case, you indeed may have the wrong pin.

[CPeter James]

I have the DynaBrade with the dust control system. I hook it to my dust collector using a bypass connector ( a connector with 2 1" holes drilled in it) . This allows for good airflow. The sander has a venturi that uses the exhaust air to expel the dust down the hose. The Dust collector picks it up form there. I use the Mirka Abranet system with the Mirka sanding pad. About 10 times faster that my Dewalt RAS.

CPeter

[Pete Bradley]

Taper pin goes in 'til it stops, finger tight. Because it's a taper, there's a pretty noticeable stop. Any force or pounding is bad as it will spread the slot and put undue strain on the table.

Pete

[Tom Veatch]

I agree with Pete. Depth isn't really that important as long as you have enough bearing surface engaged to keep the two halves of the table aligned and the pin from working itself out. The half inch engagement reported by the OP is about what I see on my Jet 16" BS.