HF 12" Disc Sander Trunnions

[Pete Staehling]

I have been mostly happy with my HF 12" disc sander, with one exception. The trunnion setup is pretty lousy. The table does not stay at 90 degrees to the disc. There is a ton of slop and tightening it down seems to not be effective. I seldom want to use it at any angle other than 90 degrees so I have considered just drilling a couple extra holes for bolts to lock it in position. I could remove the extra bolts on the relatively rare time I want another angle.

OTOH, it would be nice to have a decent set of trunnions. Does anyone know if the trunnions from one of the other 12" disk sanders or some other tool easily can be fitted to the HF sander?

Resetting the table to 90 degrees at every usage gets old after a while.

[Pete Staehling]

Minutes after asking, I found an answer I like well enough. I replaced the little studs that were there to ride in the arc grooves and guide the travel. I replaced them with bolts with allen heads. That way I have to loosen them to make adjustments, but once it is adjusted and tightened down the table stays put. I don't know why I didn't think of that a long time ago. It really isn't much hassle since there is a set of allen wrenches handy on the bench anyway. It is nice that it stays in adjustment and the table is much more solid.

[glenn bradley]

Mine is not a HF but, I have bolts in it anyway. I use a number of jigs at the disc sander so the table can become quite a lever for even careful force. the bolts solve any potential problem and are easily removed.

[Dave Cav]

I got one of the HF disk sanders a month or so ago, and had to return it the following day because the sheet metal housing around the cooling fan on the back of the motor was smashed and had broken the plastic fan. It was the only one they had so I got a refund. Other than the trunnion issue are you generally happy with the sander? I haven't had a disk sander for several years and need to get another one.

[Pete Staehling]

I got one of the HF disk sanders a month or so ago, and had to return it the following day because the sheet metal housing around the cooling fan on the back of the motor was smashed and had broken the plastic fan. It was the only one they had so I got a refund. Other than the trunnion issue are you generally happy with the sander? I haven't had a disk sander for several years and need to get another one.

Other than the trunnion issues, I have been very happy with mine. Replacing the two knobs and two studs on the trunnions with bolts resolved those issues.