What to do with a cheap bench top TS

[Hank Keller]

I recently purchased a Grizzly 1023 and now need to come up with something to do with my old, cheap ($59) sears knock off table TS. I saw in a recent shop notes magazine a set of plans that allows you to use the TS motor / arbor / pulley to drive a home made belt sander.

Anybody have an idea whether the bench top saw could be used for that or should I just use it as an anchor for my boat?

[Tim Solley]

I've never done this, but I believe they make sanding discs specifically to fit in a table saw. If it were me, I would make it a disc sanding station. With a miter gauge, you could do some good clean up work with it.

Of course, more experienced people may have WAY better ideas than me.

Tim

[Rob Bodenschatz]

Great idea, Tim. Here's a link to what you're referring to:

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=1809

[tod evans]

hank, i`d put `er up for sale and use whatever monies you get to buy tools instead of jerry-riggin something...02 tod

[John Gregory]

We kept ours, in case we do anything off site. We did use it when we installed hardwood floors at my wife's parents home.

[Alan DuBoff]

We kept ours, in case we do anything off site. We did use it when we installed hardwood floors at my wife's parents home.Hmmm...this sounds like a good reason to get rid of it...:rolleyes:

[Lee DeRaud]

I pulled the wings off mine and stuck it up on top of a cabinet in the garage, it's only about 16"x16"x10". Got an idea in the back of my head of installing one of those Freud blade sets and a shop-built sled/jig: dedicated box-joint cutter for stock the laser can't handle...total cost maybe $100.

But it's way underpowered for a drum sander, so maybe Tod's got the right idea in your case.

[Steve Clardy]

If you do a lot of dados, put a dado head on it and leave it set up.

[Vaughn McMillan]

As a boat anchor, it's a bit bulky. I'm thinking aquarium:

38668

- Vaughn

[Mark Pruitt]

I like Tim's idea of a disc sander. I know that Sears has sold steel disks in the past, with coarse on one side and fine on the other. If I could justify committing the space to it, I think that's what I would do. (Although I do find Vaughn's aquarium interesting--I'm just not sure which room to put it in--LOML might not appreciate it in the living room....)

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Mine is to be my beater box saw.

I'm getting a 6' Austrian slider 12" saw in a month or so and am confronting exactly the same question.

A $59.00 table saw?? Really? I didn't know there was a saw so inexpensive.

Well, at any rate I am going to keep my old one around as the table is cast iron, the trunion is just fine, and the Bies Clone fence is OK too. I'll use it for those nasty jobs like cutting steel plate with an abrasive cut off wheel and lugging out of doors for construction and - never forget this one - loaning to friends and family.

If I weren't keeping it as my beater box I think I'd convert it to a shaper or a router table.
It would be interesting to convert the blade lift to a router lift.

[Rick Gibson]

I had an el cheapo ryobi table top. When I got a better table saw I gave the old one to my son in law. (never liked him much anyway:))

[Tim Clark]

Sears DOES still carry the sanding disc. I just bought one a couple months ago. It works great. I think I paid about $10 (maybe $15) for it.

They're having their midnight madness sale tonight too.

[Larry Fox]

I would put a "free to good home" ad in the classifides section and give it to someone just getting started. I did just that with my old Craftsman TS and the guy who picked it up was quite happy to have it.

Just a thought.

L

[Lopaka Garcia]

I'm in the same situation. I upgraded to an better TS and now I have an older Skil TS that I tried to give away but ended up in the tool shed instead. A few good ideas here though so I might just end up keeping it.

Will dado set-up work on one of these benchtop TS? I always thought the arbors on these things weren't capable of holding a dado set. Anybody have more good ideas on what to do with these saws?

[Phil Ordway]

If I had room for two saws, I'd dedicate one to a specific task - probably set the blade vertical and never change it.

[Ellen Benkin]

I had a guy working at my house and I wanted him to do some "extras". I traded my benchtop saw (in perfect workng order) for the work. I couldn't have gotten $50 for it, but he was delighted and did much more than $50 worth of work for it. I saw him a couple of years later at a local borg, and he was still using the saw. It was a great deal for each of us.

[Matt Meiser]

I'd either keep it for portable use, sell it, or another option would be to donate it to a charity such as Habitat for Humanity that can put it to good use and give you a tax deduction. Search completed items on Ebay for similar and print out the sale prices to establish the value.

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

Aquarium. Priceless.

I was thinking boat anchor, so we were on the same aquatic wavelength.

Seriously, though, "free to good home" sounds like a plan.

[Nick Clayton]

I gave my bench top delta to a friend who just bought a house and didn't have any tools; luckily he's still our friend. I like Matt's idea of donating it to Habitat for Humanity too. If you sell it the amount of money you receive will buy you a candy bar if your lucky. If you give it to someone who will appreciate it, or will in turn do good deeds with it you can go on knowing you've "done good".

[Jim Becker]

While I understand the sentiment of finding a use for this older saw, I'm not sure I'd do it...it takes up space, is a very loud tool to run, is very high RPM for sanding applications, etc. I like the donation idea... ;)

[Scott Loven]

Could you convert it to a router table?Scott