Byrnes Model Machines

I’ll admit it: I’m a tool junkie. When I stumbled across Byrnes Model Machines I knew I had to up my workshop game.

Byrnes makes small precision tools for hobbyists. I picked up a 12″ table saw and a 4″ variable speed sander – plus some accessories for each. These are high quality tools so they’re not cheap – but they perform beautifully and service was excellent.

Table saw with precision fence.

Reconfigured with the sliding table.

4″ variable speed sander.

Another view. Note the tight clearance to the disc, even when the table is tilted.

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One issue that arose was mating the dust ports on these tools to my Festool dust extractor: The Byrnes machines are built to imperial measurements with 1.5″ ports, while Festool uses metric and has 27mm hoses.

In discussing this with my friend Chris Abbott, I learned that dust collection is a wild west of competing systems. Many companies seem to develop proprietary connections that only work with their own tools to encourage customers to shop within a single brand. (e.g.: If you’re buying Company A’s track saw, it only connects to Company A’s dust collector – but you can also buy Company A’s sander, jigsaw, table saw, router, etc….)

That kinda sucks when adding specialist tools like these to a workshop. However, I am not complaining. I mention it here because I found a solution:

A trip to my local Lee Valley Tools turned up the Mirka Deco Sander Adapter. The flexible rubber cuts easily with a knife and because it’s a true cone – not a stacked set of stepped rings – it nicely does the job of bridging imperial and metric.