Shopsmith Forums

The more I use it the more I love it! Weather in Austin, TX was fantastic this weekend. I did woodworking for about four hours on Saturday and for about 11 hours on Sunday!

I have the benefit of two Shopsmiths! Everybody needs two Shopsmiths! Have my 520 in tablesaw mode and my 500 for everything else. I also have a stand-a-lone Shopsmith planer that gets constant use.

Turned a couple of pens, turned some 4"x4" cedar into round stock for an upcoming project. Boy did the Shopsmith do some jumping around with a 4"x4" x 32" piece of cedar on it. Use my bandsaw to cut some dividers for a drawer, used my jointer to put on a good edge on some boards before final dimensioning for drawers, honed some hand chisels with a honing guide that I picked up at Rockler last weekend, and planed about 75 board feet of pine that I recycled from work. And of course used my tablesaw in conjunction with all my other activities listed above. I also needed to change out the sandpaper on my disc sander after using it to final dimension the dividers and also using it to help sand the 4" x 4" cedar while on the lathe. I think that it must of been on there for about 6 years minimum. I know that it was already on the disc when I bought the unit. But luckily I had read somewhere here on the forum to use heat when changing them out. Still it was quite a job.

But I love these machines!! And after using them on the weekends for about two years I am finally getting very comfortable on the set-up and changeover of the units. Which just makes you enjoy woodworking that much better.

Hope everybody else had some fun this weekend!

Turkey hunt on Sat morning (bust), boating and crappie fishing Sat afternoon (boom), ran to town for some tackle and tool shopping on Sun morning, and about 7 hours of cutting lumber for heavy duty racks in my garage. I'm glad its Monday so I can get some rest at work!

Alan, I started with one that was a gift. He has MS and not able to do anything so he wanted it used rather than wasting. After a couple of years, another local gentleman had pancreatic cancer sold his 500 to me because he didn't want his wife to have to deal with it after he was gone. The more I use these machines, the more I love them. I've learned that I can set these up from one mode to another in just seconds. And, if I want to be really precise, it takes me a bit longer, but I do get there. Made two legs yesterday on the bandsaw using the mitre gauge as fence. Had a couple of divits, so set up the disk sander and sanded until smooth. Placed on table and no deviation from table surface. Will be posting in a couple of days. I love all that I can do with my SS's.