Shopsmith Forums

Greetings All, I am curious about if the headstock can be put on the tubes "backwards" with the carriage still oriented the same way but on the now right side of the head. I'm thinking about doing a lot of shaper work and would like to use it under the table vs over. I realize the head and carriage need to be manipulated but I still have the strength to do that without a problem. It seems to me that I would then raise it up and have the motor under the table. I also realize that I "lose" the drill press (until I put it back together correctly). I'm not ready to make the leap to the double-tilt/reversible motor system yet.
Is this possible? Dangerous? Anyone ever do this?
I could not find any reference to this in the forum.

Welcome to the forum. It is refreshing to hear from someone who is thinking outside the box.

I am unwilling to answer your question because I have not tried that and I am no longer capable of just thinking it through. I seem to lose too many details these days.

I'll be watching your thread closely though.

BTW My gut tells me you can do this since you already realize that you are loosing some functionality.

Page 7 here shows reversed. I'm going to eventually build a stand so I can get the under table set up like the 7.

http://www.ssug.org/index.php/document- ... psmith-mag

I hope so!

I am considering a similar approach on a mini, although I was intending to also reverse the carriage orientation(Carriage mounts the same[albeit on the other end], but the 'elevator' controls and carriage lock mechanisms are reversed on the carriage) so that they are now on the 'back' side as will the headstock controls when it is reversed. The table tilt lock etc. however will not change so it remains on what now is the new back side.

This results in:

The hinge end to the left relative to the new operator position.

The headstock quill facing the new right end.

The headstock 'controls' facing the new operator position.

The table bottom now facing the headstock when positioned to 90.

The carriage 'controls' facing the new operator position.

The vertical lock knob on the new back side.

The table tilt 'controls' on the new back side.


The reversing of the carriage controls is possible since the carriage casting and bores are symetrical front to rear(M5/V500).

In my case the motor run direction(CW/CCW) will be reversible.

So I do see it as viable.

Have I overlooked anything?:eek: Critique encouraged.


I leave it for others to consider 505-520 table/carriage ramifications.

Might the weight of the motor itself pose a problem?

(Just wondering.)

idcook wrote:Might the weight of the motor itself pose a problem?

(Just wondering.)

How so? It will be closer to the hinge.

JPG40504 wrote:
Have I overlooked anything?:eek: Critique encouraged.

Only thing is the height of the table. If I had two machines I would do that and make legs that would make for the perfect working height.

I did something close to this in this post:
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthr ... rill+press
If I had put the head on upside down under the table, it would match (?) tvhorman's assembly suggestion:
[ATTACH]25523[/ATTACH]
Note that the head and table are on the "wrong" side as assembled for this drill press.

JPG40504 wrote:How so? It will be closer to the hinge.

I’ll have to look a little closer, but my thinking had to do with the weight hanging from the motor pan, pulling it toward the inside of the headstock, rather than sitting on the motor pan as it usually does.

This concern only works if I understand the original question. Which, admittedly, may or may not be the case.

After some more review I see the carriage extends behind the bottom of the table about 6 inches. When I look at the distance between where the bottom of the head would touch the carriage to where the shaper arbor would go through the bottom of the table, I see that the quill might have to be extended about an inch or so. Is it OK to use the shaper with the quill extended an inch?
Is there a way to obtain just the double-sided tie bar posts (522797) to mount the table on? If I used those then the table could be flipped and the carriage placed so the adjustment knobs are on the user side of the machine. Can the tie bar posts be removed, turned and mounted and maybe have a fitted bolt to secure it in each position instead of a press fit pin? I know I’m sounding cheap (frugal?) but I’m just not ready to put $400+ into it for this one project. Any further ideas?
And to be clear, I don't think the head would be "hanging" any different than if I had the double-tilt system.