Musings of a “New” Shopsmith Owner
Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 11:07 am
I thought I might share some of my thoughts and experiences as a “new” Shopsmith owner. If you’ve recently gotten a Shopsmith or are considering one, hopefully you'll find this useful. I put “new" in quotes because in my case, it refers to the ownership, not the Shopsmith. I picked up a used Shopsmith almost unintentionally at a garage sale. I was actually cruising a neighborhood-wide garage sale looking for a mountain bike for my son without much luck (he got a new bike from Walmart, but now I’m off topic). I saw the Shopsmith at one of the sales we stopped at. I left, but noted the address. I had heard about Shopsmith and knew they were good machines, and after comparing the new price to what the guy was asking, I returned. The machine he was selling was almost 30 years old, but still in good condition and he said he’d replaced the motor within the last couple years (opening up the machine later, the motor did look very new). He also had the bandsaw and the mortising accessories and biscuit joiner, along with a bunch of fixtures and jigs for the table saw which alone were probably worth the price he was asking ($400, for the curious).
With some help from my father, I got it home. Then I started going through it, cleaning up some of the rust and taking an inventory of the cabinet-o-stuff that came with it. Had to throw out some saw blades that were missing carbide teeth and the bandsaw blade which was rusted and kinked. I was a little disappointed that it didn’t have the lathe parts, which I thought were standard. Luckily, the guy still had all the manuals and even the original receipt from 1986. The manuals are valuable; there are some things that are unique about the Shopsmith that you need to know to get it set up properly. Some of the manuals are available online; you can also buy them on ebay (more on this later) or straight from Shopsmith. If you don’t have the manuals, it’s worth getting them. I went through the whole initial setup and alignment sections for everything. This is VERY important if you want to get good results. Almost everything on the machine was out of alignment, either over time or from being moved. Just about everything on the Shopsmith has an adjustment screw, and all have to be properly tuned to get straight and accurate cuts. Have your 5/32” allen wrench handy. The guy who sold me the Shopsmith had bought a T-handled one, and I now know why. Expect to spend some significant time tinkering with it before you use it, whether you get it new or used. For me, this has been part of the fun.
First recommendation: Johnson’s paste floor wax is your friend. For everything that’s tight or rusted, clean it up with steel wool, a wire brush, or fine sandpaper, wipe on some wax, let it dry a bit, and buff it out. Do this wherever metal slides on metal (way tubes, trunions, etc.) and on the table and fence surfaces. Works like magic.
Second recommendation: ebay is sometimes your friend. There are a lot of Shopsmith parts available on ebay. I was able to pick up a used lathe tailstock at a reasonable price on ebay. Make sure what you’re buying is for the model you have. Some parts work on multiple models, some don’t. The manuals have parts diagrams, so you can also double-check that it looks right (if you don’t have the manuals yet, get them now). I said ebay is sometimes your friend. Many parts from Shopsmith are actually reasonably priced, so check there first to make sure you don’t overpay for something used.
As I was setting up the bandsaw, I discovered that the Shopsmith bandsaw is different from any other. I was having a heck of a time getting the blade bearings properly adjusted. The back of the blade was far in front of the auto-track bearing and I couldn’t get the upper guide bearing to come close to the recommended 1/64” or less from the blade. I finally discovered that it was because the upper wheel was no longer properly angled. Unlike other bandsaws, the upper and lower wheels are NOT meant to be coplanar. The top wheel is tilted back slightly at the top, and the blade is supposed to run on the back of the top wheel, not the center. I think this also means that you shouldn’t crown the tire on the upper wheel. Once I fixed that, all was well. I followed these instructions: http://www.shopsmithhandson.com/archive ... smitty.htm (see also: http://shopsmith-tool-hunter.blogspot.c ... d-few.html).
So why did I buy this thing? I had in my home workshop some inexpensive tools I’d gotten from the big box hardware stores: drill press, table saw, band saw, and lathe. I originally wrote “cheap”, but they’re not bad tools, though not top of the line, either. From what I’ve seen so far, the Shopsmith is a step up on all of them. A little more power, a little more capability. For one, I don’t have to stop and move belts to change speed on the drill press or lathe, and I now have a little more flexibility on how I set up the drill press table and can do horizontal boring. Also, my home workshop is a small two-car garage which I share with our two cars. I’ve heard some people dis’ the Shopsmith because of its size or the time it takes to change modes, but for me, this is easier than hauling another machine out of the corner after unburying from a pile of whatever ended up on or in front of the workbench. I had to re-arrange the garage, but once I got that done and sold off the tools I’d replaced with the Shopsmith, I think I actually gained some space. As an added bonus, selling off the old tools also just about paid for the used Shopsmith.
Just to be fair, there are a couple limitations with the Shopsmith I could see right off the bat. One is that to do bevel cuts with the table saw, you tilt the table, not the blade. I could see this making bevel cuts on large sheet goods a bit awkward. I don’t do this a lot, so to me, no big deal. The other limitation is with the drill press, it isn’t as easy to change the height of the table once you have it vertical. I usually only do a couple drilling operations at a time, so again, not a big deal. I just have to plan ahead a little and remember to adjust the table height before tipping the machine up for drilling. There’s one other thing that may be neither good nor bad, but good to know. The lathe is somewhat “proprietary” in that there’s a morse taper #2 only on the tailstock end. The drive end is the 5/8” spindle of the headstock. For me, this meant I had to get a new pen turning mandrel, but PSI carries them for about the same price as their other mandrels. There is also available from PSI or Rockler a 5/8” to 1” x 8 tpi adapter so you can use your screw on chucks and faceplates.
In all, I think this Shopsmith has been a good investment for me, even if my husband complains about the amount of time I spent tinkering with it the first couple of weeks. Oh, did I forget to mention I’m a woman? That’s right, baby, a WOMAN who enjoys woodworking and tinkering with HER Shopsmith ;-)
With some help from my father, I got it home. Then I started going through it, cleaning up some of the rust and taking an inventory of the cabinet-o-stuff that came with it. Had to throw out some saw blades that were missing carbide teeth and the bandsaw blade which was rusted and kinked. I was a little disappointed that it didn’t have the lathe parts, which I thought were standard. Luckily, the guy still had all the manuals and even the original receipt from 1986. The manuals are valuable; there are some things that are unique about the Shopsmith that you need to know to get it set up properly. Some of the manuals are available online; you can also buy them on ebay (more on this later) or straight from Shopsmith. If you don’t have the manuals, it’s worth getting them. I went through the whole initial setup and alignment sections for everything. This is VERY important if you want to get good results. Almost everything on the machine was out of alignment, either over time or from being moved. Just about everything on the Shopsmith has an adjustment screw, and all have to be properly tuned to get straight and accurate cuts. Have your 5/32” allen wrench handy. The guy who sold me the Shopsmith had bought a T-handled one, and I now know why. Expect to spend some significant time tinkering with it before you use it, whether you get it new or used. For me, this has been part of the fun.
First recommendation: Johnson’s paste floor wax is your friend. For everything that’s tight or rusted, clean it up with steel wool, a wire brush, or fine sandpaper, wipe on some wax, let it dry a bit, and buff it out. Do this wherever metal slides on metal (way tubes, trunions, etc.) and on the table and fence surfaces. Works like magic.
Second recommendation: ebay is sometimes your friend. There are a lot of Shopsmith parts available on ebay. I was able to pick up a used lathe tailstock at a reasonable price on ebay. Make sure what you’re buying is for the model you have. Some parts work on multiple models, some don’t. The manuals have parts diagrams, so you can also double-check that it looks right (if you don’t have the manuals yet, get them now). I said ebay is sometimes your friend. Many parts from Shopsmith are actually reasonably priced, so check there first to make sure you don’t overpay for something used.
As I was setting up the bandsaw, I discovered that the Shopsmith bandsaw is different from any other. I was having a heck of a time getting the blade bearings properly adjusted. The back of the blade was far in front of the auto-track bearing and I couldn’t get the upper guide bearing to come close to the recommended 1/64” or less from the blade. I finally discovered that it was because the upper wheel was no longer properly angled. Unlike other bandsaws, the upper and lower wheels are NOT meant to be coplanar. The top wheel is tilted back slightly at the top, and the blade is supposed to run on the back of the top wheel, not the center. I think this also means that you shouldn’t crown the tire on the upper wheel. Once I fixed that, all was well. I followed these instructions: http://www.shopsmithhandson.com/archive ... smitty.htm (see also: http://shopsmith-tool-hunter.blogspot.c ... d-few.html).
So why did I buy this thing? I had in my home workshop some inexpensive tools I’d gotten from the big box hardware stores: drill press, table saw, band saw, and lathe. I originally wrote “cheap”, but they’re not bad tools, though not top of the line, either. From what I’ve seen so far, the Shopsmith is a step up on all of them. A little more power, a little more capability. For one, I don’t have to stop and move belts to change speed on the drill press or lathe, and I now have a little more flexibility on how I set up the drill press table and can do horizontal boring. Also, my home workshop is a small two-car garage which I share with our two cars. I’ve heard some people dis’ the Shopsmith because of its size or the time it takes to change modes, but for me, this is easier than hauling another machine out of the corner after unburying from a pile of whatever ended up on or in front of the workbench. I had to re-arrange the garage, but once I got that done and sold off the tools I’d replaced with the Shopsmith, I think I actually gained some space. As an added bonus, selling off the old tools also just about paid for the used Shopsmith.
Just to be fair, there are a couple limitations with the Shopsmith I could see right off the bat. One is that to do bevel cuts with the table saw, you tilt the table, not the blade. I could see this making bevel cuts on large sheet goods a bit awkward. I don’t do this a lot, so to me, no big deal. The other limitation is with the drill press, it isn’t as easy to change the height of the table once you have it vertical. I usually only do a couple drilling operations at a time, so again, not a big deal. I just have to plan ahead a little and remember to adjust the table height before tipping the machine up for drilling. There’s one other thing that may be neither good nor bad, but good to know. The lathe is somewhat “proprietary” in that there’s a morse taper #2 only on the tailstock end. The drive end is the 5/8” spindle of the headstock. For me, this meant I had to get a new pen turning mandrel, but PSI carries them for about the same price as their other mandrels. There is also available from PSI or Rockler a 5/8” to 1” x 8 tpi adapter so you can use your screw on chucks and faceplates.
In all, I think this Shopsmith has been a good investment for me, even if my husband complains about the amount of time I spent tinkering with it the first couple of weeks. Oh, did I forget to mention I’m a woman? That’s right, baby, a WOMAN who enjoys woodworking and tinkering with HER Shopsmith ;-)
