Shopsmith Forums

Hi, my name is Artie, and I've been lurking and learning. I recently received my inheritance and after the upstairs bathroom gets gutted and redone, and a new hvac system gets installed, and money gets put in the bank for a trip to Disney (my wife has never been) it appears there will be some money left for me . Not being too intelligent or responsible I am gonna try to make one of my lifes wishes come true, a work shop of my own, instead of putting the money onto the mortgage or investing it. We live in a townhouse, so there is no decision to be made as far as getting a Shopsmith is concerned, it's Shopsmith or no shop. I want to start making cribbage boards, and a hope chest for my future daughter in law. I have zero cabinet making experience, but I am a licensed electrician, and have helped build several houses, so I do know which end of the hammer you hold. While looking into what it kinda takes to make cribbage boards it appears that a cnc machine is kinda needed for all the hole drilling. So far on my research I have found some small cnc machines that would sem to be able to do what I'm interested in. One is from Axiom, one is from Shark, one is from Baileigh. Any thoughts/comments/opinions/ideas on setting up a small shop, Shopsmith, cnc machines, or any of the many other things I haven't even thought of yet, would be appreciated. I have been learning a lot on the Shopsmith website, I even know what a dado is now LOL. I think this is gonna be a whole lot of fun, probably even another addiction. thanks for listening to me, Artie

Welcome , but you already rubbed an old conservative the wrong way. I guess in MHO, the priorities are not as mine, heck get a Harley while your add it. Putting 30$ a month towards your mortgage principle almost cuts the overall by a third. Youngens, you said it all with my inheritance, if you had to work for it you would put some priorities to it. Do you have life insurance for your kids in case you die?

Hi and welcome to the forum!

You can make your projects on the Shopsmith and save the cost of a CNC at least for now.

You will need to design the first one and hand drill it and after that it becomes a pattern and by using the pattern you can make as many as you like. Yes it will take a lot of time doing the drilling but it is not a very hard project so you could start by doing one in an evening and go from there.

I can explain how this works when you get to the point of wanting to make a few just let me know and we can go from there.

Ed

If my previous post was harsh, here is where it is coming from, in my community the summer of '14 a 30ish couple were on the Harley same road as the next one, after a night out hit a tree, both DOA, 4 kids, under 7, big fund raiser for the funeral and kids, no life insurance, but they had there 20kish$ Harley, this June, a Thursday night, 230am, just after bar closing or all night shopping at WalMart, in his 68 rebuilt Super Trans Am, same road and area, split it in half on a tree, out with the wife, he was going to be leaving with his buddies to go on there Canadian Fly In annual fishing trip the next morning. Both DOA, no seat belts on, both 2+ over the limit, 5 kids, 18 months to 9 years, no life insurance, another community raiser for irresponsible adults/parents. So get your wood shop and I hope you have the priorities/basics in place first.

Hey ERLover, take it easy on the guy! If he needs to save money, he can buy a used Shopsmith (maybe even a 10ER) and an stand-alone OPR for a few hundred bucks, and still crank out cribbage boards by the truckload if he wants.

Seriously, Artie, how many cribbage boards do you want to make? If the answer is just a few, a CNC may actually be slower, if you count your programming time.

Ya I was hard, got a Rockler Black Friday, sale that has a Cribbage board jig and pins. Yes you can get a MarkV/Greenie for a few hundred depending on local and do more with it then an ER as far as Spts.
BYW where are you located? Craig's List is your best friend/buy.

Most older model SS table saw is there weakness, I would look for an older Delta like this
http://appleton.craigslist.org/tls/5324121631.html
http://madison.craigslist.org/tls/5323746973.html

Hi all, please be yourselves, i want honest opinions. I'm 55, the kid is 21, and I have $600,000 in life insurance for the Missus. I added that part about it being sorta irresponsible, because it's not too hard to see it like that. On the other hand I sold the boat, and gave up that whole life style when I got married, to buy the town house. Now my only hobby is being one of those nerds you see at the beach with his metal detector. I'm kinda investing in my mental sanity. My draem/thoughts are- where I work I have an almost unlimited suppy of skids/pallets. I was gonna call my enterprise Skidrow Cribbage (we call the wall outside where the skids get stacked up skidrow). I think I can plane the oak slats from the skids fine enough to make cribbage boards out of them. I don't want to be a business, I want to give the cribbage boards away for a $25 donation to the Wounded Warrior project. The first time I saw the Shopsmith, all these thoughts/ideas popped into my head, and it just seemed/felt like the right thing to do, not sure this will accurately convey what I'm trying to get across. I know about the cribbage templates, you can make them, or even buy premade ones with following (?) bits for the drill press. (I do have an old Southbend drill press I got on Craigslist). But if I can make and sell 100 boards, that raises $2500 for WWP, and I'll have one great time making them. Again all thoughts/opinions/suggestions/Ideas are welcome. I've yet to meet anyone in this life that agree's with me on most things, so I'm used to differing thoughts. Artie



th[quote="ERLover"]Ya I was hard, got a Rockler Black Friday, sale that has a Cribbage board jig and pins. Yes you can get a MarkV/Greenie for a few hundred depending on local and do more with it then an ER as far as Spts.
BYW where are you located? Crai

Yep, I think that 100 boards would justify the time to program a CNC. Some of the guys on this forum have one, and will undoubtedly be happy to share what they've learned.

Art Thought you some youngen, trouble with email, texting no connotation of voice. Great thing you are doing. I would still watch for a deal on a mark v, and a separate TS. Being in NH might take a bit.
After my foot in mouth, you cant get better advice here on anything SS, and some other related things. Now as in the Orient, if I save your life, I am your servant for life.