Shopsmith Forums

After many years of gather dust, getting SS 5 up and running.

Years ago, Shopsmith sent me a collection of eccentric tubes and told me to 86 the straight tubes.

I did the horizontal adjustment and tightened the hand accessory lock.The eccentric "long" end of the tubes slide all the way into the BS and bottoms out on the casting "ears". While doing the vertical alignment, the tubes pull out of the casting about half an inch. Is this correct? The "rocking" issue was handled by the hand lock. Is the BS casting strong enough to handle the lack of total engagement with the tubes?

From the picture it looks like it should be okay to use that way. It is still in the upper guide for the post.

I just went out and removed a post from one of my Band Saws to measure it. It is 4-5/16" from the eccentric to the top of the post. It is not a Band Saw aligned to any Mark V or Mark 7 for use. Putting it on my Mark 7 it's alignment is within an 1/8" sitting with the tubes all the way to the casting stop. Aligned it would not have the top of the post touching the stop but not nearly as low as yours.

That looks fairly typical for the eccentric tube to me. The eccentric is shorter on both ends compared to the old straight tubes. If you look you'll find it doesn't engage the full headrest casting either. I went through a bandsaw wobble phase, but I attributed very little of the wobble to this particular aspect of the eccentrics. I prefer the straight tube mounts for the bandsaw only, but I know I'm in the minority on that one.

- David

Not all eccentric tubes are the same length as all other eccentric tubes. In addition, some eccentric tubes have one end that's longer than the other. Make sure these are intended for the band saw and installed correctly. I'm sure the manual is somewhere on the Shopsmith site or posted here on the forum.

In the picture posted with this thread, the eccentric tube does not appear to be inserte4d correctly. It should engage the mechanic stop and it does not. The eccentric is either not inserted properly or is too low. Search the forum for "bandsaw eccentric". You will find that this has been debated before.

I do have a pair of eccentrics with a long end. I tried that and the BS is way to high right off the bat. I am guessing that these were for a stand alone mount

flackbait wrote:I do have a pair of eccentrics with a long end. I tried that and the BS is way to high right off the bat. I am guessing that these were for a stand alone mount

It appears as though I misspoke regarding eccentric tube lengths in the bandsaw. I was going to provide exact measurements, and will, but I can not do it right now. I went out to look and my two bandsaws and it appears that the tubes are not as long as I thought they were. I would estimate that the tubes themselves are about 2" on one side and about 3" on the other. The longer ends goes up into the bandsaw.

Short End = 2 1/8"

Long Side = 4 1/4" (Long Side up into the bandsaw casting)

I have encountered this in the past and consider the tubes to be shorter than reasonable
However with the eccentric tubes having a fixed lower vertical stop, some slop at the top is necessary.

Yes I think the straight tubes are a more stable mount but do not provide for lateral alignment adjustment.

If one is concerned re the tube bottoming out against the stop, spacers can be inserted between the offset and the mount(washers and hot melt glue???). However that reduces the bottom engagement.

I measured mine and I get roughly 4,25" on the tube that goes into the BS. I have a "long" eccentric and it is roughly 6 5/8" long/