Shopsmith Forums

Hello everyone,

I’m new to the SS world and am starting to pick up some SPTs. I recently bought a jointer and got the closed end shorter power hub for the lower shaft.

The power hub is not really fitting on the lower shaft. I checked the inner diameter of the hub and the outer diameter of the shaft. Both come in at right around 5/8”. I think I have all of the correct pieces here (maybe?), but the shaft is fairly rusty. What would you all recommend to get this hub to slide onto the shaft?

I tried lightly sanding some of the rust but am afraid to do anything else right now.

Thank you!

Background on my SS
1979 Mark V Model 500
Generally well taken care of by its previous owner, but he did not use anything that required that shaft so he said that’s the one part he never really cleaned. It was living in an outdoor carport when I picked it up and has some light rust in places.

Headstock was professionally restored in 2019 and hasn’t seen much use since then. I purchased the machine about a month ago and have almost exclusively used it as a bandsaw so far.

Evaporust can be your friend here. Problem is how to soak the shaft. Soaking a rag will likely work.

Thank you very much! I’ll go pick some up and try it out.

Since there is rust on the Idler (lower) Shaft I would suspect there may be some inside too. You could try JPG's Evaporust suggestion. Evaporust works great at removing rust without damaging the base metal even in cases of heavy rust causing pitting. I would suggest opening the Belt Cover and sliding it to the left with the Headstock moved to the right on the Way Tubes to better get access to the entire shaft end of the Idler Shaft Assembly. If needed, you could follow with some very light sanding of the shaft. When installing the Hub make sure the set screw is retracted enough to clear the shaft. I know that sounds like a pretty basic thing, but I can't remember how many times I have tried to slip something on one of the shafts only to hit the set screw protruding slightly in the way.

Okay. I’ll make sure to open it up and try to clean up the inside too.

Haha I wouldn’t put it past myself to forget to loosen the set screw. I’ll double check when I get home

Thank you!

I have a 520 that was manufactured in 2005, and its idler shaft is slightly oversized. To compensate, Shopsmith bored the ID of mating hub slightly oversized. We never did figure out why my machine has the oddball parts, but all the raw data still lives in this thread.