Shopsmith Forums

I just finished making some of the little drafting light clamp arrangements shown in the Shopsmith Bandsaw manual. I have lots of those old drafting lights on those wobbly extension arms and a strong need for lots of light when using my Shopsmith's.
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The design is really simple (particularly after I broke down and bought a nice Freud 1-3/4" Forstner bit for the large holes) and, after a bit of setup, I was able to crank out 3 of these - 2 for me and one for my son-in-law. Each clamp just needs a 12" piece of 2x4 and a 4" carriage bolt, a flat washer and a nut (all 3 less than $0.75 at hardware store).

Strongly recommended for all.

Very cool idea! Simple yet effective!

Really cool! Why haven't I made one of those? Must be too rich:rolleyes:

What are the 5 dark spots in the pictures?

paulmcohen wrote:What are the 5 dark spots in the pictures?

My guess is that what looks like spots are holes. one for the bolt to go through and the other four are for mounting the light.

lv2wdwrk wrote:My guess is that what looks like spots are holes. one for the bolt to go through and the other four are for mounting the light.

The two additional holes on the face (perpendicular to the mounting bolt) are probably used when in drill press mode.

On the 'dark spots' - yes, the 'big' spots are 1/2" diameter holes (the approximate outside diameter of the mounting post on the light). The smaller hole on the top is a through hole for 1/4"x4" carriage bolt. There are 2 of the 1/2" dia. holes (I drilled those all the way through) on the side and, as guessed by someone else, are for the light when you have the SS in the vertical drill press position (which I use very, very little). The two 1/2" holes on the top are 1-1/2" (or so) deep. The holes all look dark because the stain (which is too darned dark but what I had on hand) is very dark. Plus the lighting makes them dark.

Finish was a quick sanding, a coat of dark stain and then two coats of shellac with a quick go over with OOO steel wool. Yeah, I know - kind of overkill but I couldn't help myself.

The drilled holes had bad breakout on the backside. My bad.

Great idea! I made one today. I had the light fixture and was looking for a good place to mount it with the clamp base but this is much better. Mine does not look near as good as Bob's but gets the job done.

I found another use for it. When you are working on the drive or oiling the sheaves in the drill press position, move it to the inside of the belt cover and use it to hold the cover up out of the way. You could also leave it where it is and loop a bungee cord over it to hold the cover up.

Any reason you did not saw thru the holes at the center so as to eliminate the need to flatten the sides of the holes on the upper part? Short screws?:D<< Forget that! You did not use screws!!!:o

RE: sawing. I just followed the dwg in the SS Bandsaw manual (although I cheated and used my freshly activated bandsaw rather than using the table saw). Figured the original designer had some reason for cutting it like that.

I have thought of one change that I might make/recommend. In order to avoid hitting the SPT coupler when you are using the lower power takeoff on the power head (e.g. driving the jointer), it might be better to move the bolt that holds the two halfs about 1/2" off center. On the other hand, you can simply flip the bolt upside down and you would have ton's of clearance.

All in all, simple to build, inexpensive and very handy.