Shopsmith Forums

A discussion on small shops should make for a long thread on its own. I call my work area The Made in USA (Mostly) Shop and my ShopSmith Mini is the central work tool. My shop area is under a hundred square feet and I find a certain logic in having everything close at hand rather than wandering ...

Quick impressions:

We arrived around 1:30pm so quite a few things were already picked up. They still have quite a lot of logo-type gear on hand like hats, buttons, demo stuff and the like.

NIB castor wheels for a Sawsmith $40 but they would have to be narrowed to fit a Power Station or Mark V. NIB ...

Hey dusty,

Are those the standard castors on your Craftstation, the same size that fita on a Mark V?

Thanks

Can't help but feel that Shopsmith has lost a good part of its soul by doing this.

Quote: "By the time you buy the paint and acetone you will have more than the $11.18 a new speed dial will cost."

So very true..,

HOWEVER

I find that every time I work on restoring my Shopsmith, I learn a lot more about the SS mechanics. For those of you who are highly experienced it must seem ...

Interesting ideas, is "an electric 6" brass wire brush" a wire wheel brush that you put on a hand drill? Would wire scratch or gouge the aluminum or would a softer brush material be better?

Acetone is nail polish remover, is that a good chemical paint remover?

What kind of red is official ...

I want to repaint the Speed Dial on my 32+ year old Mark V since it is well worn. I was thinking that I should use a chemical paint remover, sand it, and then paint it with a red enamel. Any overpaint I could wipe off with a rag.

Any suggestions?

Thanks Tim,

I began pursuing woodworking as a hobby this past Spring. I was researching Mark V's when I came across a pristine Joint-Matic on Craig's List so I bought it. Two weeks ago I bought a used, slightly rusty, 70's Mark V for less than what I paid for the Joint-Matic. I haven't heard back ...

Keep in mind that China has yet to deal effectively with issues that we in the US have grappled with for decades such as coal mining safety, labor unions, health and retirement, and environmental concerns too numerous to list. They stiill even have asbestos mines over there!

Cold blooded as it may ...

Thanks for the info, folks. by looking the two tables it looks like that from when Shopsmith started up in 1972 that they sequentially numbered their Mark V's starting with 1001 and ending with 20359 for a total run of about 19358 machines in the '73-'78 years range. My number is 9364 so that sits ...