Shopsmith Forums

OK, the "finger joints" made by the Freud tool and by the molding mfgrs are "wavy", whereas a "real" finger joint (or "box joint")is made up entirely of straight-line cuts, parallel and perpendicular to the grain. End-to-end grain glued interfaces are weak, an...

We have all seen commercial wood molding that is made up of small pieces of wood butt-glued together along a wavy finger-joint type of profile. Somewhere I have seen the rotary cutter that cuts this type of profile, but I do not recall where nor do I know what this technique is called, so I can't se...

I like these JessEm guides. Expensive (almost $300 for the regular one) but they look very well made and serve a real need. Sooner or later i will buy. They might have come out with the "flex" version to provide a cheaper alternate. Based on your experience with this product, does it compl...

I agree about the 101 vent plate. I would not want this mod to starve the idler bearing for cooling air. So if I pursued this mod I would need to also modify or replace 101 with something having the same or lower air resistance + a (flat) filter. It would be desirable for the same or similar filter ...

Here is how I clamp my Harbor Freight vise to the table. I would ideally like to have x-y adjustability without having to loosen the clamps but I make do with this arrangement.

Another thought about cooling air routing through the Mark V headstock. We know that the motor fan creates a low air pressure condition inside the headstock, and all during headstock operation dusty air is sucked in through seams etc., through the motor, and out the exhaust port under the headstock....

I am considering fabbing a Mark V base platform shown. The current retractable caster wheel system is OK, but on rough and/or uneven surfaces, shimming or blocks are required to eliminate machine wobble. And we may want to bring the machine to a true level, which the current design cannot do well. I...

Continuing this thread, I have implemented some mods to my Mark V headstock speed dial which I think may be beneficial. Shopsmith Mark V speed dial drift occurs at higher speeds. This speed drift is undesirable and unsafe. This drift problem is further aggravated by vibration, which usually accompan...

I suppose that is what the swivel tee is for - outboard leg support when table is tilted. So keep the swivel tees around for use in such (blessedly rare) cases. The best of both worlds would be a swivel tee that could be setscrew-locked at any angular position. I just don't like those swivel tees wo...

Here are photos of the McMaster 4698T91 t-rail connector. Shown next to the Shopsmith standard connector. Holes are sloppy in both connectors because they are designed to clear a "nominal" 3/4" Schedule 40 pipe, which is actually 1.05" OD. Shopsmith rail is 1.00" OD tubing. ...