PowerPro review - the whole thing

[k8tp]

The good news is that the quality of the parts and assemblies seems up to Shopsmith's standards.

The bad news is that, like several others have reported here, the DVD that came with my upgrade doesn't play on my DVD player, desktop PC or laptop. The best I can do is get about 1/2 second spurts of video between 10-15 second freezes. Bummer, as the manual isn't much better. They must have layed off their editor, as there are all kinds of errors - spelling, grammatical, and worse. The PowerPro been available for long enough that these problems should have been caught and corrected by now.

So I'm dead in the water until a replacement DVD comes, and I don't have a lot of hope for it working any better. Too late to turn back now

[k8tp]

The replacement DVD hadn't arrived yet yesterday, so I decided to forge ahead without it. Got it done (in a lot more than the four hours they estimate) and, bottom line, it works great. That doesn't mean I don't have any gripes though:

1) The entire surface of my new quill is covered with thousands of tiny random pits - looks like it was gnawed on by a rodent with carbide teeth. My old quill (identical part) is beautifully machined.

2) There is a piece of debris on the inside of the display window, and static electricity prevents it from dropping out of view. I hope I won't find sawdust getting in there as time goes on.

3) The Power Supply bracket ears do not begin to reach the positions where they mount to the inside of the casting. I had to add three spacers to prevent severe deformation of the bracket.

4) The line cord was not stripped to the length indicated in the manual so, when routed as shown, the ground lead was too short to reach the motor.

5) The manual contains many, many errors. Some are small, such as spelling (taped instead of tapped, busing instead of bushing, etc.), grammar, and punctuation. Others are more serious, such as steps out of order, references to wrong pages, missing information, and inconsistancies. Where a step left room for error, the pictures might have helped, but they are too poor to make out any detail. This is by far the worst quality manual I’ve seen from Shopsmith.

6) And, the misspelling even extends to the display; when power is turned off it reads ‘LOWVOLTAGE’. C’mon guys, that’s not a word.

7) Not a big deal, but the speed display unnecessarily jumps around a lot, as if it’s not being averaged. I don't really see any advantage to having both the Set Speed and Actual Speed displayed anyway, since once it's done ramping up, they're the same.

8) The label says ‘If motor stalls, turn off machine immediately’. Since the electronics knows the speed, why can’t it automatically shut down when stalled? Wouldn’t that be safer?

9) Unavoidable, I know, but the PowerPro is much heavier than the old headstock. Raising to the upright position requires the PowerPro to be moved to the end of the way tubes first. It’s still a struggle to then raise it up the tubes, but I find that a lot easier than raising the whole works with the PP anywhere near the center. I may cancel my gym membership. (The Lift Assist isn’t an option, as I also installed the Dual Tilt upgrade.)

Would I do it again? I love the machine now that the upgrade is complete. It performs as advertised, and the increased power and speed range are awesome. (It’s scary to watch it wind up to 10,000 RPM though!) I wouldn’t go the DIY route again though; I’d buy one of the ready-to-go options. For a few hundred bucks more I could have saved myself a lot of aggravation, gotten a headstock without missing paint, and I’d still have my old headstock to fall back on if the PowerPro, or one of its assemblies, needs to be returned for service. Or, I probably could have sold the old headstock for close to the difference in price.

Another point of view, FWIW. YMMV of course.

Footnote: The replacement DVD arrived today, and played very sporadically also, until I noticed that someone in another thread said that SS told them to click on SHOPSMITH POWERPRO UPGRADE VIDEO on the opening screen. The CS guy I talked to apparently didn't know about that secret entry code. The procedure in the video differed somewhat from that in the manual, e.g. routing of the power cord, and didn't mention the two large washers that the manual says go on the headstock locking shaft, but basically confirmed that I had done things right, except for needing spacers to mount the power supply.

[beeg]

6) May be due to length limitations.

9) I just saw a demo that has the duel tilt and the lift assist on it.

[JPG]

The lift assist gas tube is detachable to allow the left tilt. Since the headstock is typically moved to the extreme left prior to tilting left an assist is not as necessary.

[fjimp]

My lift assist works perfectly. In fact is better than prior to upgrading to Mark 7. As to the varying output readings. I for one feel that is important to be aware of. If I have a power issue I want to be aware of it so it can be corrected. I guess I am going to be the last person here to criticize anyone else for questionable grammar, the spell checker picking the wrong word or spelling errors. I can't spell, clearly am poorly educated and often prove all three. Reading the opinions of someone else always teach me something and I become thankful all over again that others are more intelligent than I am. Hey what better way to learn. Fjimp

[JPG]

My lift assist works perfectly. In fact is better than prior to upgrading to Mark 7. As to the varying output readings. I for one feel that is important to be aware of. If I have a power issue I want to be aware of it so it can be corrected. I guess I am going to be the last person here to criticize anyone else for questionable grammar, the spell checker picking the wrong word or spelling errors. I can't spell, clearly am poorly educated and often prove all three. Reading the opinions of someone else always teach me something and I become thankful all over again that others are more intelligent than I am. Hey what better way to learn. Fjimp

Do not make the mistake of equating education and intelligence!

Consider the amount of mind power required to remember all that is necessary because you cannot hear, see, read, write...

Helen Keller has to have been a VERY intelligent individual to connect water with finger pressure as a rebellious(quite understandable) child and eventually be able to do what she did in her adult years! That first step was taken with 0 'education'.


P.S. My grandfather(whom I never met since he died before my emergence) would have to be characterized as 'undereducated', but was often known to refer to some hapless individuals as 'Educated Fools'. I have also met many myself!

[k8tp]

6) May be due to length limitations.

The display has two lines of 16 characters each, so that's not it. I think it's simply sloppy programming.

[k8tp]

The lift assist gas tube is detachable to allow the left tilt. Since the headstock is typically moved to the extreme left prior to tilting left an assist is not as necessary.

In that case, the Lift Assist may be useful to me in a few years. I mainly wanted to point out that getting vertical is a lot harder now - a problem I share with the SS.

[JPG]

The display has two lines of 16 characters each, so that's not it. I think it's simply sloppy programming.

Grammar aside, 'lowvoltage' does express the condition unambiguously.

[k8tp]

[quote="JPG40504"]Grammar aside, 'lowvoltage' does express the condition unambiguously.]
Yeah, I guess YOURIGHT!