New Shopsmith 500 owners

woodshopflunky · Post by **woodshopflunky** » Sun May 06, 2012 1:36 pm

All,
My wife and I just picked up this Mk V, with bandsaw, biscuit jointer, router and a bunch of other misc accessories.
I've been trying to talk my Father-in-Law out of his early '80s Shopsmith for about 13 years, I finally gave up and bought a 1992 model off of Craigslist this am.
Now for the projects...

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sun May 06, 2012 1:45 pm

Welcome to the forum woodshopflunky. Looks like a good one ya got there. Are ya missing the tail stock and the lower saw guard? Ya might want to do some reading here.

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=7092

woodshopflunky · Post by **woodshopflunky** » Sun May 06, 2012 3:15 pm

I think the bottom guard is missing. I just set it up for table saw and noticed 10" of spinning saw blade just hanging out under the table. It was $900, a good deal I think, a Mk VII is like $3,600+

I am having trouble with the bandsaw coupler, it's being stubborn, doesn't seem to want to "marry up" very well.

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sun May 06, 2012 3:27 pm

woodshopflunky wrote: I am having trouble with the bandsaw coupler, it's being stubborn, doesn't seem to want to "marry up" very well.

Can ya go into a little more detail on that problem?

woodshopflunky · Post by **woodshopflunky** » Sun May 06, 2012 3:44 pm

Well, the first thing I noticed was the plastic coupler was jammed onto the powerhead side, used a pair of pliers to free the powerhead collet-there was a bunch of rust colored gunk around the spring. I have to collet on the headstock, tigthened the ser screw.

When I slide the headstock to the bandsaw, the coupler doesn't want to slide onto the bandsaw collet, I have the plastic internal spines lined up with the grooves in the bandsaw collet. The plastic coupler only goes a hair. Basically everything seems to be lined up, it's just incredibaly tough to the headstock(and coupler) to slide that last inch.

Hopes this clears things up.

Carl

woodshopflunky · Post by **woodshopflunky** » Sun May 06, 2012 4:06 pm

And FYI - he was thumbing the response, Carl really can speak ungarbled english

Lea (the other half of woodshopflunky:D )

farley · Post by **farley** » Sun May 06, 2012 4:15 pm

welcome
you will get great help here, and after a time you can give great here
is something under the bandsaw stop the travel of the headstock short--is it a shopsmith coupler?
c

woodshopflunky · Post by **woodshopflunky** » Sun May 06, 2012 4:37 pm

We figured it out, it looks like the ShopSmith brand coupler is "out of round", it wobbles a little bit when on either the bandsaw or headstock and rotated by hand.

I think I'll see if I can order a new coupler, along with a few adjustment nuts and bolts that are missing.

Good news is we do have the bottom guard for the table saw! It was in a box of "I dont know what this is, but it came with it" from the previous owner, along with the router parts and biscuit joiner thingamajig.

Thank you guys for the quick help! I'll be posting here often now that I'm officially part of the ShopSmith subculture.

Carl

mgdesigns · Post by **mgdesigns** » Sun May 06, 2012 4:57 pm

First off, make sure to attach the bandsaw end of the coupler first. Then slide the headstock onto the spring loaded end (4 grooves, I believe). If they don't line up on the same plane raise or lower the bandsaw until they meet properly. The bandsaw should be run at the very low speed settings (as in all start-ups), but never very fast. Take a few pictures and post them so we can see if you really have problems. BTW - Lower Table Saw Guards can be purchased on eBay fairly cheaply (as all parts for Shopsmiths), there so many out there, seldom does a single part not show up sometime.

Also - BTW - Welcome to the club - I joined a couple of years ago with a 1955 Greenie Mark V, and ogled them for 30 years. They're versatile - maybe not the best at any one thing as a stand alone tool, but great for DIY'ers.

garys · Post by **garys** » Sun May 06, 2012 5:32 pm

Spin it up and start cutting wood. My "82 Shopsmith cuts cords of wood every year. Just about every piece of furniture and woodwork in my house was cut on my Shopsmith.