World's Longest ShopSmith, maybe owned by Sammy Sosa?

EricD · Post by **EricD** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 7:09 am

From the Madison WI craigslist:
http://madison.craigslist.org/tls/3538496279.html

Customized Shopsmith long bed lathe with two fully functional Mark V headstocks. Distance between centers is more than 6 feet, at 75 inches! Great for turning 6' long stock. This lathe was designed for corking baseball bats, but has many other applications for work that cannot be performed on a standard lathe.

algale · Post by **algale** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 7:21 am

What?! No double tilt??

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 7:30 am

This won't last long on CL. The price is definitely right. The application is truly unique and I think ingenious. The history is interesting. Sammy Sosa?

EricD · Post by **EricD** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 8:03 am

In 2003 Sammy's bat broke when he was at bat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corked_bat

dgale · Post by **dgale** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 12:08 pm

Cool idea but I wonder if the bench and way tubes stay straight over that length of if they have some degree of bow, especially with a headstock or other weight out on the middle and/or when the machine is under torque? Seems like they would start to bow at some point when you start getting that long...

backhertz · Post by **backhertz** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 8:05 pm

Holy cow! This is one of my crazy pipe dream ideas. I just wrote to Doug Reid and told him about my buying a dozen 10E/ER tubes to do some things like trying them in a Mark V or 7 along with my 10E/ERs to also make an extension. I didn't think it would be possible & might require a mid-bench support, but this is wild! I think I just found a use for two of my 510s, although I could put a couple PowerPros on it, as well. A turner's Shopsmith dream on steroids- oh wait… it was related to baseball…<ahem>

Anyone have any idea how this was done? I see what appears to be seams in the third picture, but do you think he used 10E/ER way tubes because they are thicker? I can't imagine buying tubes that long.

I figured on trying something like the one shown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoHcz9KvSHQ

backhertz · Post by **backhertz** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:16 pm

I just spoke to the seller and he is waiting for someone to contact him to buy. I asked him how he made the extensions and I'm wondering if anyone can guess? He used Mark V way and bench tubes.

It's actually very obvious after he explained it to me. The part that might give it away is it can be disassembled for shipment and someone would be getting two Mark Vs, and some other things for a great price. All you have to do is travel to Madison, Wisconsin. Road trip anyone? I wish I could except an injury will not permit me to travel/sit that long.

It will tip, however one needs a very tall shop…and probably some outriggers. But horizontal drilling works just fine as depicted in his pics on the Craig's List ad.

backhertz · Post by **backhertz** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:33 pm

No bites on the last post, so I will try to 'splain what I understand after speaking to the seller. He told me he simply used a tube in the center and then used threaded stock with large washers on each end to pull the way tubes and the bench tubes together to give him a double wide as shown in the pics. He is able to disassemble the tubes which would give a person two Mark Vs- providing he has the remaining legs. I didn't see any tables in the pics.

The ad mentions this Mark V set up can be used as a gun drill lathe. I've read a lot about some people having problems with excessive flex in the Mark V way/bench tubes. I contacted a member of the 10E/ER Yahoo forum who has replaced his thick 10E/ER way tubes which are .22" walls with .25" DOM (drawn over mandrel) tubes which has met his needs. I've read DOM tubes are far superior. The Mark V tubes are roughly .125" which helps keep weight down and the flex is acceptable for most wood workers- including myself.

I have no machining experience, so I will defer to forum members who have experience & get their opinion(s) if any care to share. I am thinking to be able to do any work on gun barrels, one needs a machine that begins with an "S"- like a Southbend. I'm not so sure about a Shopsmith except for maybe a potato gun.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:13 pm

I am unclear how the counter rotation helps straightness of boring, but minimum effective bit speed would be 1400 rpm.

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 11:58 am

Just a few rambling thoughts on extended lathes (Looong)... This is something I have considered before and I have kept it in the back of my head ever since. My goal was an 8' capacity which I still believe is do-able.

I had not ever considered using two opposing headstocks... But I am now...

As I have looked at pictures of such setups including these pictures I keep seeing what I consider to be one common failing. I would suppose that someone surely has done so but I never see all 4 tubes tied together except at the ends. A lot more strength can be gained more easily from "trussing" than from just adding mass (though on a big long lathe, mass can be a good thing

)
In the pictures in this thread I can't see a carriage mounted. It may be there but I don't see it. Even just one carriage out in the middle locked on the two way tubes would help a bit with stability. Now... make an attachment to it (wood would work) that allows all 4 tubes to be tightly clamped together in all directions. Go a step further and add a second carriage, or on a very long unit, a third all with the capability to clamp all 4 tubes into one big truss assembly.
I'm not done yet... Now build (again, wood would be fine) a fitted clamp assembly to attach to the bottom of each of the two headstocks...
"ALL" of the carriages could be moved to the best locations for the job at hand as needed and the tool rest could be used in any of the three of them.
In all 5 movable clamping points, 3 at the carriages and 2 at the headstocks (remember that there are also 2 fixed clamp points at the ends for a total of 7) the lower clamps should be in 2 halves and clamped with something like bolts with tail-nuts or crank-nuts so they would be quick and simple to loosen to move back and forth along the tubes.
OK, one more. On an extremely long setup you could add a third set of tubes below the bench tubes... Just extend on down from the 5 clamps with another set of clamps to hold them just like the bench tubes except it would probably not be necessary to anchor them at the ends but that could be done.
There are a LOT of possibilities here even to the point of rails attaching the lower leg assemblies together at the bottom or firmly mounting the whole thing down onto a big long heavy wooden sled type structure.
It can be dangerous having a big "stash".

For this to work well you sort of have to develop this kind of a mind-set:
[ATTACH]19995[/ATTACH]

Just some thoughts.