paulmcohen wrote:If you are willing to sell everything you don't need any longer and your old stuff is in good shape, you don't need to save many pennies to pay for the upgrade. The downside is it takes 4 hours work.
Everything of importance is replaced so the upgrade headstock is every bit as good as a reconditioned one. If you get a new headstock you will get a better tailstock safety guard (<$4 new but more difficult to install safely then on a new headstock). There is a lot of discussion about it, some people get a new machine and remove it immediately, I upgraded an old machine and after hitting the spinning shaft once I would never remove the guard.
It's called a shaft guard (I thought it was a hub protector at first) and it is part of the new Mark 7 along with a modified belt cover which has 2 threaded holes for special 5/32" screws. I bought a 520 last year which the owner had added a shaft guard himself by simply drilling a couple of holes and gluing nuts to the inside of the belt cover for the screws.
The idler shaft is used primarily for the jointer, spins very fast and it smarts if you happen to have your fingers near when the quill is rotating at warp speed. Doh- so like the old two line joke where a guy goes to the doctor and says, "Doc it hurts when I do this…" The doctor says, "Then don't do that…" So don't do that. I read other members have inadvertently made contact with either of the shafts and lost skin and have subsequently added the shaft guard.
If you install the shaft guard, it means the you lose the ability to turn the quill by hand from the rear. Shopsmith came out with the quill twister which is designed for that purpose.
There is one thread about the quill twister which traintomguy posted a pic of something he made up with a hub, a 1/4" driver, and a power coupler. Ultimately, it's up to you to do what is best for you.
