Greenie Bench Tube Size

[jsburger]

Another item concerning the Bench tubes on this 1957 Greenie besides the tube size being 1 3/4" diameter is that they are painted, and from the inspection of the tube, it seems they came from the factory painted, note in the picture the paint extends clear to the end of the tube and the ONLY set screw mark is through the paint, no set screw mark painted over. I have seen some discussion that the tubes did not come from the factory, but this finding disputed that. Any body want to weigh in on this?

Bench Tube.jpg

From the discussions I have read Greenie bench tubes were painted from the factory. Maybe at some point with the transition of the bench tubes to 1 3/4 and grey paint instead of 1 7/8 they stopped painting them.

[jjbuzard]

Another item concerning the Bench tubes on this 1957 Greenie besides the tube size being 1 3/4" diameter is that they are painted, and from the inspection of the tube, it seems they came from the factory painted, note in the picture the paint extends clear to the end of the tube and the ONLY set screw mark is through the paint, no set screw mark painted over. I have seen some discussion that the tubes did not come from the factory, but this finding disputed that. Any body want to weigh in on this?

Bench Tube.jpg

From the discussions I have read Greenie bench tubes were painted from the factory. Maybe at some point with the transition of the bench tubes to 1 3/4 and grey paint instead of 1 7/8 they stopped painting them.

OK,remember in 1957 the bench tubes were 1 3/4" and painted, so I assume all bench tube prior to 1957, whether 1 7/8" or 1 3/4" they were painted, at what point did they start using chromemoly for the bench tubes?

[JPG]

They were painted gray/silver.

Ditto the Goldies(both versions).

Not sure re the 1957 date since there were 1 7/8" gilmer goldies.

[dusty]

Is it possible that there was also 1 7/8" grey units. I ask because, as previously stated, I have Bases and Headrests that would accept 1 7/8" Ways. One set of those is on the 510 that I purchased new in 1991. It came with 1 3/4" Wat Tubes but....

[jsburger]

Is it possible that there was also 1 7/8" grey units. I ask because, as previously stated, I have Bases and Headrests that would accept 1 7/8" Ways. One set of those is on the 510 that I purchased new in 1991. It came with 1 3/4" Wat Tubes but....

I think the bench tube holes in the base casting are just clearance holes. They have nothing to do with the diameter of the bench tubes. The tubes are held in place by the bosses and the clamps inside the casting.

The first picture is of a set of base castings I bought on eBay to make my shorty. Vintage unknown. The second picture is of the new double tilt castings bought in 2012 installed on my original 1994 510 when I upgraded it to a MK 7. The original base castings from the 510 are now on my dedicated MK V drill press. I don't have pictures because of the shelf on the tubes but I can assure you they look the same as the other two pictures.

[dusty]

Maybe but can you explain why 1 3/4 bench tubes with snugly in one set of Headrest and Base Assemblies while on two others the holes are definitely large enough to accept 1 7/8" bench tubes.

No big deal but I do believe this is another one of those subtle markers that can be used to date our hardware.

[jsburger]

Maybe but can you explain why 1 3/4 bench tubes with snugly in one set of Headrest and Base Assemblies while on two others the holes are definitely large enough to accept 1 7/8" bench tubes.

No big deal but I do believe this is another one of those subtle markers that can be used to date our hardware.

I have no idea. Do you have a picture of those snugly fitting tubes? No picture it didn't happen.

As I said those holes have nothing to do with tube support. They are only clearance holes and still exist in 2012. Hard to believe SS made them smaller for any reason for any amount of time and changed back. I know you know how much it costs to make an engineering change to a drawing let alone the cost of new tooling to implement that change.

[jjbuzard]

Is it possible that, as the story goes Folkerth found everything needed to produce new Shopsmiths when he walked into the abandoned factory, could some of the molds he found and used were old 1 7/8" base parts and used them? All I know is on the genuine 1957! 1 7/8" bench tubes won't fit, too tight (see post with measurements above) yet some pieces of equipment (gray units) use 1 7/8" base tubes. This 1957 was produced by Yuba, the plot thickens.

[jjbuzard]

Is it possible that there was also 1 7/8" grey units. I ask because, as previously stated, I have Bases and Headrests that would accept 1 7/8" Ways. One set of those is on the 510 that I purchased new in 1991. It came with 1 3/4" Wat Tubes but....

I think the bench tube holes in the base casting are just clearance holes. They have nothing to do with the diameter of the bench tubes. The tubes are held in place by the bosses and the clamps inside the casting.

The first picture is of a set of base castings I bought on eBay to make my shorty. Vintage unknown. The second picture is of the new double tilt castings bought in 2012 installed on my original 1994 510 when I upgraded it to a MK 7. The original base castings from the 510 are now on my dedicated MK V drill press. I don't have pictures because of the shelf on the tubes but I can assure you they look the same as the other two pictures.

Maybe just clearance holes, but on this 1957 1 7/8" tubes won't pass into the holes.

[JPG]

A previous discussion.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewtopic.php?t=3589