My latest 10ER acquisition

[dusty]

I'm curious. Is it a display model or do you plan to make sawdust with it?

Gorgeous tool either way.
Congratulations

[jsburger]

I'm curious. Is it a display model or do you plan to make sawdust with it?

Gorgeous tool either way.
Congratulations

That is a beautiful piece of SS history. There was only one of them made. I know if it belonged to me it would not be making saw dust.

[everettdavis]

I'm curious. Is it a display model or do you plan to make sawdust with it?

Gorgeous tool either way.
Congratulations

That is a beautiful piece of SS history. There was only one of them made. I know if it belonged to me it would not be making saw dust.

They work best if used and maintained. I will do some turning on it, but I probably will not use the chromed tool rest, opting for ones from other machines.

It will take a good bit of elbow grease to get everything ship shape before I do. The motor wiring is first.

Secondly, it never had the Retractable Caster Assembly. I have one, and I likely will powder coat it chrome finish, but I will retrofit it with the new 3" Casters.

If you look closely at the bench leg on the right, you can see an angle of what appears to be a reflection. It isn't. It is a dent in the chrome leg. I will have to get that attended to with someone more skilled than I with a leather bag to attempt to restore it without disrupting the chrome.

The saw blade and arbor are chrome, and I would not presume to use either. Honestly the Mark V's even with their limitations, are probably more sound a choice for ripping, and like most others who have them will use a sliding miter saw for crosscutting and bevel cuts.

I will use it maybe in drill press mode, but again won't use the chrome table or drill chuck. I have others, as well as other machines.

I will use it, but limited in scope of what I do. I am looking at creating some documentation photos, but even then I suspect I will use other 10ER's as they will more closely match what others have.

If Robert Folkerth ever takes down the archived machines from the upper storage racks at Shopsmith in Dayton and builds a Shopsmith Museum, I may donate it to them for that purpose.

When I photographed the manufacturing facility during my book research last year, how I wanted to see what was stored in all those crates. A fellow who was there over 20 years said even he didn't know. Maybe someday.

I will try to be a worthy custodian of this unique machine until that time.

Everett

[jsburger]

I'm curious. Is it a display model or do you plan to make sawdust with it?

Gorgeous tool either way.
Congratulations

That is a beautiful piece of SS history. There was only one of them made. I know if it belonged to me it would not be making saw dust.

They work best if used and maintained. I will do some turning on it, but I probably will not use the chromed tool rest, opting for ones from other machines.

It will take a good bit of elbow grease to get everything ship shape before I do. The motor wiring is first.

Secondly, it never had the Retractable Caster Assembly. I have one, and I likely will powder coat it chrome finish, but I will retrofit it with the new 3" Casters.

If you look closely at the bench leg on the right, you can see an angle of what appears to be a reflection. It isn't. It is a dent in the chrome leg. I will have to get that attended to with someone more skilled than I with a leather bag to attempt to restore it without disrupting the chrome.

The saw blade and arbor are chrome, and I would not presume to use either. Honestly the Mark V's even with their limitations, are probably more sound a choice for ripping, and like most others who have them will use a sliding miter saw for crosscutting and bevel cuts.

I will use it maybe in drill press mode, but again won't use the chrome table or drill chuck. I have others, as well as other machines.

I will use it, but limited in scope of what I do. I am looking at creating some documentation photos, but even then I suspect I will use other 10ER's as they will more closely match what others have.

If Robert Folkerth ever takes down the archived machines from the upper storage racks at Shopsmith in Dayton and builds a Shopsmith Museum, I may donate it to them for that purpose.

When I photographed the manufacturing facility during my book research last year, how I wanted to see what was stored in all those crates. A fellow who was there over 20 years said even he didn't know. Maybe someday.

I will try to be a worthy custodian of this unique machine until that time.

Everett

If that ever happens I will certainly donate my copy of PTWFE signed by R. J. DeCristoforo to Hans Goldschmidt and his wife Mary's book that talks about their Magna times signed to Bob Chambers to the museum.

[chapmanruss]

Everett,
Are you sure you want to upgrade the retractable casters to 3" instead of keeping them original? Changing the casters will require drilling new holes. Does this Chrome 10ER have a Serial Number? Do you now know if it the same one Bob Chambers is standing next to in the picture? Remember it does not require cutting, turning or drilling to "exercise" the moving parts. Just turn it on once in a while.

I wonder if any of those crates contain one of the original Model 10E's. If not I may have to add my 10E to the museum if they ever start one.

...

[everettdavis]

Everett,
Are you sure you want to upgrade the retractable casters to 3" instead of keeping them original? Changing the casters will require drilling new holes. Does this Chrome 10ER have a Serial Number? Do you now know if it the same one Bob Chambers is standing next to in the picture? Remember it does not require cutting, turning or drilling to "exercise" the moving parts. Just turn it on once in a while.

I wonder if any of those crates contain one of the original Model 10E's. If not I may have to add my 10E to the museum if they ever start one.

...

Can't keep original what was not there. No casters or holes existed, but they should have been in my mind.

The new casters will make moving this heavy unit across the floor more convenient and will look far better than two furniture dollies.

The chromed upper saw guard was broken at some point in its life, and it has a used 10ER saw guard with it as seen in the photo. I guess that should be restored too.

It is the same base machine, however the later speed changer was added and chromed, but for whatever reason the retractable casters were not added.

The motor end bells with larger motor and the bench legs were not back from chrome shop when Bob Chambers was photographed at the Shopsmith Booth.

The original bench legs and the motor were painted off white and had the Shopsmith logo affixed for the photo shoot because the chrome work wasn't finished.

It was rushed for the show, and initially supposed to commemorate their massive success of having produced 10,000 machines which no one envisioned early on.

They were making about 5000 month with 2 plants, so in 6 weeks they were already rolling #25,000 off the assembly line.

It had one of their enlarged card stock Demonstrator badges on both sides of the headstock to improve visibility of the brand.

Both were plastic coated, cracking and very yellowed. When I first saw it I thought about having commemorative steel plates engraved, chromed and painted red, but that too wouldn't be 'original'

It did not have a traditional badge on it as it was also to have been chromed but it came loose in acid bath as we understand and was destroyed.

What the advertising department mocked up for the trade show seems to be all that was available and that's the way it sat for years.

I actually learned of its location when I met with Robert Folkerth the week I was with them in Dayton last year and he personally connected me with the then current owner. I bought it then, and just brought it home.

I have been researching Tony Fox more extensively ever since. I have spoken personally with a number of folks who knew him, including a retired pastor. Bits and pieces fall into place at times you can never project.

This person knows that person, and that person knows some of his children.

Privacy being what it is I will not disclose any of that information out of respect for their privacy.

Everett

[chapmanruss]

Everett, you said

Can't keep original what was not there. No casters or holes existed, but they should have been in my mind.

I understand you can't keep what was not there original. When my 10E S/N 1077 was made the bench ends and retractable casters did not exist yet but I built it's bench with them anyway. I consider it an upgrade. The original bench ends did not have holes for the retractable casters because the weren't available when the bench ends first came out. I did notice the bench end in the Chambers picture has the SS Decal on it like the first bench ends did.

Should this Chrome Model 10ER have the slotted blade guard or the non-chromed one it has? I know you will get the correct one and at some point have it chromed to replace the missing one. As you work on it I would be interested in seeing a picture of the Headstock without the Spring Housing and Pinion Shaft in place to see which Headstock version it has. I am guessing at this point it has double wedge locks.

I look forward to your progress on this project.
...

[everettdavis]

Everett, you said

Can't keep original what was not there. No casters or holes existed, but they should have been in my mind.

I understand you can't keep what was not there original. When my 10E S/N 1077 was made the bench ends and retractable casters did not exist yet but I build it's bench with them anyway. I consider it an upgrade. The original bench ends did not have holes for the retractable casters because the weren't available when the bench ends first came out. I did notice the bench end in the Chambers picture has the SS Decal on it like the first bench ends did.

Should this Chrome Model 10ER have the slotted blade guard or the non-chromed one it has? I know you will get the correct one and at some point have it chromed to replace the missing one. As you work on it I would be interested in seeing a picture of the Headstock without the Spring Housing and Pinion Shaft in place to see which Headstock version it has. I am guessing at this point it has double wedge locks.

I look forward to your progress on this project.
...

I have some non Shopsmith projects ahead of this and I too want to see the vintage of the headstock pinion shaft area as the chromed unit could have been an existing demonstrator, or just a machine randomly pulled from the line.

With two plants in operation, and the notion to chrome one to commemorate 10,000 machines produced, I still am seeking anything that would suggest 10,000 nation wide or 10,000 just at the OEM plant from production logs.

That said, the chrome idea from Tony Fox came after the 10,000th machine was produced in the plant (or both combined), and before it was actually put together with the speed changer, chromed legs, and motor end bells, over 25,000 were made. That was a matter of a few weeks difference as production was escalating as fast as they could make them.

My Chromed Bench ends have the Logo on each end.

The blade guard if it were a 10E upgraded to 10ER would have had the solid blade guard if it were chromed after upgrade. Since it broke years ago, it would be speculative, since we know it is a 10ER now, but still with the earlier rounded base.

I know that they upgraded existing 10E's to 10ER's in the plant, and that was offered to existing customers. Until I break it down and photograph it, I will not know if it is an earlier headstock with the pin, or if it has brass locks etc. I am not expecting brass locks, and I have not even verified the headstock has a hole behind the badge.

I have it put away fairly deeply in storage, and have a few other machines to restore before I will get to it, but I too am curious.

One of the projects I have involves setting up a special workspace with a clear background and color balanced LED lighting so I can do more professional job of photographing components, and assemblies for my book, and writing other documents. It just takes time. I am on overdrive since I retired, and balancing the various things my wife and I wanted to do in retirement together.

Everett

[chapmanruss]

Everett,
I know all to well the time involved in photographing the individual parts having done it for the last two restorations I have completed. First S/N 1077 and just finished S/N R36013. Just making sure to get a picture of every part takes some time checking the pictures against the parts lists. To add to the time involved I am making sure I have all of it backed up to an external backup drive to prevent any loss when, not if, this laptop crashes. I had a problem with it starting up earlier this week and have learned from what happened to you. Keep up the good work and let me know if you need anything.
.

[everettdavis]

In the picture of the machine against the wall in the first post, there is a yellow plastic display panel that you can see behind and to the left of the speed changer.

Here is a photo. It had an engraved brass plate dated 1947 but the scan color isn't clear that it is brass.

It came to me with the Chrome 10ER, but it is unclear if this came to Tony as a part of the gift of it to Tony when he left, or years earlier.

It went with it to Tony's friend, then to the owner who acquired it from him. Timeline is simply unknown.

Everett

Tony Fox 1947 Shopsmith Plaque.jpeg (260.31 KiB) Viewed 20576 times