I only recently got a chance to use them and was so impressed that I was thinking of buying them in the 24" and 48" lengths -- but the price is prohibitive. Then I thought, I've already got the hardware, all I need are the cauls. But putting a subtle accurate radius (described as 3 degrees in the ad) on cauls that length seemed to be a problem I couldn't solve.
Earlier this week, Shopsmith may have answered my needs when they started offering the hardware and the cauls separately. https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/specials/7DV394.
A couple of things to note. It appears that the wooden cauls are identical to what Shopsmith has always offered.
As to the hardware, there is an obvious change. Look at this picture of the original Shopsmith double bar clamps.
The clamp handle is the familiar double-wing aluminum handle that you might find on the headstock lock or the clamp for certain way tube mounted accessories like the speed reducer, etc. In addition the piece on the opposite end from the handle is a small, solid (milled?) block of metal with no provision to attach anything to it. The new double bar clamp hardware Shopsmith is selling separately is obviously quite different than the prior hardware. Here's the new hardware.
Compared to the photo of the old hardware, the new handle is quite different and the part that contacts the wood is thinner and has provisions to screw to something -- probably the narrow plastic bumpers shown in the photo, which isn't part of the old clamp hardware. Also, there are two different lengths of plastic with the semi-circular cut-outs that are part of the new hardware package that were not part of the old hardware.
I thought I recognized those parts with the semi-circular cut-outs. Sure enough. They (and the whole hardware package for the new clamp) appear identical to the Woodriver 4 way clamp hardware Woodcraft sells.
Those semi-circular cut-out strips mount on your own 2 x 4s and provide a place for the clamp hardware to grip. Obviously, those are unnecessary to mount to the Shopsmith wooden cauls because those come with built-in cut-outs to hold the hardware as seen above. And when shown in operation with the Shopsmith cauls, note that the new hardware does not make use of them.
https://www.shopsmith.com/itempics/ljpg ... 597_1l.jpg
Anyway, I'm seriously thinking of picking up some additional cauls.
