speed control hard to turn

jlremodel · Post by **jlremodel** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:10 pm

my speed control is getting hard to turn. seams like there is dust(dirt) inside. is there isntructions on how to ceal it somewhere? new to this machine mark v thanks larry h

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:15 pm

Sounds like you need some old-fashioned lubrication. First run the speed up to as high as it will go, turn of the machine, and unplug the Shopsmith. Remove the rear cover, spread the spring on the bottom shaft with a blade screwdriver until you see the hole in the bottom floating sheave bushing. (See below.) Place 2 to 3 drops of light-weight machine oil in the hole. [ATTACH]144[/ATTACH]
Remove the Shopsmith logo medallion from the side of the headstock opposite the switch and find the hole in the bushing for the upper floating sheave. (See below once again.) Place 5 to 6 drops in this hole.
[ATTACH]145[/ATTACH]
After oiling the sheaves, reassemble the headstock, turn on the machine, and run the speed changer up and down its range several times to spread the oil over the shaft and bushing surfaces.

99 times out of 100, this will fix the problem. But if the speed changer is still difficult to turn, it could be that you haven't cleaned out the inside of the headstock for a while. Remove the medallion and the rear cover and suck (don't blow) out the fine sawdust. (If you blow out the sawdust, some will find its way inside the motor where it won't do anyone any good.) Should you have to disassemble the speed changer to get at all the ackempunky that sometimes accumulates in the ring gear and other parts, suggest you check out this thread: https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=144.

With all good wishes,

john · Post by **john** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:28 pm

Nick:

Your posts with such clear pictures are excellent for helping with problems.

John

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:41 pm

Nick, I agree with the sentiment regarding your terrific clear pictures and descriptions. This weekend, I attempted to assemble the sharpening accessory for the strip sander. The instructions supplied by Shopsmith have pictures that are so dark that one must guess at what they mean. I suppose that one day soon. When I'm once again able to work in the shop. I will discover if I made the appropriate guesses. fjimp

reible · Post by **reible** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:22 pm

fjimp wrote:Nick, I agree with the sentiment regarding your terrific clear pictures and descriptions. This weekend, I attempted to assemble the sharpening accessory for the strip sander. The instructions supplied by Shopsmith have pictures that are so dark that one must guess at what they mean. I suppose that one day soon. When I'm once again able to work in the shop. I will discover if I made the appropriate guesses. fjimp

Hi,

I didn't do it right and it took me asking for help to get it right... you are right the pictures, they look to be copies of copies of copies..... out about a dozen times.

Now before we hijack the thread if you want to start a new thread asking about what the attachment should look like I will tell you where I have pictures of it.... of course you may have it right already, you will know when the angles don't come out right, like I did or they will be right and you have the parts put together right....

Ed

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:44 pm

Ed is correct. This was the wrong place to mention another attachment. In that I would love to see his pictures I will post a new thread. My apologies if I seemed to be trying to hijack this thread. Fjimp

rolands · Post by **rolands** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:51 pm

Nick, in your post you said to put 2 to 3 drops of light-weight machine oil in the hole, however when I replaced my control sheave the instructions said to use 30 weight non-detergent oil. Does it matter? Is one better to use then the other? Thanks for all of your past help and comments.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:15 pm

Ok, folks. Here's the quick skinny on lubrication oils. You have two decisions to make. (1) Detergent or non-detergent? (2) What weight (viscosity) will work best?

Detergent or non-detegent?
Detergents in oils are "surfactant" additives which lower the surface tension and allow small particles to remain in suspension more easily. Great stuff for lubricating surfaces that operate at high speeds and high temperatures, where contaminants must be floated away before they build up and form deposits. These deposits interfere with uniform lubrication and may result in hot spots where the oil can't carry away the heat. All of this is not necessary for ordinary power tool machinery. Additionally, the detergents lower the surface tension and the viscosity of the oil so it may not cover a surface as well as it might. This isn't a problem in an environment such as a car engine where the oil is being pumped in a continuous flood or is being churned to create an oil vapor "bath." But it may become a problem in environments where you must depend on the surface tension of the oil to maintain a thin, lubricating sheet.

What weight (viscosity) works best?
The lower the SAE "weight" number of the oil, the less thick and viscous it becomes. Low-weight, low-viscosity oils "wet" the surface more easily. That is, they form thin, lubricating sheets more readily than oils with higher SAE weights. On the other hand, high-weight, high-viscosity oils maintain these lubricating sheets at high speeds and under higher pressures better than those with low SAE weights. For these reasons, craftsman customarily use low-weight oils for hand tools and other low-speed applications and higher weights for high-speed power tools.

Since the Shopsmith is a high speed (up to 5200 rpm) power tool, most craftsmen would choose the higher-weight oils, say 20 or 30 SAE, for lubrication. But think about the surfaces that are being lubricated. The floating or "control" sheaves turn at exactly the same speed as the spindles on which they float. The lubricated surfaces of the sheaves and spindles hardly move at all in relation to one another. When you turn the speed control dial, they creep very slowly past one another. You would be hard put to find a hand tool that moves this slowly. So I recommend a low-weight oil, 10 SAE, for this job. I believe that the craftsman who wrote the manual recommending 30-weight oil was full of crap.

He was, by the way, me

-- but much younger and much less savvy about oil properties.

With all good wishes,

rolands · Post by **rolands** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:32 am

Nick, Thanks for the comments. They were very interesting and gave me a different point of view. Guess it is time to change my oil.

rcartmetal · Post by **rcartmetal** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:38 pm

On a BMW motorcycle list we had a longish research project on how to prolong the life of the sliding splines in the rear drives of some models. The result was the use of lubricants containing molybdenum. We used high pressure grease in that application, but I wonder if oil containing moly might be benificial in the sheaves of our machines?