Bringing back to life: Shopsmith 10E & 10ER

[chapmanruss]

TurramurraShopSmith,

Although I tend to be a bit of a purist, as JPG said

Purists be damned. It is a tinker 'toy'. i.e. ANYthing goes.

Now that being said I would be concerned a bit about enlarging the Saw Blade Slot in the Table and especially the Table Insert. There is not a lot of extra room or material there to do a longer slot to accommodate a larger than 8" diameter Saw Blade. You still want to keep structural integrity there. Using a sled the Table Insert could be removed and thus not needing the Insert to be modified.

[TurramurraShopSmith]

Russ,
I made another new insert which filed out and it seems to be quite stable despite the minimal amount of metal left. I have posted 3 pics one with the Incra slide, one without and a pic of a much larger input table extension which I have made in order to increase the stability of the Incra slide when docking wide stock. Now with the 9 and 1/4 inch blade, I can cut 2 and 3/4 inch stock without the slide and about 2 and 1/4 inch with the slide.
Regards
Mike

[chapmanruss]

Mike,

Looking at the first picture you have added a nice amount of front table space for the Miter with those slots. How does that extra extension length compare to the Front Table Extension attached to your Extension Table? It appears to be attached to the Main Table by some bracket. Is it easy to remove so a Rip Fence can be used for other operations? Just curious.

[JPG]

+1

[TurramurraShopSmith]

Russ,
The input extension is attached exactly the same way as the original Shopsmith extension, to the front table rail except that because of the width, I have used two knurled bolts. So, it is very easily detached. I have attached a pic from below so you can see how it is arranged. I made the knurled bolts on my small Unimat lathe and tried to make them look like original Shopsmith bolts although when taking the pic, I saw that I haven't even wiped off the layout blue yet!
I don't take off the input extension very often as instead of the Shopsmith fence, I use an after-market Kreg fence which is easier to set up. The other pic shows the Kreg fence in position and it slides along a back rail that you can see. The back Kreg rail is bolted straight onto the back of the Shopsmith table and has to be removed with a spanner if I want to use the Shopsmith original fence. Otherwise it doesn't interfere with anything. The Kreg comes with a 20 inch long fence but I found that I could buy any length of the fence extrusion as it is a standard profile so I have put on a longer fence which extends right over my input extension and makes ripping just that more precise. One advantage of the Kreg sertup is the micro-adjuster which you can see in the pic and I can cut thin veneer strips as it moves the fence in 0.005 inch increments.

[chapmanruss]

Nicely done on that front extension.

I did notice you have a cast iron Extension Table and not the common aluminum Extension Table. Both are pictured below. That is a rare piece. I have one but have seen very few others. Does the Kreg Fence rail attach to the Extension Table? If not, I would suggest keeping it that way to keep the rare cast iron Extension Table original/unaltered. An aluminum Extension Table could easily be picked up if needed. A small plus on the aluminum Extension Table is that it is a bit wider.

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CI and AL Extension Tables top.jpg (199.02 KiB) Viewed 3716 times

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Have you found a solution for an Upper Saw Blade Guard?

[TurramurraShopSmith]

Russ,
No the Kreg is only bolted to the table top. It slides nicely past the table extension so moving the 10ER along the ways is no problem. The cast iron table extension apparently came with the original unit which makes sense as the original owner purchased it in 1952 I think. I have bought an aluminium one and an extra cast iron bracket to mount it, both on eBay from the USA (cost more in postage than the items cost). I have mounted it on the other end so I can handle and cut large ply sheets. No I haven't solved the problem of an effective top blade guide yet but I have a range of after-market plastic pushing jigs which keep my hands well away from the blade. I have a 4 inch PVC pipe with a slit for the blade underneath the table and it is attached to an exhaust fan but I estimate that it collects less than half the sawdust. I'm still scratching my head on that one.
Mike

[jsburger]

Russ,
No the Kreg is only bolted to the table top. It slides nicely past the table extension so moving the 10ER along the ways is no problem. The cast iron table extension apparently came with the original unit which makes sense as the original owner purchased it in 1952 I think. I have bought an aluminium one and an extra cast iron bracket to mount it, both on eBay from the USA (cost more in postage than the items cost). I have mounted it on the other end so I can handle and cut large ply sheets. No I haven't solved the problem of an effective top blade guide yet but I have a range of after-market plastic pushing jigs which keep my hands well away from the blade. I have a 4 inch PVC pipe with a slit for the blade underneath the table and it is attached to an exhaust fan but I estimate that it collects less than half the sawdust. I'm still scratching my head on that one.
Mike

That really does not make sense. By 1952 the 10ER was getting close to the end. As Russ says the cast iron table is extremely rare. I have one but they are not common. I didn't know they existed until I saw one on eBay and bought it. I think Russ' experience is similar.

[chapmanruss]

Like John, I found my Cast Iron Model 10 Extensions Table on ebay.

An option for a Lower Saw Blade Guard and to provide dust collection is using a Mark 5 Lower Saw Blade Guard part number 505628. It has a 2-1/2" dust port. You can see it, in position, on my Model 10ER below. When using it put the Blade on the Arbor as shown in the picture. If the spacer is put on first the Blade will be against the outer side of the guard.

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505628 on 10ER.jpg (103.15 KiB) Viewed 1565 times

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That Lower Guard uses the Upper Saw Blade Guard part number 505627 as seen in the picture below.

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505627 Upper and 505628 Lower Saw Blade Guards r.jpg (85.54 KiB) Viewed 1565 times

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I am pretty sure there is not enough clearance to use the Upper Guard with the Kreg Fence. Below is the Upper and Lower Saw Blade Guard set mounted on my Model 10ER. Yes, the saw blade is mounted backwards but you can see the Shopsmith name on it that way.

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505627-505628r.jpg (61.58 KiB) Viewed 1565 times

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I use that Saw Blade Guard set on my Model 10's as opposed to the OEM Upper Guard and the rare Lower Guard which has a square dust chute. The early OEM Upper Saw Blade Guard is shown on my Model 10E below.

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1077 Reassemblied.jpg (120.8 KiB) Viewed 1565 times

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Model 10 Lower Saw Blade Guard.

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162-1X - 12 370 R r.jpg (189.5 KiB) Viewed 1565 times

[TurramurraShopSmith]

Russ and John,
The Australian 10ERs were assembled here by C.C. Engineering in Sydney in the early '50s and that is probably why they had cast iron table extensions. Magna probably just shipped out all their old castings! I have seen several Australian 10ERs and they all had the cast iron table extension. As far as I know, the Australian machines were never equipped with a lower guard and the upper guard is a bit plainer than the one shown in your pic. although fundamentally the same. I have never used it as I found that not being able to see the blade was unsettling and that is primarily why I went with the sled approach to ensure that my hands were well away! That being said, the idea of using a later lower guard and making an upper clear perspex guard to go with it is a possibility. You are quite right Russ in that I would have to remove the Kreg rail to fit the later Model 5 guard but I'm sure that I can get around that some way! I can't just buy a later lower guard from Shopsmith as the current management there won't ship to Australia (too hard apparently)so I will have to start trawling through eBay.
Mike