Misaligned Rail Assy Holes

[RFGuy]

Thanks for all the responses and historical information. I purchased my SS 510 at the Western Washington Fair in September 1986 in my 20's. In addition to the 510 (lastest and most advanced at the time), my purchase included a bandsaw, planer, jigsaw, and dust collector). A friend of mine had a SS and I had coveted my own. For nearly 40 years, I have enjoyed, endorsed and revered the company.

Today, that all stops! If Nick Cupps is reading this, or one of you knows how to get in touch with him, I want to talk. My email is Jeffrey.goddard@comcast.net

Today's SS Customer Service is ineffective and cannot properly communicate with their customer base. I am still waiting for resolution of what should have been a simple and quick order.

There was a great deal of hype about upcoming tariffs and price increases this past May. I called Customer Service, provided my SS serial number and placed an order for the Bandsaw Table Upgrade, Mark V 510 to Mark 7 Pro Fence Upgrade and a Carbide-tipped Specialty Saw Blade Package. There was no hesitation on the company's part to charge my card for the full amount of $1,206.88. After a week, I had not even received an order acknowledgement or invoice. It took a phone call to Custom Service to have an invoice emailed to me. No mention of stock status or back-ordered materials was communicated. I anxiously awaited my purchase. Over the next 12 weeks, I waited. Over that time, I reached out to Customer Service several times without satisfaction. Finally during the last week of July, I received part of the order. The Saw Blade Package was not included and again, no effort was made on the part of SS to communicate the status.

I attempted to install the Mark V 510 to Mark 7 Pro Fence Upgrade and discovered that the middle hole on the front/rear main rails did not align with the middle hole of the table. On the weekend of Aug 1/2, I sent 2 emails to customer service. No response....

Over the past 3 weeks, I have made numerous calls and have talked to both Adriana and Becky - I was never able to get escalated to a supervisor or talk to 'the engineer'. Often, they had left for the day or otherwise 'not available'.

Last week, I was hopeful that a resolution was in sight. An RMA and UPS Return Label was provided. I was assured that the correct upgrade kit would be on its way to me as soon as I had shipped the ENTIRE Pro Fence Upgrade kit back to Ohio. No persuasion on my part was successful to return only the front/rear rails.

As agreed, this past Tuesday I removed all the rails, packaged up the entire kit including the pro fence, dropped off the box at UPS and communicated this to Adriana.

As of today (Friday), Becky, the CSR that I talked to, cannot confirm that the correct kit is on its way. She also asked if i just wanted the correct rails sent to me. Huh?

Stand by for the next update. Thanks all..

Jeff

Jeff,

First, I want to say that I am sorry that this happened to you and I hope that Shopsmith L.P. makes it right. Since you are keen to get in touch with Nick, have you tried to contact him via his phone or physical mail address? You could start by going through the contact info listed for him on the private equity filing he did when he acquired the old Shopsmith. Hope this helps. See link below:

https://capedge.com/filing/1980786/0001 ... 3-000001/D

[dusty]

I personally would not throw all my support to the OP. I do not feel that the issue (what ever it is) has been fully and properly stated. I have revisited this thread at least a dozen times and even if I had resources available I am not certain that I could satisfy the OP.

Is the object to end up with a 510 table or a 520 table - I assume a 520 table with rails. Which table does the OP have.. It sounds to me as though what is needed is a set of 520 rails with a hole pattern that is different than todays 520 rails (center holes only being altered).

Why send the fence back???

I will continue to watch this but only from the far sidelines.

[RFGuy]

I personally would not throw all my support to the OP. I do not feel that the issue (what ever it is) has been fully and properly stated. I have revisited this thread at least a dozen times and even if I had resources available I am not certain that I could satisfy the OP.

Is the object to end up with a 510 table or a 520 table - I assume a 520 table with rails. Which table does the OP have.. It sounds to me as though what is needed is a set of 520 rails with a hole pattern that is different than todays 520 rails (center holes only being altered).

Why send the fence back???

I will continue to watch this but only from the far sidelines.

Dusty,

I think it is clear what the OP wants to do. Including it again below for reference. He simply wants to upgrade his 510 table system to a 520 one, but unfortunately the version of 510 table he has was a manufacturing version from Shopsmith that isn't the primary one sold any more. I can't speak to this issue and will let what other forum members have said regarding this manufacturing variant stand on its own merit. I simply wanted to provide the OP with additional information should they choose to want to follow-up with Shopsmith since customer service has proved inadequate thus far for him. By the way, the OP's last post said he didn't want to return the entire upgrade kit, but customer service required he send all of it back so that they could credit him and potentially send him the correct replacement.

I waited many years to upgrade the rail assembly and fence on my Mark 510. Purchased the system in 1986 (Serial number 004262). So I recently purchased the MARK V 510 to MARK 7 Pro Fence Upgrade (555982) and attempted the installation this weekend.

On both the front and rear rail assemblies, the middle hole does not align with the main table holes. Certainly, I am not the first to experience this.

Could someone please explain?

[dusty]

Yup. That is sorta what I understood. Thanks for the confirmation. Now I say it again...drill two holes and go make saw dust.

OR spend BIG bucks and buy a current 510/520 table.

[RFGuy]

Yup. That is sorta what I understood. Thanks for the confirmation. Now I say it again...drill two holes and go make saw dust.

OR spend BIG bucks and buy a current 510/520 table.

Dusty,

Why do you so easily forgive a company's mistakes? Shouldn't any company that makes an error on their part correct it with their customer? Any company that wants their reputation to stay intact should/would address mistakes that they have made. We will just have to wait and see if Shopsmith L.P. ships the correct 520 rails that match the holes on the variant 510 table that the OP has. I believe David, Russ and JPG all confirmed that this other variant of the 510 table exists and the OP gave his serial number of his vintage 510 to Shopsmith L.P. customer service when he placed the original order. Other than unknowingly, at the time, accepting an incorrect shipment from Shopsmith L.P., what exactly did the OP do wrong here???

[dusty]

The OP did nothing wrong except maybe expect full support of a version that has long been out of production and infact masy never have been in "production". I may be wrong but I believe this model has been refered to in this thread as "pre-production".

[DLB]

The OP did nothing wrong except maybe expect full support of a version that has long been out of production and infact masy never have been in "production". I may be wrong but I believe this model has been refered to in this thread as "pre-production".

Shopsmith markets two versions of the 510 to 520 upgrade kit. One they refer to as pre-1986, the other as 1986 and on. The OP has a 1986 510 that he bought new, and that evidently has what Shopsmith now calls a pre-1986 main table (or perhaps table system). In any case Shopsmith sent him a 1986 and on upgrade kit and it appears that he simply needs the other version.

- David

[dusty]

The OP did nothing wrong except maybe expect full support of a version that has long been out of production and infact masy never have been in "production". I may be wrong but I believe this model has been refered to in this thread as "pre-production".

Shopsmith markets two versions of the 510 to 520 upgrade kit. One they refer to as pre-1986, the other as 1986 and on. The OP has a 1986 510 that he bought new, and that evidently has what Shopsmith now calls a pre-1986 main table (or perhaps table system). In any case Shopsmith sent him a 1986 and on upgrade kit and it appears that he simply needs the other version.

- David

But apparently the OP has a third version which, unfortunately, predates the conversion kits.

[DLB]

But apparently the OP has a third version which, unfortunately, predates the conversion kits.

Now I understand what you are saying, but I didn't see anything in the thread evidencing this. There are clearly at least three versions of main table because there is the one in the OP's picture, the later 510 version that Russ posted, and the current version with no ribs between the miter slots. But that is only evidence of two "hole patterns" as the version Russ posted and the current version look different but they have the same hole patterns. Since the version that Russ posted has four mounting bosses per side it is also possible (even likely?) that it supported two different hole patterns at different phases of production. But I think that even if this were the case, this alternative hole pattern would likely match the OP's. So if there is anything here that suggests a third hole pattern, I missed it.

- David

[dusty]

The mounting bosses are are clues to something but I am not sure of what. I have a table with four mounting bosses and only three holes. Interestingly, the boss not associated with a hole could not be because of a support rib on the underside of the table.