This Month in Shopsmith History!

[jpdalton]

This Month in Shopsmith History - September 1954
Meet the Press

Earlier in the spring of 1954, the team at Magna had been hard at work publicizing the release of the revolutionary new Mark 5, and as the fall of 1954 approached, the Marketing group kicked into their next gear with articles featuring their recent release, including a cover feature in the September 1954 edition of Mechanix Illustrated.
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Interestingly, the article doesn’t focus much on the workings of the Mark 5, so much as working with the Mark 5 - the article is really about the project much more so than the tool. Just the same, there are plenty of enticing action shots and descriptions of how the Shopsmith provides the unique capabilities for the home craftsman to pull off this project (hifi phonograph cabinet).
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It was all part of the media blitz promised to their retailers for the first year of Mark 5 production - consistent advertising with the staple publications (Popular Science/Mechanics), and then a few ads suited more for the parlor than the garage (Better Homes, Saturday Evening Post).
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[chapmanruss]

For January there is this day in Shopsmith history.

January 13,1972 John Folkerth incorporated Shopsmith, Inc in Oakwood, OH. This was the beginning of the Magna/Shopsmith tool line coming back after Magna American closed completely around three years earlier. It was still over a year before the first Shopsmith tools were for sale again under Shopsmith Inc.

Not quite history yet but on January 2, 2026, it was announced that Shopsmith USA has formed and acquired the Shopsmith line with CEO Andrew Deutsch. Fortunately for us this shutdown was only months as opposed to years for the 1960's to 1970's shutdown above.

While the Forum was unavailable the last few months we missed entry's for those months. I won't go back to cover them all but there was the most notable "This Month in Shopsmith History" that occurred on November 15, 1947, with the first 250 Shopsmith Tools made, the Model 10E, being shipped to the West Coast Montgomery Ward Stores that started it all. Two of those 10E Tools are shown below. Happy belated anniversary 1076 and 1077.
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[Nyth63]

Scott,

I just noticed that ChatGPT used me as a source. Not sure if I should be flattered. Item #11 in the second batch you posted was the Fandom Wiki page I had researched and put together six years ago. Most of those numbers in those tables came from Newspapers.com.

Kenn

[thedovetailjoint]

I just noticed that ChatGPT used me as a source.
Kenn

I'd leave at at "Be flattered" because the bots might be watching!

[jpdalton]

This Month In Shopsmith History - February 1955
Magna Steps Up Their Publishing Game

While the original blue edition of PTWFE had been a clear success for Magna upon its 1953 release, by 1955, the Mark 5 was in its initial heyday, and PTWFE had been updated to the familiar wood grain cover art and Mark 5-related content (that would remain largely unchanged through subsequent editions over the succeeding 25 years!). But a machine as revolutionary as the Mark 5 needed something more…

So, in their February/March 1955 edition of The MagPie employee newsletter, Magna announced to the team a companion volume covering a variety of projects suitable for building with the Mark 5, to motivate a growing DIY market:

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It was one of a number of successful collaborations with Fawcett Publishing that saw Magna products featured in various of their How-To publications during the 1950s and 1960s.

You can still find this book around today, and it won’t cost you a whole lot more than the original $2 for the “de-luxe, hard-cover edition”…

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[chapmanruss]

Here is a short but notable one for March.

March 20, 1954, the New Shopsmith Mark 5 is introduced.

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[jpdalton]

This Month in Shopsmith History - March 1955
"Women Are Taking Over SHOPSMITH" - Pioneering Shopsmither: Lila Zinatto!!

As I've poked around various publications documenting Magna's earliest days, I was really surprised to find articles highlighting a demographic I don't generally associate with the mid-50's DIY movement: women!

But there in the April-May 1955 issue of The MagPie employee newsletter is a front page article on one of Magna's Los Angeles-area retailers - Neiman-Reed Lumber & Plywood - sponsoring tool demonstrations and classes specifically targeted to an as-yet untapped potential market. And even more surprising for the era, the class was being conducted by a fellow female DIY-er!
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Interest in Neiman-Reed's egalitarian efforts also stretched beyond The MagPie, as a little more research found some articles and photos featuring the fetching instructor, Lila Zinnato, in the local Valley Times newspaper of the day. She was quite proud of that thread spool rack that she worked up on the SHOPSMITH, as you can see it featured in a number of these pictures.

A real pioneer, for sure!
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[thedovetailjoint]

That spool rack reminded me that Hans Goldschmidt actually patented a spool storage rack!

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[jpdalton]

That spool rack reminded me that Hans Goldschmidt actually patented a spool storage rack!

That is without a doubt the most awesome, random, Shopsmith-related factoid I could have ever imagined!

Bravo, sir! Bravo…

[davebodner]

I wonder if the ladies giving woodworking presentations had been working in factories 10 years earlier.