Extra Carriage?

ungawa · Post by **ungawa** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 1:46 pm

Has anyone added an extra carriage to their Mark 5. Whenever I change the height of my saw table it is difficult to change the height of the support table. I was thinkin of adding a extra carriage to the unit and the height of the suppot table would be much more easy to adjust. Has any on done this? If so how did it work out for you? Thanks

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:09 pm

I just use a straight edge laid on edge between the two tables. Then adjust the table till the edge is flat on the table.

ungawa · Post by **ungawa** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:18 pm

Yes, that is what I do. But once I get the height of my blade were I want it I do not want of move it, so I end up adjusting the support table with the hand adjuster things and they seem to be either really loose or really tight making it difficult fine tune the height of the support table.

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 7:11 pm

get some fine wet/dry sand paper and pull the support table out. Use the sand paper to clean and polish the support tubes as well as the inside of the support bracket. Take the stop collars and do the same thing to them. Then you can wax the tbes and collars and inside the support bracket and you should not have any problems moving it up and down. I had to this to my whole machine when I got it recently. Nothing moved easily due to many years of oxidation and rust. Once polished and cleaned/waxed everything moves nice now.

efmaron · Post by **efmaron** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 3:57 pm

I do the same thing as beeg, except I use a 4' aluminum level which is more stable on the main table while adjust the support table.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:57 am

ungawa wrote:Has anyone added an extra carriage to their Mark 5. Whenever I change the height of my saw table it is difficult to change the height of the support table. I was thinkin of adding a extra carriage to the unit and the height of the suppot table would be much more easy to adjust. Has any on done this? If so how did it work out for you? Thanks

Yes, I have mounted a second carriage on the Mark V and it works (as long as it is not in the way of other operations). I did it to see if it could be done and if the tables could be accurately aligned to one another. I feel that it worked very well. If you use your Shopsmith as a dedicated table saw, this would be a very useful configuration. If you use the Shopsmith as a 5 in 1, I would not recommend this configuration; the second carriage is too often in the way.

ungawa · Post by **ungawa** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:50 am

Thanks everyone. Dusty BTW I was in the air force also.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:48 am

Those days (in the AF) were good times...but oh so long ago. It is hard for me to believe that I retired thirty one years ago. I've had two other careers since retiring.