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wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:23 pm

Well I finished cleaning and rebuilding Shopsmith Mark V #3 today. This machine I acquired several weeks ago from an older gentleman who was moving to Florida and could not take anything with him. He wanted $85.00 for the Mark V and another $35 for a DC3300 dust collector that I also purchased. I did not really need a third Shopsmith but for $120 I could not pass up the deal. I also received a bunch of smaller accessory items I did not already have i.e. Shaper Fence, saw guards, carbide saw blades, etc. I was really excited when i went to see everything he had and could barely keep my mouth shut long enough to pay him and put it in the truck before he had a change of heart. He said to me as I was leaving that the other guy was really going to be upset when he found out it was sold already. The machine needed a complete rebuild as it would not spin up to speed before blowing the breaker. So i ordered all of the bearings and rebuilt the headstock and cleaned everything up as best i could without going too crazy as i did on my other machines. This one was in really good condition and really needed only to be cleaned up and have the headstock rebuilt. It was very dirty and smelled terribly of cigarette smoke. The whole machine had a yellow tinge all over it and it took quite a lot of cleaning to remove the cigarette stains. The dust collector was even worse especially the filter hood but i was able to get it cleaned up pretty well.

The other picture is of the band saw I acquired over the winter on a power stand. It didn't need anything but a good cleaning and i added a Kreg Band Saw fence as it did not come with one. I also added Cool Blocks and today I installed the new Woodcraft retractable casters I got on sale for $34.95. Tey are a greatly needed add-on and i really like them a lot. So next is to make the box joint jig I saw on the Saw Dust sessions and start making some stuff. Maybe turn my 54' Greenie into a shorty as well not sure yet on that though.

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:29 pm

By the way the speed control is somewhat stiff and hard to turn with just the little handle. I did clean and inspect the pork chop and the teeth were worn pretty good. I took the roll pin out of the toothed part of the pork chop and gingerly attempted to bend the arms back into a more straight orientation but was not too successful at doing that. I know I have read here that folks have put a bolt and nut in to replace the roll pin and that it made the speed control easier to function. Is this recollection correct or am I misunderstanding?? If it is true do you drill oout the arms for a bolt and nut and how does this cure the tough to turn problem? I did do the high speed adjustment today and it adjusted fine and the machine goes up and down the speed wheel fine it is just hard to turn it.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:44 pm

wannabewoodworker wrote:By the way the speed control is somewhat stiff and hard to turn with just the little handle. I did clean and inspect the pork chop and the teeth were worn pretty good. I took the roll pin out of the toothed part of the pork chop and gingerly attempted to bend the arms back into a more straight orientation but was not too successful at doing that. I know I have read here that folks have put a bolt and nut in to replace the roll pin and that it made the speed control easier to function. Is this recollection correct or am I misunderstanding?? If it is true do you drill oout the arms for a bolt and nut and how does this cure the tough to turn problem? I did do the high speed adjustment today and it adjusted fine and the machine goes up and down the speed wheel fine it is just hard to turn it.

You do not bore out the holes to take the screw - the 3/16"(#10) screw fits the hole. The arms are gently returned to their original position thus centering the worm gear over the quadrant gear. Any deformation of the quadrant gear that interferes with normal positioning must be filed off. Usually the arms spread apart and the screw and nut prevent that.

The reason it is hard to turn, is the worm gear is not meshing correctly with the quadrant gear and is mashing the teeth. Mashing requires extra force.! All that can be prevented by proper lubrication of both movable sheaves and not adjusting speed when not running.

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:21 pm

So if I understand you correctly I still need to do some filing of the mashed teeth I found when I took it apart??? Then remove roll pin and replace with #10 machine screw and nut (nylock) and then tighten enough to keep things in proper orientation but not too tight to cause the quadrant gear to not be able to move freely? I assume that somebody before I came along did not maintain the machine properly hence the teeth being boogered up pretty good. Can this be fixed or is it better to just replace the quadrant gear? I think you can only purchase a complete new speed assembly but i might be able to grab one off of Fleabay. Now I know why everyone loves the Power Pro so much................No more friggin' pork chop!

jcraigie · Post by **jcraigie** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:24 pm

You can also talk to Bill Mayo for a refurbished one with the bolt nut upgrade already done.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 1:42 am

wannabewoodworker wrote:So if I understand you correctly I still need to do some filing of the mashed teeth I found when I took it apart??? Then remove roll pin and replace with #10 machine screw and nut (nylock) and then tighten enough to keep things in proper orientation but not too tight to cause the quadrant gear to not be able to move freely? I assume that somebody before I came along did not maintain the machine properly hence the teeth being boogered up pretty good. Can this be fixed or is it better to just replace the quadrant gear? I think you can only purchase a complete new speed assembly but i might be able to grab one off of Fleabay. Now I know why everyone loves the Power Pro so much................No more friggin' pork chop!

You CAN get just the quadrant gear, but if the arms are not back to normal the worm gear will not mesh properly and proceed to repeat the damage. The damaged teeth must be filed to remove the part that has been mashed in to where it needs to be open. The arms need to be (carefully) put back to normal so the worm gear rides on the center and in line with the quadrant gear. Post a pix and we can be more specific(and more accurate).

BTW no more oiling every 10 hrs either!!!!

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:21 am

I will pull it out tonight and take some pics of it for your review. It did not look as though the arms were bent too badly when I inspected it yesterday but I suppose just a small amount of misalignment could cause an issue. I am going to get a screw and washers plus nylock nut and try that as well as filing the teeth back to normal again. I will post the pics tonight.

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:48 pm

Well I went and got me some 10 X 24 2 1/2" machine screws, washers and nylock nuts at one of my clients who distributes hardware and removed the speed changer tonight. I got some thin files from the wife's jewelry stash and took it all apart. I filed down the boogered up teeth on the quadrant arm and lubed it with some light fishing reel grease I had. I also lubed the inner shaft that the control handle goes on. The speed control now moves significantly easier especially going up higher. It is still somewhat tough to bring it down to the lower settings but I think that is by design. The quadrant moved smoothly when out of the machine so i am calling it good.

On another note I had gotten a Shopsmith branded drill chuck off of Fleabay and had it installed on my Mark VII. I went to remove it and the damn setscrew completely stripped out. I tried everything to get it out to no avail. So I got the drill out and started drilling. That didn't go very well either. I finally chucked up the new Mark V in drill press mode and started to drill it some more but the metal was to hard I assume even with a brand new Irwin Turbo bit. So I gave up on the drilling and decided to try to get it off in pieces. I was able to get the outer collet off then I cut the end of it off. So now i can see the end of the quill but I put it to rest for now. The chuck is toast but that isn't my biggest concern. I want to salvage the quill and should be able to do that once I finish cutting the rest of the drill chuck off of it.

Has anyone had this happen before? I am going to stick my head out and say that the Shopsmith branded drill chuck was not exactly what it was purported to be and that it has an inferior setscrew in it as I have not had this problem with any of the other accessories. I would bet the setscrew was made of some crappy soft material.

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:11 am

MAYBE that's why it was for sale on ebay?:)

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:38 am

beeg wrote:MAYBE that's why it was for sale on ebay?:)

Well it did have the Shopsmith logo printed on the barrel but that is an easy thing to copy I am sure. Lesson learned for sure. I have a Jacobs chuck that came with the new Mark V I just acquired and after cleaning it up I can say it is 1,000 times better a chuck than the "Shopsmith" branded one i bought on Fleabay. Oh well better luck next time to me.