Shopsmith Forums

I have come to the conclusion, after several attempts to make modification to the saw guard/dust chute, that the simplest way to improve the dust collection is to extend the quill about an inch, there by moving the portion of the chute attached to the quill closer to the table tubes mounted portion, doing this closes the gap between the two halves, it still leaves some large gaps, but increases dust collection to 70% or more, this required a homemade zero clearance plate and as the pictures show the new blade position with the standard opening drawn on with a pencil. So if you have a 500 and this Saw Guard/ Dust Chute, this is a simple solution. Your thoughts?

If it works--that's great but I seem to be missing something. Why would dust collection be improved by doing this and would the same thinking apply equally to the 520 lower saw guard?

This chute designed is for the 500, the 520 chute to my understanding is a one piece unit when assembled, the 500 unit is 2 pieces, mounted separately and sort of come together when mounted, but in the Normal quill position they are apart enough top leave gaps of 1" or more. By doing this it closes the gap.One part is attached to the quill and moves with it, the 520 the complete chute is attached to the quill and moves as one piece so there isn't a need to make my change on the 520 system.

I guess I will have to see it to understand.

My lower guard assembles in much the same way and I have a pretty large gap too.
On my 510, I determined that the majority of the dust that was escaping came off of the blade as it rotated over the top and down into the lower saw guard. I simply blocked that flow path which forces the flow downward into the chute where the dust collector could pick it up.

Here is where I reduced most of the escaping saw dust.

Even the 510 is a vast improvement over the 500.The out half of the 500 dust chute mounts on the outboard of the table tubes, if it mounted on the inside it would be much better, but is molded to mount outside the tubes.

It has been a few years since I had a 500 set up with dust collection but I do not remember that large gap. I would have thought I would have noticed but I guess it is possible that I did not........

So if you don't mind a few more questions. When you use your machine as a saw you slide the table over until it hits the rubber ring on the way tube(between the headstock and the carriage)? When you do this the blade is pretty much centered in the table insert (with the quill retracted)? You are using the correct saw arbor for the 500?

Wish I had a machine to look at with this guard system installed. I just can't remember much about it.

Ed

The 1981 Mark V does not have the spacer ring, the directions in the owners manual says " Rack the table to its highest point, lock and slide carriage towards headstock until slotted screw on headstock side of carriage butts against headstock."

If I center the blade in the table insert, that makes the gap between the two sides Worse, so I moved the quill out to as far as possible to avoid hitting the table and that closes the gap between the 2 halves.

Now if you think I should be using a ring to space it, please tell me the width of your ring and I will make one and install it, and we will see if it makes it any better, I am using the SS Arbor for 5/8" arbor saw blades, as esee in the picture on this post.

I welcome your comments.

ALL shopsmiths shipped by shopsmith will have a ring. I don't know about ones before 1973 but after then they are in the parts list and should have been on the machine from the factory. Now there are two sizes of these, the 500 should have one that is about 3/8" wide.
The other change that I can remember was to the bumper on the quill. There was a change to that somewhere along the way but it should look like this:
From the pictures I can't really tell what arbor is on your machine but you can check as pictured here:
That dimension should be on the order of 1-1/4".

These three things will pretty much align the blade in the center of the table insert. If not then something else is wrong.

This is the same machine that came with wrong set screws, a missing spacer and now I have to wonder what other odd things......

Ed

jjbuzard wrote:The 1981 Mark V does not have the spacer ring, the directions in the owners manual says " Rack the table to its highest point, lock and slide carriage towards headstock until slotted screw on headstock side of carriage butts against headstock."

If I center the blade in the table insert, that makes the gap between the two sides Worse, so I moved the quill out to as far as possible to avoid hitting the table and that closes the gap between the 2 halves.

Now if you think I should be using a ring to space it, please tell me the width of your ring and I will make one and install it, and we will see if it makes it any better, I am using the SS Arbor for 5/8" arbor saw blades, as esee in the picture on this post.

I welcome your comments.

jjbuzard wrote:The 1981 Mark V does not have the spacer ring, the directions in the owners manual says " Rack the table to its highest point, lock and slide carriage towards headstock until slotted screw on headstock side of carriage butts against headstock."

If I center the blade in the table insert, that makes the gap between the two sides Worse, so I moved the quill out to as far as possible to avoid hitting the table and that closes the gap between the 2 halves.

Now if you think I should be using a ring to space it, please tell me the width of your ring and I will make one and install it, and we will see if it makes it any better, I am using the SS Arbor for 5/8" arbor saw blades, as esee in the picture on this post.

I welcome your comments.

I am not aware the carriage has had that screw spacer since the Mark 5 Greenie.

The plastic spacer is 3/8" at the way tube. One can be easily made from a piece of 2" pvc pipe. Cut a section out to allow slipping it onto the way tube.

I'd like to see a pix of this 'slotted screw on headstock side of carriage'.

I thought they went out a half century ago!

Actually I just cut a 3/8" spacer out of 2" pvc and slipped it on, and the screw that it hits is on the bottom headstock cover not the carriage, even though my owners manual says otherwise and the screw and the 3/8" spacer hit at the same time.