Shopsmith Forums

I have used a slim center punch, an awl or even a large needle to remove the soft plug and managed to reinstall it after finishing service work. fjimp

Geez! Are y'all REALLY worried about refilling the hex socket in the set screw. It is such a PITA to remove that I cannot appreciate WHY anyone would want to fill it back up.

It is filled to minimize the possibility of a person (who does not know the purpose of the screws) inadvertently loosening them. Once you dig them out you have become very aware of their purpose and do NOT need to be protected from yourself.

JPG40504 wrote:Geez! Are y'all REALLY worried about refilling the hex socket in the set screw. It is such a PITA to remove that I cannot appreciate WHY anyone would want to fill it back up.

It is filled to minimize the possibility of a person (who does not know the purpose of the screws) inadvertently loosening them. Once you dig them out you have become very aware of their purpose and do NOT need to be protected from yourself.

I must admit that it has never even crossed my mind to fill one back in.
I looked at it as about like putting the cap back on an empty pop bottle.

robinson46176 wrote:I must admit that it has never even crossed my mind to fill one back in.
I looked at it as about like putting the cap back on an empty pop bottle.

YEP! You would have to take it off again(the pop bottle top) to use it as a 'necessary' container!:D

The plug does serve to keep other debri out of the hole, of course a piece of electical tape will do the same thing.

Instead of a nylon plug like they used to fill the hole with, I have (or, should I say "had") a soft metal insert that had been pounded into the hole. I tried using a screw extractor, but the metal was too soft, and I just dug a channel. I have most of the plug chipped out, but there is a sleeve stuck in the hole's threads. I figure I now need to tap the hole to clear the threads.

1) What is the diameter and thread pitch for the hole so I can get the correct tap?

2) Does the setscrew at the bottom of the hole use the standard 5/32" wrench, or is it a different size?

Thanks again for your help.

gutterman wrote:The plug does serve to keep other debri out of the hole, of course a piece of electical tape will do the same thing.

Debris one can blow out(if for some reason it was bothering some thing/one). The putty(or whatever) gets hard and is difficult(PITA) to remove.

tryinhard wrote: Instead of a nylon plug like they used to fill the hole with, I have (or, should I say "had") a soft metal insert that had been pounded into the hole. I tried using a screw extractor, but the metal was too soft, and I just dug a channel. I have most of the plug chipped out, but there is a sleeve stuck in the hole's threads. I figure I now need to tap the hole to clear the threads.

1) What is the diameter and thread pitch for the hole so I can get the correct tap?

2) Does the setscrew at the bottom of the hole use the standard 5/32" wrench, or is it a different size?

Thanks again for your help.

Antbody know WHAT he is referring to? It sounds to me as if he is describing what is left of the setscrew after 'extraction' and 'chipping'. If so the original threads were 5/16-18(the same as most others) with a 5/32" hex(allen wrench socket).

tryinhard wrote: Instead of a nylon plug like they used to fill the hole with, I have (or, should I say "had") a soft metal insert that had been pounded into the hole. I tried using a screw extractor, but the metal was too soft, and I just dug a channel. I have most of the plug chipped out, but there is a sleeve stuck in the hole's threads. I figure I now need to tap the hole to clear the threads.

unless a previous owner did something really odd, you just need to use something like a dental pick to clean the old filler out of the threads.

With a little more work, I got the setscrew out. (I really wish they had used nylon instead of that soft metal stuff for the plug!!)

So, after removing the setscrew, no joy. The feed stop shaft could not be moved any closer to the housing no matter what I did.

Looking at the quill shaft assembly through the access (hand) hole and outside the headstock, everything looks just like the post from bucksaw. My clip ring appears to be the same distance away from the spring housing as in the pictures posted. The only difference is when I put the feed stop assembly on the shaft, verifying the washers are in the proper order and orientation, the dial/indicator stands out from the spring housing by an 1/8" gap, which does not exist in the posted photos.

At this point, I think I will leave well enough alone.

Thanks again, Mike