Shopsmith Forums

Dusty, what is the black thing that is attached to your way tubes in your second picture?

mmorris wrote:Dusty, what is the black thing that is attached to your way tubes in your second picture?

That's a Lift-Assist. Great idea. I really love mine.

rkh2 wrote:Ivan

I will try to get some pictures of the different stages of making the rattle and post them when I get them organized. As for how big of a bowl can you turn with the UTR, I am not sure but I would think that it would not reduce too much the diameter compared to without using the UTR. I really like using the UTR as it makes it so easy to adjust the tool rest to different positions and I would be lost without it.

Ron,

I am looking forward to your post on the rattle making.

thanks for the UTR info. I keep hearing good things about it. I definitely want one.

Ivan

dkerfoot wrote:The Universal rest does not reduce the size of a bowl you can make, but the lowest speed does. I turned a 12" bowl from green wood before getting my speed reducer. It worked, but was unpleasant and scary. At that speed, the shavings feel like needles hitting your hand. Right after that I sprang for the speed reducer if that tells you anything.

thanks for the info. the UTR is on my want list. I have already gotten the speed reducer but have not tried it yet.

Ivan

Thanks for all the info guys on the UTR including pictures. I plan on getting one as soon as I can, it is not cheap. On the other hand my turnings to start have been very unpleasant two small bowls and some pens. My SS chatters and vibrates through the machine down into the legs like ridiculous unless I take very small cuts. This is very annoying because it takes for ever to rough anything out.

I have a post 84 SS so I am assuming it has the double quill bearings but it is only a 500. My plan is to replace the way tubes with solid round metal stock which will add a good amount of extra weight to my SS plus adding the UTR. I hope these two additions will making turning smoother without all the vibration and racket.

For you owners of the UTR were you having issues before going to it what has it done for you since?

ericwil76 wrote:My plan is to replace the way tubes with solid round metal stock which will add a good amount of extra weight to my SS plus adding the UTR. I hope these two additions will making turning smoother without all the vibration and racket.

lots of us will be very interested if you find a good source for precision ground round rods the correct size.

please keep us posted.

Ivan

ericwil76 wrote:
For you owners of the UTR were you having issues before going to it what has it done for you since?

While I love the UTR, I did not get it for vibration I don't recall having that big an issue. I would make sure you have the two bearing quill and if possible check run-out. If you are going spindle turning check the alignment of the tail-stock. Maybe someone else to recommend that else might be causing the excessive vibration.

Do you get the vibration when you use the table saw? Just a silly question but you are not trying to turn while the caster are lowered.

Some years back on another forum we we discussing the subject of how to add some weight to the shopsmith. I tried to find it but had no luck so I checked some notes I took at the time.

Keep in mind this is general information. The assumption was that the tubes are all 4 feet long. The closest tube we could find was 1-7/8 OD by 1.499 ID. A 4 foot section of this weighs in at 13.55 pounds. We never had anyone weigh a shopsmith tube so this has to be taken for what it worth.

The next stop was finding round stock of the right size. Struck out there but did find that round stock that is 1-1/2" by 4 feet weighs 32.72 pounds, when you get to 2" it was 42.7 pounds. I guess you can do the math to get the weight for the correct size tube but without the math lets say 35 pounds.

Now unless you never want to raise the headstock this means you will only want to do the bottom tubes. The two existing would be about 27 pounds and if you replace them they would be about 70 pounds or an increase of 43 pounds.

Now we are talking cold roll 1045 steel and a 4 foot section of 2" would cost about $55, a 1-1/2 was $50. If you could find the correct size it might be in that range as well so expect to spend about $100 for the metal. Heaven forbid if you were to have is shipped... add another $30 or more as a guess.

Most of these places that sell cut sections are in the +/- 1/4" range so you will more then likely have to re-cut it to size it.

Anyway a few more things for you to think about.

Ed

Uhm I have checked everything anyone has mentioned for problems except runout and weather or not I have a two bearing quill. I am not sure what someone meant by casters down though.

I already have a source for the solid round bar stock here locally not hard to get and they can cut me any length I need to close tolerance. I will post some pics when I pick it up.

What am I looking for on the two bearing quill anyone have any pictures for comparison?

I watched the SS video and went out and pulled the quill it is a two bearing but the second bearing has some play in it for sure and there is some slap back and forth on top of the run-out on the second bearing. This could still be within normal tolerance for the SS not sure but seems to much to me. Should this be rock solid and smooth with no perceivable run-out or slap let me know. The front bearing I can not induce any run-out by hand but can on the tail end just be rocking the shaft back and forth its slight but it is there.