Shopsmith Forums

dusty wrote:I don't have any problem making square boards round....so long as diameter doesn't matter. Getting one turned down to all the different dimensions correctly seems to be my challenge.

I do fairly well at getting my dimensions but I seem to be highly skilled at suddenly removing large chunks with a skew. I believe a couple of tools are misnamed. I seldom gouge with a gouge but just when I think I am mastering some of it I "gouge" with the skew. I am guilty of scraping a lot with it to avoid gouging.


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I bought a Shopsmith in 1980 and my favorite feature at that time was the lathe, although I haven't used the lathe function much in the past few years. I've been saving some firewood pieces showing some figure or spalting that likely will get used for turnings when the weather warms up a bit.

I can say however, that my least favorite is the table saw function. I just find it awkward to use and requiring too much fiddling to get everything right. The tilting table doesn't win any prizes with me either. Guess that's why I own a Unisaw.

All-in-all though it's the versatility of the Shopsmith that I find amazing. You can do virtually anything in woodworking with an attachment you can buy or make and the projects produced speak for themselves.

It's a toss-up for me. I enjoy turning and use the lathe function quite a bit, however use the band saw almost as much preparing my turning blanks and also enjoy making toys for my grand-children on the band saw so I would have a hard time placing one in front of the other. With that said, I would be at a loss without all the other functions of the SS being in a small shop such as I have.

My mostest bestus tool in the shop is my HVLP sprayer. Not only cause it is a great setup, but cause if I am spraying, that means I'm almost done with a job! My wife smells lacquer, and says, "Ahh, the smell of money!". My spray set up is a Capspray HVLP. They used to be built by Wagner, but I guess now Capspray is a stand alone company. I highly reccomend it. jimsjinx

Pleeeease don't make me choose just one.

In spite of the "bad rap" it gets, my favorite function of the shopsmith is the tablesaw. I also enjoy the bandsaw and the lathe, but I find the circular table saw to be an amazing invention, and the shopsmith varity of it is astounding! I like using a crosscut sled, auxilliary fence w/featherboard, raised panel jig, dado blades, etc. I like the tilting table inspite of its eccentricities and LOVE the fact that I can tweak the quill rather than fuss with the fence. I just plain like operating a table saw. At my last job we had a uni-saw, and I enjoy using my Mark 5 more. Go figure! Alec

At the moment I guess for a table saw I'll stick with using my 8 year old Craftsman. I know there are better, more expensive saws out there buy this does the job for me. 30"x24" cut width. Once I got the fence aligned it works pretty good for me. I use my Mark V for everything else. I also have a 30 year old Craftsman 12" radial arm saw, a little scary but if you pay attention to what you're doing it works good. I'm lucky to have options.

I have a back saw and a machinists square my Dad left me. I always feel connected to my family using those tools.

On the SS my favorite is whichever version I'm using at the time.

hey dasgud! how's things?? the leg is getting better everyday. i should be back to work in a couple of weeks?????

my favorite all time is the "ShopSmith"!!! now i have a new to me, one. i have cut, turned and drilled some scrap and used every function, plus the bandsaw, router setup, air compressor and dado blades that came in the deal. just cant seem to get enough time in each day to be with it!!! my wife thought she had lost me to my older motorcycle when i got it, but the shopsmith is far away the winner!!

out of all, my most like function is the lathe as turning is my first love......freeform is next with flatwork following...

take care, bill

Funny how many of you picked the lathe option on the shopsmith as your favorite tool (or close to the top of your list). Wonder why most of you just didn't purchase a stand-alone lathe. A lathe that has the same capacities of a shopsmith in lathe mode is a whole lot cheaper and easier to set-up and use.