Shopsmith Forums

I have several ER's one as lathe and one as drill press and two more in boxes. I also have a 520 and 510 I am thinking of taking my 510 and making a mini to use as a power station. So if anyone sees a extra set of way tubes and bench tubes lying around let me know. Also I read a mini is made by taking the way tubes and bench tubes and cutting them in half so if anyone has done this already may be a set of half bars lying around. I want to leave the option of putting it back to full size later. My son in law has his eye on them so maybe later he will get one or two of them.
Thanks

wlhayesmfs wrote:I have several ER's one as lathe and one as drill press and two more in boxes. I also have a 520 and 510 I am thinking of taking my 510 and making a mini to use as a power station. So if anyone sees a extra set of way tubes and bench tubes lying around let me know. Also I read a mini is made by taking the way tubes and bench tubes and cutting them in half so if anyone has done this already may be a set of half bars lying around. I want to leave the option of putting it back to full size later. My son in law has his eye on them so maybe later he will get one or two of them.
Thanks

Half is close, but the resultant bench tubes need to be 3/4" longer than the way tubes. If you are intending to make it a power station(no carriage/table) then cut a pair of way or bench tubes so that one 'half' is 3/4" longer than the other 'half'. i.e. cut a pair of bench tubes(52 3/4) to 26 x 26 3/4 or pair of way tubes(52) to 25 5/8 x 26 3/8. That way only two 'extra' tubes are used.

When 'shopping' for tubes, realize there are three versions out there(1 3/4" heavy walled e/er way tubes, 1 3/4" way and bench tubes(M5/V/VII/7) and 1 7/8" bench tubes on older gilmer goldies and greenies). ALL way tubes are 52" and ALL bench tubes are 52 3/4".

Please do not cut Model 10 way tubes!!!!

I just finished turning a greenie into a shorty or midi by trimming 16" off the way and bench tubes. I probably would have been smarter for my purposes to trim off 15" or perhaps just 14".

With the 16" cut off the tubes, I've maintained all of the functions of a full-sized Shopsmith while trimming it's footprint. Lathe and ripping capacities are about 18-19" and while it's a bit squat it still operates in drill press mode. Also, I can mount the belt sander or strip sander as well as a disk sander to turn it into a sanding station, although it's a tight fit with the disk only about 3/8" away from the left side of the table when set up this way. If I had left the tubes and inch or two longer, I would have been able to use the quill to feed the sanding disk into some stock to sand to length.

The previous owner had upgraded the quill and drive assembly to the poly v belt and two bearing spindle so it should be good to go for a while. I've not looked to see what size motor is in it.

Is it possible to cut the tubes so that you can mount an SPT on either end of the mini at the same time and run them both at the same time without having to adjust the headstock back and forth to either end of the shortened Mark V??? I have been going back and forth over whether to turn my refurbed 54' Greenie into a mini power station and save some room in the man cave and was wondering if this was possible or not? If i do it I will probably just buy another set of tubes to cut instead of cutting the originals.

wannabewoodworker wrote:Is it possible to cut the tubes so that you can mount an SPT on either end of the mini at the same time and run them both at the same time without having to adjust the headstock back and forth to either end of the shortened Mark V???

I don't thin so! If you did that, one of the SPTs would run in reverse. Without a reverse switch, the one running backwards would be the one on the saw spindle side.

wannabewoodworker wrote:Is it possible to cut the tubes so that you can mount an SPT on either end of the mini at the same time and run them both at the same time without having to adjust the headstock back and forth to either end of the shortened Mark V??? I have been going back and forth over whether to turn my refurbed 54' Greenie into a mini power station and save some room in the man cave and was wondering if this was possible or not? If i do it I will probably just buy another set of tubes to cut instead of cutting the originals.

Other than the beltsander(and strip sander in sharpener mode) and possibly the scroll and jig saws, what will operate on the right side 'simultaneously'? Once you decide WHAT you want to run simultaneously and where, then you can figger out what length to make it. The 4" quill range will help accommodate differing setups.

Set up what you plan to run on the right then determine how far from the end the headstock needs(can) be. Do the same for the left mounted things. then add those two lengths to the length of the headstock and subtract from the original total length to get amount to 'cut off. A consistent reference is the point where the tubes enter the end castings. Do include the coupler in those setups.

charlese wrote:I don't thin so! If you did that, one of the SPTs would run in reverse. Without a reverse switch, the one running backwards would be the one on the saw spindle side.

The belt sander can be run 'forward' from either side.

The scroll and jig saws do not care what direction they are being driven.

The strip sander MUST be run backwards on the right side to 'sharpen'.

SDSSmith wrote:As I recall, the newer version of the scroll saw requires longer tubes to run it on the right side. I don't have one currently to check.

How Come? What is different on the right side?