The wide seam(?) continues across the top of the "A"and the quill anti-rotation half dog screw hole has a wide round boss around it on the "B".
Again the cutaway areas on the "B".
As a side point of interest, notice the retaining ring in the "B" at the front of the main bearing bore. This ring is the same as the one retaining the back end. The "A" has a pair also, but none in the pix.
[attach]14440[/attach]
Finally the inside, bottom has similar differences.
Yes those are spider cocoons. These are stored outside at present.
I have an 'A' Series Headstock, with no top seam at all. Have you ever seen one without any seam on top other than this one?
Early A Series Headstock with no Top Seam.jpg
SN???
Interesting!
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Goldie(Bought New SN 377425)/4" jointer/6" beltsander/12" planer/stripsander/bandsaw/powerstation /Scroll saw/Jig saw /Craftsman 10" ras/Craftsman 6" thicknessplaner/ Dayton10"tablesaw(restoredfromneighborstrashpile)/ Mark VII restoration in 'progress'/ 10E[/size](SN E3779) restoration in progress, a 510 on the back burner and a growing pile of items to be eventually returned to useful life. - aka Red Grange
When I acquired this one it was then stuck back in the corner of the shop, and I don't remember the serial number sticking out in my mind as being really early, but it could be I guess. I will let you know.
Well I know why the serial number didn't catch my attention. The vent plate was off the belt cover, so I still have no clue on the vintage. I will hope Bill Mayo might weigh in. He has encountered many of the A series headstocks over the years.
I will have to find the bin this weekend where all the small parts that came with it is and see if it's in there.
Finally! 295702 from the vent plate which makes it an April 1955 vintage machine, and means there are at least two A series Headstock Casting series out there, as several others on the forums have 1954 vintage Greenies that pre-date mine, and others like the one JPG used in his illustration in the thread.
Still, these were done with Sand-Molds back in the day and there may have been a number of headstocks cast like this one, depending on how long the master it was made from existed without that piece on it that they made the sand mold from.
So the question still exists: How many others are like this one? Inquiring minds want to know.
How it was cast and how it looks can be two different things. Cast parts often have seams and other flash points that are cleaned up by grinding, by the way that was one of my early jobs working in a machine shop....
It is quite possible that a previous owner simply ground the seam away. If the cast metal was done well enough it would be quite hard to tell.
A similar technique is used on welds. Motorcycle frames come to mind, check out a custom one and they look like the welds are perfect, maybe they were or maybe they were made that way by grinding.
Ed
{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
reible wrote:It is quite possible that a previous owner simply ground the seam away. If the cast metal was done well enough it would be quite hard to tell.
Ed
I totally understand what you are saying. I acquired it and spoke with the original purchaser's family who said he had used it extensively since buying it in 1955 while in college. He was quite proud he kept it in service for most of 60 years.
It looks like what's left of the original paint is what's still there based on others I have. You can see much of that in the photo. I can contact him this weekend to see if it was ever painted or restored.
You are right though. If the casting wasn't great at the factory, even they could have ground it flush at Magna before painting it back in 1955 since it wasn't structural.
I am just trying to see if there are other castings out there like this one that folks have seen, restored, or still possess.
My gut feel is that this is as OEM as they came based on my conversation with him. I will let you know if I find otherwise.
Everett
Last edited by everettdavis on Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I had sent an inquiry to Shopsmith Customer Service and they responded with pretty much what we have discussed above.
Greetings Mr. Everett;
This is a very early "A" Headstock made during the very first year of production. All Headstocks made during the first year of production were made using a sand cast process rather than the die cast process that has been used on every Headstock since then. You can tell this is sand casting by the rough interior surface, heavier, thicker walls of the casting and no access port opening. The access port opening was only put into the casting with the change to the die cast Headstocks. Because of the rough surface of the sand casting, I believe the cast line on top was probably ground away during the "cleaning and smoothing" processing of the casting.
For your information... This line on the top of the Headstock is where the molten aluminum flows into the mold. The opening in a mold for the molten metal to flow, is called the "sprue". The wider line is on the sand cast Headstocks is to get more molten metal in the un-heated sand mold FAST, before it has a chance to cool. The line on the top of the headstock became narrower on the die cast Headstocks. Because, in a die casting, the molten metal is shot into a heated mold, under pressure through the sprue . Because of the pressure and the heated mold of a die casting, the sprue is narrower than that in a sand cast mold. We keep the line created by the sprue because we think it looks better. I think you'll agree.
So it likely was ground down to flush due to a low sprue line depth in original casting at Magna.
They were quite proud of the fact that even this headstock can be upgraded to a Power Pro.
I contacted both Bill Mayo and Jacob Anderson and got their thoughts on the uniqueness of this headstock and totally agree with their thoughts.
Bill Mayo said this one was unique to him in that he did not remember through the years seeing any A or B headstocks without the seam, and like Customer Service felt this casting was among the first cast as all ‘A’ headstocks fell into this category as the B headstock with the access port opening came in mid-1954 time frame and sand cast headstocks were made in the first year of production based on Shopsmith Customer Service, and that this one was perhaps among the very first ones cast. They actually used it in April 1955 to make a machine.
Bill also stated he believed they likely would take the closest headstock casing off the shelf each time Shopsmith assembled a headstock, so it was probable that some of the headstocks first in, were among the last out of the sand casted ones, and they probably stopped grinding the ridge off as ‘time was money’ as he put it.
I suspect they were cast, ground, sanded and painted and set in batches on shelves awaiting eventual use in production which could have come days, or months later.
There is no telling when a specific headstock was cast vs. when it became used on the assembly line and had a belt cover with serial numbered vent plate attached to it.
Jacob Anderson said that he believed he had indeed seen some come through his shop without a raised seam which would mean this casting would not have any increased historical value over other early Greenies that were sand cast that had a ridge, and though different than the norm, not exceptionally unique.
Understanding how cast headstocks may have been stored and used in a last-in-first-out scenario - which is also a first-in-last-out scenario, I doubt that we would ever find much definitive about them unless we can identify more like this one, and explore serial number ranges to see if there was any logical grouping of them in production.
If you have a Greenie without a top ridge, post the serial number if you would be so kind and we can learn more about any that are still out there.
