Shopsmith Forums

I had better success sanding the badly rusted tubes while spinning them on my modified Shopsmith. I use a 3X21 belt sander and change belt grits as the tubes clean up. This works very quickly too. You will never remove too much material to effect anything as I have successfully installed Shopsmith headstocks on Clone 1.675" tubes. This is .075" smaller tubes so you should never be able to sand that much off the Shopsmith tubes. Just need a method to spin the tubes.

I find the 10ER tubes cleans up and polishes much nicer than the Mark V tubes for the same rusty finish. The 10ER tubes do not appear to pit as deeply as the Mark V tubes and was made from a better grade of steel plus beening much stronger and heavier. I have installed 10ER tubes on all my personal Mark V Shopsmiths.

Thanks for the tips guys! I think I'm going to rig some sort of turning jig. Since I don't have one of those chucks with the jaws, I like the idea of the threaded rod. I can always use threaded rod for other projects later.

Shop time this weekend was devoted to my Mark V. I got parts in the mail from Bill Mayo and from SS to replace my speed control mechanism, and she is now running perfectly. I'm building a sled for resawing on the bandsaw; it's glued-up and clamped right now.

Thanks again Bill!

v/r,

Rick