Shopsmith Forums

wa2crk wrote:Tom
The headstock is easier to lift and handle if you extend the quill a few inches to give a better handhold.
Bill V

TomH wrote:Latest update!

First a clarification...when I said Sue told me a resounding NO to my working on the issue, that wasn't meant in a bad way, in fact, she is saving me from screwing something up which is a good thing! She was very helpful in explaining why I didn't want to take that part of the headstock apart on my own.

Princess? Haven't been called that in a long time! I probably wouldn't have noticed it except I can run A/B comparisons with the old head stock and one vibrates the other doesn't. (Ok, maybe not as bad as a real jackhammer Shouldn't do this when I'm ticked off! Mea culpa)

Yup, have waxed it twice including the gear teeth on the bottom side. Didn't really change anything.

As for wearing in the parts, I did have to do that with my BMW motorcycles...600 miles then change the oil, then good to go forever with regular oil changes but have never had to do that with power tools. So maybe that's the deal, I just need to use it a bunch and see if things straighten out.

I did receive a call from SS, they have been reading the forum (Big Brother...good for them, that's the right way to use a forum) and they want me to send it back again. I didn't get a chance to return the call but will do so on Monday.

Have mixed feelings about sending it back yet again. First off, it's not an easy job for me to take it off, pack it and get it up the stairs. I'm not able to lift that much weight any more so I have to get help. But more importantly, what's going to be different this time? If that was as good as it's going to get and nothing is being harmed internally, what do I gain? If I was SS, I'd just ship me a new headstock in exchange for this one and use this one for learning purposes in the lab. Gotta be cheaper than shipping this thing back and forth and working it.

I'm thankful that they are willing to continue to work on this but will wait until I can talk to SS again and see what they think they can do. With the holidays, etc. I'm assuming I'll be without my headstock for at least another 3 weeks or so.

charlese wrote:Having trouble lifting the PowerPro down or up to the way tubes was a problem for me. Also fitting the headstock into the padded box for shipping.

I made a simple cradle sling - It helped immensely!!! No need to lift on the spindle/

PowerPro Sling.jpg

TomH wrote:UPDATE!

Returned Jim McCann's call this morning. He seems to be the master Headstock engineer. Great guy, very concerned about customer satisfaction, gave me a wonderful education on how that part of the headstock works and the changes from the old to the new set up. New bearings, etc. due to much higher speeds than the old SS. (BTW, he also gave me his personal cell phone # to call him, now that's customer service!)

He had notes on my headstock and indeed the quill was not within specs for concentricity and that was corrected along with making sure everything else was back to spec. When it left his shop, it was smooth, quiet and the quill retracted on it's own all the way. So the guess is Fedex dropped it along the way somewhere and knocked some things out of alignment. I did a test at his request and if you extend the quill and lock it in place, the vibe and noise goes away thus indicating something moved during shipping.

As for just getting a replacement head, that's good news for all of us, so-so news for me. They are swamped with orders right now and truly do not have any spares! That's good news because it means good biz for SS so we can all continue to enjoy our SS. So-so news for me as I will have to ship it back but Jim has committed to working on it ASAP and sending it back. So in the long run, very good news for me too as Jim is certain he can get this cleared up.

So, Jim is shipping me a return box, back it will go and I'll wait to see how it returns. All in all, this is the best solution available. Stand by for more updates when I get it back!