How to identify a Shopsmith...

McClellan Made Blades · Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:43 pm

beeg wrote:The diffs between the 500,510, and the 520. Is basically the table sizes . They all have the same base unit and headstock.

The new Power Pro ugrade can be done several ways. You can obtain a DIY kit, or send your headstock case in and have SS do the upgrade or just buy the plug and play headstock.

The Power Pro Upgrade, if I DIY it, how much cheaper is it? Because the price I saw, was the price of a new machine, like $2300.00, not sure what a brand new one costs, but that has got to be close!

So if I can figure out if I have a REAL Shopsmith, and it is say, the Mark V, what is a good price for it? He is asking $300.00/OBO, it has some rust on the bars which I should be able to either clean up or replace fairly inexpensively from what I've seen. And it has the saw and the front half of the lathe(which is probably the headstock) is all that he has with it, that's all he mentioned. I'm leaning more toward to the 200$ range, I may just fix it up, make it look new. I'm not looking to resell it, I need a table saw. And I really don't need a huge table, BUT I do need a good quality rip fence.

I have seen the ones where the guys have cut the bars down to make it shorter, more compact. Looks interesting, but I figure the guys that designed this machine were talented, well educated (or at least a lot smarter than me) men that went through the R&D to figure out the best size for it. My question is does that do any harm to the machine, maybe over time, or is it a matter of needing the machine to be more compact, and it is capable of working fine shorter or maybe longer? It doesn't look like it would hurt anything, but when I saw it, my curiosity got rubbed up, made me wonder about other mods folks have come up with. It is built to be versatile, which opens the door for those guys that have a lot of talent to come up with more stuff! Thanks for the help guys, Rex

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:19 pm

Here's the prices for each option.

http://www.shopsmith.com/shopsmithpower ... rchase.htm

oledoc2u · Post by **oledoc2u** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:39 pm

Feel like I'm butting in here, but after getting this thing last night, the serial # I read wrong from my Iphone. It is SS93360. I thought the S's were 8's. As soon as I find a way to down load some photos I will on a new thread. But I do thank you for your help. It has a router table w/ router, jointer, and a lot of fences, some tools. May be more than I really need. OH, and the switch IS a metal toggle.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:40 pm

Learn about all the parts and what come standard so you'll not only know what is missing, but can use that to bargain with him.

Cutting the tubes doesn't do any long term damage to anything other than the tubes themselves. There are a couple of "standardized" tube lengths that people seem to have settled on. Maybe someone can post that info. It's just a matter of modifying the machine to fit your space and usage requirements.

SDSSmith · Post by **SDSSmith** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:31 pm

oledoc2u wrote:Feel like I'm butting in here, but after getting this thing last night, the serial # I read wrong from my Iphone. It is SS93360. I thought the S's were 8's. As soon as I find a way to down load some photos I will on a new thread. But I do thank you for your help. It has a router table w/ router, jointer, and a lot of fences, some tools. May be more than I really need. OH, and the switch IS a metal toggle.

I would guess your machine was built around June, 1981

oledoc2u · Post by **oledoc2u** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 5:44 pm

SDSSmith wrote:I would guess your machine was built around June, 1981

thank you, soon as I can get the photos together I will share them on a new thread....but, I am thinking this may need to go to someone who can do more with it than me....stay tuned...

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:19 pm

oledoc2u wrote:thank you, soon as I can get the photos together I will share them on a new thread....but, I am thinking this may need to go to someone who can do more with it than me....stay tuned...

No way! You can handle this. Browse through this forum. You'll find that you are just the latest to take on the task. There have been many before you that have been extremely successful in restoring their machines to fully operational. This is one of the attributes of the Mark 5/V.

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:34 am

dusty wrote:No way! You can handle this. Browse through this forum. You'll find that you are just the latest to take on the task. There have been many before you that have been extremely successful in restoring their machines to fully operational. This is one of the attributes of the Mark 5/V.

And IMHO, it makes using the machine that much more enjoyable.
1. You restored it your self and that is a point of pride.
2. You have confidence in your machine because you know everything there is to know about it.

fixit · Post by **fixit** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:54 pm

One way to get the photos to your computer would be to send them to youself in either e-mail or a text msg. That will always work. Don't know if you have a new iPhone 5 but with the earlier models you can connect the charger to your computer with the USB plug and transfer the pics to your computer directly.

Hope this info is useful.

Welcome to the forum! You'll find ALL the help you need here and Shopsmith Customer Service is unmatched!

oledoc2u · Post by **oledoc2u** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 1:47 pm

Thanks for the confidence booster. The machine is actually in excellent shape. All the fences, attachements are there, and found the manual. What I meant was, there is more there than I will ever use since my hobbies are more in metal working. But it is a nice addition to my other tools. I will download the photos. I have 4 laptops in the house. We are computer poor. So I will get them up and start learning what I can do with this machine.