Shopsmith Forums

I use the Shopsmith to clean and shine the tubes. I brought a Mini lathe chuck ($30 on Ebay) with a 5/8" hole in the mounting plate. I used .002 shim to tightly fit it on the 5/8" molder/dado arbor and used a dial indicator to make sure the chuck was centered on the arbor. I tighten the nut then and had the mounting plate welded onto the arbor. I cut off the arbor shaft even with the front of the mounting plate with it mounted on the Shopsmith and a hack saw.

[ATTACH]908[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]909[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]910[/ATTACH]

I find that I use the lathe chuck for other tasks. I made slotted mounting holes for the rubber wheels so I could center whatever I was spinning.

Bill Mayo

mranum wrote:Not really its just an old Montgomery Wards metal lathe with a 30" bed so you run a steady rest near the end and then flip the tube end for end.

Where theres a will theres a way.

I wondered if I could put a regular chuck on my smith. I guess so. I'll have to look into that. Nice work on the steady rest too.

ShopSmith owners/users are geniuses. Everyone of them seems to be very adaptable.

I think I remember seeing 3 & 4 jaw chucks on eBay that fit a 5/8 plane shaft. Try searching for "lathe chuck". They don't show up very often so you may have to try several times.

PSI Woodworking L5818 Headstock Spindle Adapter (Shopsmith 5/8-Inch to 1-Inch 8tpi chuck)

Once you get the adapter above for $16.95 with free shipping you can put almost any chuck you want on the Shopsmith.

Thanks, never thought about this solution. This is much easlier and cheaper than welding and a much wider range of chucks are available for this mounting.

Bill Mayo

paulmcohen wrote:PSI Woodworking L5818 Headstock Spindle Adapter (Shopsmith 5/8-Inch to 1-Inch 8tpi chuck)

Once you get the adapter above for $16.95 with free shipping you can put almost any chuck you want on the Shopsmith.

Thanks for the heads up. Guess it pays to look around a bit.


Matt.

Hi,

Just a little heads up on this adapter. It is not made in America.

The one I have had a problem with the set screw coming loose. When I talked to them on the phone they said yes they knew of the problem but they could do nothing about it. After some discussion it was clear they had no idea what they were talking about design wise.

With my mechanical design background I had not gotten in to metric set screw design but pullled out my books and found they had matched the most loose fits that there are. I supplied then with the "fix" but never heard back from them.

As a fix for mine I got a longer set-screw with as close to full depth as I could find and the removeable lock-tight. It still worries me and I have been thinking of drilling and tapping a new position 90 deg off and using a standard set screw that uses the shopsmith size wrench.

So when some of you buy this please let us know how the set screw issue is now a days.

Ed

We're getting really good at this. The question that opened this thread was
"What's the best cleaner/polish".

The last six to eight posts have been some sort of hardware related. I'm sure glad I don't have to do serious research on this forum.

mranum, What did you use to clean up your 10er? A lot of elbow grease, a lot of TLC and what else? It sure looks nice. Congratulations on a job very well done.

billmayo, I don't have any tubes that need to be cleaned up but I'm going to find a way to justify developing the capability that you have shown here. It looks so simple but at the same time is very effective. I'm sort of surprised that SS doesn't offer a tailstock of sorts as an accessory.

"We're getting really good at this. The question that opened this thread was
"What's the best cleaner/polish".

The last six to eight posts have been some sort of hardware related. I'm sure glad I don't have to do serious research on this forum."

Dusty I think you will find I have had this same complaint but the "flow" is otherwise on this forum so I just gave up and just float with the current. I think the exception is the case where the thread stays on subject... and indeed it is often we end up with 3 or 4 or 5 subjects in any one thread.

So as you see the thread is now taking about "We're getting really good at this". The truth be told we have always been really good at it, in fact we might be the best I've ever seen.

The answer is "elbow grease".

Ed