Shopsmith Forums

I went down to the woodshop this evening to take a couple of pictures of the Mark VII casters since they are so different. I ended up taking a number of Mark VII pictures to show some of the things I have been trying to describe. They are pretty large pictures so I just uploaded them to my photo site. If you go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robinson46176
And look at the album called Shopsmith stuff there are the pictures and some descriptions.
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You will notice right off that I have not even cleaned that Mark VII beyond blowing it off a little.

robinson46176 wrote:I went down to the woodshop this evening to take a couple of pictures of the Mark VII casters since they are so different. I ended up taking a number of Mark VII pictures to show some of the things I have been trying to describe. They are pretty large pictures so I just uploaded them to my photo site. If you go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robinson46176
And look at the album called Shopsmith stuff there are the pictures and some descriptions.
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You will notice right off that I have not even cleaned that Mark VII beyond blowing it off a little.

Thank You for showing us your 'pets'. Most of us have seen few images of it especially inside shots.

The VII came out just after I bought my Goldie and I remember lamenting the fact that 'had I waited......'. In retrospect I am fortunate I did not. I thought then(and still do) that it was a more useful model. Had I gotten one instead, I would have probably acquired the cam problem.

robinson46176 wrote:I went down to the woodshop this evening to take a couple of pictures of the Mark VII casters since they are so different. I ended up taking a number of Mark VII pictures to show some of the things I have been trying to describe. They are pretty large pictures so I just uploaded them to my photo site. If you go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robinson46176
And look at the album called Shopsmith stuff there are the pictures and some descriptions.
-
You will notice right off that I have not even cleaned that Mark VII beyond blowing it off a little.

Francis I enjoyed looking at all your pictures but I feel sorry for whatever is in that clump of fur under the snow!

Do you think the flip up/down caster is original or maybe a retro fit? It seems I may have missed out on the Mark V11. It is not in the new edition of the trader. I never called about it deciding to gather this information first. As they say snooze you loose. I am interested in finding one locally in good shape though.

Mark

This is just FYI, but I believe you could make a new cam from plate aluminum which would work by using some hand tools and your shopsmith SPTs. Racks and spur gears are available in different sizes and materials from McMaster-Carr. It would involve some work, but it is doable. You would only need a profile of the cam before it melts.

mbcabinetmaker wrote:Francis I enjoyed looking at all your pictures but I feel sorry for whatever is in that clump of fur under the snow!

Do you think the flip up/down caster is original or maybe a retro fit? It seems I may have missed out on the Mark V11. It is not in the new edition of the trader. I never called about it deciding to gather this information first. As they say snooze you loose. I am interested in finding one locally in good shape though.

Mark

That is definitely an outside dog. There are several dozen good dry places she could walk in and lay down around the farmstead including the horse stable (a couple of the cats hang out there when they are outside). She also has a nice warm bedded igloo dog house on the patio out of the wind and where she can see inside through the patio doors while laying in it. She just likes to lay out in the snow or even in a down pour of rain. I would think she would at least go get under one of the trucks but, no, it doesn't seem to matter to her. Now her buddy that we have to keep in a big pen spends a lot of time in her igloo.
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I'm pretty sure those are factory casters. Not too handy.
That cam is different from the one I have stuck back. I'll have to get a picture of it. IIRC, it has a metal wrapping around the wear surface. I can't see that cam being that hard to make out of metal. It might be expensive to "have" made though. The speed control is direct (no gears out front) and you only turn it less than a full turn to go from full speed to the slowest setting. The Mark VII was an improved Mark V and they made several changes to it during the time it was produced. They just didn't keep going long enough to get a solid "debugged" version into production for mass sales. Putting it out with 2 weak spots may have at least partially led to their demise. Of course as they point out that was NOT Shopsmith Inc.
SS Inc. grabbed onto the "stable" version which was the Mark V rather than go to the expense of debugging the Mark VII. It may have even been something like the tooling for the Mark VII being gone when SS Inc. came along???

I "FINALLY" got a chance to put in a couple of very good hours at cleaning up some of the mess in the new, rapidly becoming more cluttered woodshop today. Much of the problem is that I don't have any organization set up in there yet so stuff just gets shuffled around. In the old shop I could clean stuff up quickly because I could walk around picking stuff up and there were places for it to be put away. In this new shop I just moved stuff in with a pitch fork and it was just getting worse because I would run in and clear a spot, do a quick job and run back out the door. If I had 10 minutes I couldn't put much away because there was no away...
Today I got a section cleared across the west end and started moving the Shopsmiths there (to high ground)
That west end wall is a few inches under 24' and 4 of my Shopsmiths will fit there as long as 2 of them are Mark VII frames since the Mark VII's are about a foot shorter than the Mark V's (The tubes are the same length, just the legs don't stick out as far).
I added 6 more pictures to my photo site in the "Shopsmith stuff" album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robinson46176
As soon as I get things "manured out" back halfway (about 24') I will slow down on cleaning and start building some storage stuff like shelves and hangers and actually organize that end of the shop. The east end may require dynamite...

In my humble opinion the MKVII was part of the reason for the failure of Magna American Corporation. Its introduction came at a critical time in the history of this company and its intro had many problems. It missed its initial delivery date by several months causing difficulties with its major distributors. Due in September it did not hit dealer stock until mid December. Distributors had been pressed for inventory orders for the MKVII at the detriment to orders for the MKV and the Xmas Season for 1961 was a disaster.

This was on the heels of the introduction of a weak introduction of the SawSmith which was never really succesfull.

At the same time Magna American was being squeezed by Sears-Roebuck. Magna was the OEM manufacturer or roto-tillers sold through Sears under their own label and this contract accounted for a substantial portion of Magna's revenue.

At the same time Magna acquired a small company that made a 4-wheel garden tractor which was lacking in their product line but this aquisition just added to the dilution of financial resources.

Had Magna American Corp concentrated on strong marketing of the MKV and perhaps followed a different marketing strategy, they may have survived. An example of the management's short sightedness was a complete lack of marketing in the Southeast at a time when the retired population of FLA/GA was booming.

How do I know? I was there.

Is the dual tilt capability of the MKVII still a major advantage in the design of a multipurpose machine? If so, would a "MKIX" which uses this capability along with the PowerPro headstock (which is supposedly reversible) be worth any consideration for future design?

tryinhard wrote:Is the dual tilt capability of the MKVII still a major advantage in the design of a multipurpose machine? If so, would a "MKIX" which uses this capability along with the PowerPro headstock (which is supposedly reversible) be worth any consideration for future design?

The Power Pro headstock is a salvation for existing Mark 7s that no longer have a properly functioning headstock.

It is the combination of tilt both ways(headstock above the table for drill press and below the table for shaping etc.) and the reversing capability of the motor that gave the Mark 7 its unique capability(ignoring table improvements etc.) The Mark 7 added two new functions to the Mark 5(shaping and 'dust collection').

SS Inc. indoctrination efforts to distinguish its self by referring to its output as Mark Vs has spilled over to the Model 7 being referred to as a Model VII and has become so pervasive that most folks do not understand that the earlier models produced by Magna Engineering, Yuba, Magna American were Not Mark Vs nor VIIs.

I think Farmer probably nailed it when he alluded to the Mark 7 tooling not surviving the idle period during the 1970's.

I doubt SS Inc./FLK has sufficient resources to engage in an entirely new design and new model tool up effort.

BTW It was John Folkerth who founded SS Inc. I believe Bob is his son. John passed away about a year ago.

Would a speed change mechanism from a Mark V work in a Mark VII?
Thanks to all of you for responding to my question. I was hoping that repairs for a Mark V could be used.