Shopsmith Forums

Sorry, just read your tagline. I see you have a 520 bought new in ‘98. You might want to try the deflection test I described. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Matanuska

GreyOwl wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 1:24 pm You said that you are surfacing both sides and jointing one edge before cutting to size. Are you not jointing the first side before surfacing the second side? If not they won’t be flat.

I realized after the fact that or doing that was probably the issue. That’s what I meant by “surface jointing” one face prior to planing.

“not doing”

Matanuska wrote: ↑Sat Jan 18, 2025 10:02 pm The Shopsmith main table actually seems to provide very good support for horizontal boring, even without additional bracing.

Matanuska

RFGuy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 4:30 pm Well, I am glad you figured it out. Also glad you have such a wonderfully stable Mark V with a rigid main table. Sadly mine is NOT one I would characterize as such, no matter how much I stabilize it by connecting it to the aux table and using telescoping legs. Congrats!

My two 520/M7/M4 main tables deflect considerably under the force of typical horizontal boring like this and in the absence of added support. Enough so that I would consider it unusable for the purpose without the added support. I thought this was normal.(?)

- David

With 510 tables I keep the main table attached to the extension with tubes. A couple of times, including for sanding I lowered the table and put the workpiece on a platform of boards. That minimizes movement in the legs. Those boards have to be clamped down along with a fence board too. This worked well for sanding a bunch of small pieces to length using a board with a cutout to place the pieces in. For general joining with dowels I haven't encountered a real problem because the holes aren't that deep and slightly oversized leaving a little wiggle room. I don't recall doweling anything very hard though, something like cherry might be challenging.

The fence can flex enough to cause problems with sanding to get parallel surfaces. Clamping a backup board behind the fence should help with that.

DLB wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 3:06 pm My two 520/M7/M4 main tables deflect considerably under the force of typical horizontal boring like this and in the absence of added support. Enough so that I would consider it unusable for the purpose without the added support. I thought this was normal.(?)

David, the deflection test I did only considered a downward pressure from my hand on the left side of the main table. I did not test deflection due to drill bit pressure which I now remember can be considerably more. I think your experience is normal. Taking all of this into consideration any future horizontal boring I do will have the main table tied to the end table at a minimum with the possibility of adding telescoping legs at the far end. and making sure the boards I'm trying to join aren't warped! Along the same lines when my SS is in drill press mode without leg support I've seen noticeable deflection due to the bit pressure as well. I've also had issues with the table carriage sliding down the main tubes because my carriage lock wasn't tight enough. Leg support is good.

Steve

Gorilla pressure on the quill in any mode is not good.

Whenever I have done horizontal boring I found that I had to clamp the work piece firmly down on the table. I use the Mark 500 fence to square the work but it is wholly incapable of backing up the work when drilling. I clamp a second piece behind the fence to provide further support. If I am doing alot of horizontal boring, I remove the bolts used to level the table in drill press mode and place a piece of wood there to provide a convenient surface for clamping the workpiece. Needless to say this increases the tedious nature of horizontal boring and slows the process but it seems to prevent movement during the drilling. With that said, I have not yet done anything that is so precise that I would notice small movement of the table itself.

Hi GEC;
I am glad to hear another Mark 500 owner/user chiming in on this thread. My experience with horizontal boring on my Mark V 500 is a lot like yours...I also clamp a piece of wood as a "thrust block" to back up the fence against the pressure of the drill. Doing that, along with slow feed and a sharp bit has always worked for me. I don't usually clamp the workpiece to the table, but have used featherboards to exert down pressure on it. But, after reading the posts in this thread about different ways to stiffen the horizontal drilling setup, I began to wonder if there might be a way to further stabilize the 500 main table. Here's what I came up with: push the main table against the extension table, then use an older style 500 fence if you have one to clamp the 2 tables together. Place the fence so it straddles the two table edges and clamp it down. Then, assure that the main table height lock is snugged down. With this setup I could not detect any movement using some moderate down pressure from my hand on the main table. If you don't have one of the older style 500 fences it might be worth looking on Ebay for one.

To add more support to the Original Mark5/V Table System AKA 500 you can add the Table Support Leg part number 555627 which is currently on sale. See it at the link below. Primarily for Drill Press operations there is no reason to not utilize it in other operations. I have found it helpful for adding additional support to the Table.

https://www.shopsmith.com/product-page/ ... upport-leg