Shopsmith Forums

Loosely clamping the quill feed lock then lowering the quill/bit to the desired depth, then fully tightening the quill feed lock. Trick is to clamp quill tight enough to not move, but not too tight to allow advancing the quill feed lever(s).

Wouldn’t have thought of that one. Another good tip. Thanks!

thunderbirdbat wrote: ↑Fri Mar 14, 2025 4:53 pm IIWM, I'd clamp the work piece, plunge, lock the spindle handle and then un-clamp the work piece run it through and re-clamp before messing with the spindle again.

JPG had me questioning my own sanity for a bit today, as I didn’t think that a lower routing RPM on a Mark V should bother me too much. The clamping/unclamping procedure that you outlined cleared things up for me.

Unless you’ve had hands-on experience with a Shopsmith OPR, you probably don’t know that a simple twist of the handle on the plunge lever will solidly lock the plunge in it’s current position. After I had used mine for a while, that feature became so intuitive that I forgot it is unique to the OPR. One less hand required.

I finished the ball winder finally. I had to remake the one piece out of plywood. I figured I would have to as it is fairly complex with small extrusions where the screws go. I used a leather sewing machine belt to run it. It seems to work but I do not have any experience with these things so could not tell if it is turning correctly but everything does turn.

That looks very nice. It's different from the one I made.

1. Yours has two feeder guides (with the curly copper) instead of one.
2. Yours has an o-ring instead of a rubber band

Did the author make changes to the plan, or they your modifications? For what it's worth, I expect your o-ring will work better than my rubber band.

I changed the feeder guides. I watched some of the different videos about the yarn winders and one of them had a comment about the change in feed direction helping to tension the yarn. I figured I would give my MIL the option to try it. The o-ring is part of the plan. The plan listed it by od and cross section but it would have been easier to find if they had listed it as a number 89 o-ring. The plan listed a hair scrunchie, large o-ring or large rubber band for the drive belt but I had an old leather sewing machine belt so I used it. As to how well it works, I do not know. My husband is taking it to his mother's next week.

I thought that looked like a treadle sewing machine belt. Is it original? We have one on my grandmother’s early 1900’s vintage treadle Singer that sits in our upstairs hall as “decoration”. It’s not in nearly as good shape.

Matanuska wrote: ↑Sat Apr 12, 2025 9:09 pm I thought that looked like a treadle sewing machine belt. Is it original? We have one on my grandmother’s early 1900’s vintage treadle Singer that sits in our upstairs hall as “decoration”. It’s not in nearly as good shape.

I believe the belt was purchased a couple of years ago. They can be found on Amazon and from other sewing machine repair stores.

Brenda,

Looks good. Wondering how the finished product looks, i.e. the center pull yarn ball. Does the yarn pull smoothly out from the center without any catches? Just curious. My wife always winds them by hand (conventional way) and of course when she works on a project it often ends up rolling off the chair and onto the floor. Good thing we don't have a cat anymore or it become a game of tug of war. Your project piqued my interest so I just might have to build one of these for her. A center pull yarn ball has to be a lot easier to work with, I would think. Thanks for sharing.

To be honest, I do not do any yarn work so I will have to wait until my MIL has a chance to try it. I know that everything moves correctly as far as I can tell. My husband and kids took it to his mother's today so they will get there sometime late tomorrow. I would expect to here back sometime this week as to how it actually works. I am hoping either he or one of the kids will take a picture of it in action and of a finished ball.