Shopsmith Forums

dusty wrote:How many people could be equipped to "make sawdust" if your piles of hardware were all re-purposed? SAD

On the other hand, I bought all of the couple of dozen SS's I bought on Ebay by being the high bidder. As complete machines many of them were basically useless to almost all typical woodworkers. Problem here or problem there. Anyone that wanted could have outbid me on any one of them. I was not bidding high dollar. I would venture to say that a number of them might have gone in the trash if I had not bid. I was occasionally the only bid. The few I paid serious money for are now in my shop.
It is not my job to provide for the rest of the world...
Much of my "stash" will go back on Ebay as parts when I get my shop a little farther along.
Meanwhile they are "in storage" instead of a landfill or being melted down for scrap. They are not being wasted, they are being saved...

Am I not supposed to buy something I want because someone else might want it???


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Sorry, Farmer. I wasn't deliberately poking at thata sore spot but I guess it hit it anyhow. Yes, you can spend any way you want and do whatever with what you buy.

robinson46176 wrote:
Don't park them too close together, they breed like bunnies you know...

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I wish you had warned me earlier! We may have another on the way.

How do you do that I can't find another one for decent money within 150 miles.

robinson46176 wrote:Do you mean these piles?

[ATTACH]12024[/ATTACH]

Or the "lumber room?

[ATTACH]12025[/ATTACH]

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Nice stash, it's good to have spare parts.

dusty wrote:Sorry, Farmer. I wasn't deliberately poking at thata sore spot but I guess it hit it anyhow. Yes, you can spend any way you want and do whatever with what you buy.

Thats OK. I'm not injured. The real sad thing is that no one wanted them more than I wanted them as I was mostly just buying them for parts and accompanying accessories and SPT's.
I like to think that some of it is that a lot of guys are buying new stuff instead of used. Even in "tough times" a huge number of us live in what would have been called luxury in the past.

I sometimes wonder if any of it is related to the fact that when you and I were boys all boys were supposed to be mechanics? Every teen boy was supposed to learn how to work on his own car (or at least pretend to) That is no longer the case today and only a limited number of young men get any particular amount of mechanical training. Being one kind of mechanic (like automotive) leads you right into other types. If you learn to work on all of the different kinds of systems on a car you get exposed to quite a lot of mechanical and electrical.
Since that has largely been taken away from most young men today (the shade tree only has a swing now) I believe most shy away from any tools and machines needing repairs. The frequent members here doing rebuilding of SS's being the exception. Even here many only feel comfortable tackling it because of the support they get here.

jcraigie wrote:How do you do that I can't find another one for decent money within 150 miles.

I declared pickups to be mini vacations. We love road trips so we chalked up traveling to pick one up to be zero cost against the unit. We live just south east of Indy but bought one at Rockford IL, one at the southern tip of MO, one near Springfield MA, one in Charlotte NC etc. etc. None came from my local area. The closest came from the next door neighbor of one of my wife's brothers about 40 miles north of me. It was not an Ebay machine but came about from conversations my BIL had with his neighbor about his crazy BIL that was buying all of these SS's
Most of the pick up trips involved side trips and activities. The pick up in MA included a stay at Buffalo NY and a visit to Niagara Falls. Many were just over night trips, some stretched out a few days. It all made me feel even more warm and fuzzy about Shopsmith's.

robinson46176 wrote:Thats OK. I'm not injured. The real sad thing is that no one wanted them more than I wanted them as I was mostly just buying them for parts and accompanying accessories and SPT's.
I like to think that some of it is that a lot of guys are buying new stuff instead of used. Even in "tough times" a huge number of us live in what would have been called luxury in the past.

I sometimes wonder if any of it is related to the fact that when you and I were boys all boys were supposed to be mechanics? Every teen boy was supposed to learn how to work on his own car (or at least pretend to) That is no longer the case today and only a limited number of young men get any particular amount of mechanical training. Being one kind of mechanic (like automotive) leads you right into other types. If you learn to work on all of the different kinds of systems on a car you get exposed to quite a lot of mechanical and electrical.
Since that has largely been taken away from most young men today (the shade tree only has a swing now) I believe most shy away from any tools and machines needing repairs. The frequent members here doing rebuilding of SS's being the exception. Even here many only feel comfortable tackling it because of the support they get here.

I agree 100% with Framer. Of course, growing up on a farm really helps and helping my grandfather in his black smith shop helped too. My Navy career was a blessing (3 hot meals and a place to sleep) for a poor VA. mountain boy. They sent me to a lot of different schools and got to do a lot of traveling (40 miles from home was my max travel until then).

I started buying lots of Shopsmiths when Shopsmith closed their retail stores in 1992?. I already owned a few Shopsmiths at the time. I knew then this was what I wanted to do when I retired. I finally quit buying last year unless it was a give-it-away/steal as I totally ran out of storage room to store any more Shopsmiths (whole or parts). I hope to build additional sheds this coming summer for storage.

robinson46176 wrote:I declared pickups to be mini vacations. We love road trips so we chalked up traveling to pick one up to be zero cost against the unit. We live just south east of Indy but bought one at Rockford IL, one at the southern tip of MO, one near Springfield MA, one in Charlotte NC etc. etc. None came from my local area. The closest came from the next door neighbor of one of my wife's brothers about 40 miles north of me. It was not an Ebay machine but came about from conversations my BIL had with his neighbor about his crazy BIL that was buying all of these SS's
Most of the pick up trips involved side trips and activities. The pick up in MA included a stay at Buffalo NY and a visit to Niagara Falls. Many were just over night trips, some stretched out a few days. It all made me feel even more warm and fuzzy about Shopsmith's.

Hmmm. Road trips, gonna have to try and swing that one by "upper management" and see how it flies. My 12 yo son and I have a work in progress 1954 Greenie that Bill Mayo has been upgrading the headstock for us. Just got it back yesterday and I dare say it's better than a new one (excepting the PP of course but then again there's no electronics to get wonky so maybe not). We're working on the motor and tubes now, then we'll be ready to make sawdust with it. My son now has the fix it up bug and has been looking for our next Shopsmith rescue/project, so maybe we can turn one into a roadtrip. It sure is fun doing it with him and not many kids are interested in fixing or building anything except video games and computers today. So that may be enough of an excuse for her.