Shopsmith Forums

Magna-Line Safety Switch and Outlet Box

I’m in the middle of a restoration project on a vintage late-50’s Magna-Line stand-mounted tool (I’ll unveil the details when I finish up the project), and pulled the switch along with the motor and power cord. The switch housing looked familiar, and sure enough I found this in the archives:
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Like the flanges in the Mark 5 headstock casting, this was intended to discourage inadvertent power switching, as well as provide a means to lock that power switch on your standalone Magna-Line shop tool.
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I’d been looking for an example of one of these to see if it could be recreated for another restoration project. Let’s see what I can do…!

Have a great weekend everyone…

Sawsmith RAS - Through The Years

While there were a few more years to Sawsmith RAS (not to be confused with the later Sawsmith 2000 table saw) history than the previously mentioned SHOPSMITH Mark 2, I'm still going to use the two distinct manufacturers to distinguish the early and later history of this product through some artifacts. Of course those two manufacturers were Yuba Power Products and Magna American Corporation. And while it's likely a safe bet that the early development of the Sawsmith RAS was initiated by Magna Power Tool Corporation (before their acquisition by Yuba Consolidated Industries), for this narrative, we'll stick with Yuba and Magna American...

There's already a distinction in the glossy brochure that was produced by each manufacturer
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The Yuba brochure focuses on standard radial arm saw application, while the Magna American brochure interestingly refers to the Sawsmith as a "Radial Arm Shop" - as they believed they were providing more than a mere RAS with their SAWSMITH incarnation.

They continue that theme on the inside, focusing on the Add-A-Tool functionality that would permit use of most SPTs on the Sawsmith, while the Yuba marketing team focused on the quintessential 1950s suburban family experience (complete with doting wife) and the terrifyingly finger-severing, upside-down table saw application!
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The Owner's Manuals had a pretty consistent look and feel. I did note that both on the Manual and brochure covers, the Yuba system showed a vented saw guard, much like earliest SHOPSMITH Model 10ER machines. Not sure when this was changed to a solid saw guard (retaining the vented "look"), but I have both a Goldie Yuba model and a later grey Magna American model, and neither has a vented saw guard.
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Inside, the two Manuals vary a bit. Magna American focused a bit more on assembly of the system (not sure how these were respectively delivered to customers at those times), while Yuba included a nice diagram of the machine and the nomenclature of its components. Instructions on how to use the machine were pretty much the same in both Manuals.
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...and certainly there are parts of these manuals that don't quite hold up any more. While the "Vari-Speed" speed controller was described as making "speed selection as easy as dialing a phone", I can state conclusively that saying, "Hey Siri, please increase speed to 6400 RPMs" does not do a damned thing!
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So, I wrap up with some price lists. Pricing went up a bit on the basic machine over the span of a couple of years (and yes, these machines really do weigh nearly 200 lbs!), but those SPTs that are featured in the Magna American price list had extraordinarily consistent pricing for their entire history up to that time - the bandsaw was still $79.95 as it had been since its introduction 5+ years earlier. Magna American understandably offered a larger accessories list, as they were providing both the SPTs and the necessary interface accessories to jury rig those SPTs to the Sawsmith.
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Once I finish my Sawsmith restoration, I'm going to break out those accessories and connect a few SPTs, if for no other reason than the novelty of it!

thedovetailjoint wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2024 3:36 pm What a treasure! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Scott! Got a few more in the queue to share, please keep visiting. Comments/feedback - and most importantly, your own memorabilia contributions - are always welcome!

Shopsmith/Magna Miter Gauge - Through the Years

I’m packing up my recently-completed Goldie restoration soon for its trip to my son’s house, so figured while it’s still in the garage, a group photo was in order:
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This is a pretty complete set of the miter gauges that appeared during the Magna/Yuba/Magna American years - and a group that is not often seen together. Let's look at some of the subtle differences as development advanced for the Shopsmith product line

Model 10 Support From right to left:
10E - The style supplied with the earliest Shopsmith machines
10ER - This upgrade provides slots for a miter gauge extension block, 15 degree detents, and threaded hole for future Universal Hold Down application
10ER Special - 10ER-sized bar with Mark 5 miter and grip, along with a bar hole for Universal Hold Down application

Mark and Magna-Line From right to left:
Mark 5 Greenie - New bar sizing for Mark 5 table slot, along with threaded hole and slot for holding table position, and various miter improvements (including introduction of the Miter Grip accessory)
Magna-Line Model 710 table saw - Thicker bar for deeper slot, and no threaded hole or slot for holding table position
Mark 2 - Cut costs at all cost! Shorter thinner bar with no holes of any sort. Miter stop screws removed as well.

The 1960s... From right to left:
Mark 5 Goldie - Mechanically equivalent to Greenie miter
Powr-Kraft table saw - Mechanically equivalent to Model 710. Magna American supplied Powr-Kraft branded equivalents for Magna-Line products, including the Model 710 table saw.
Mark VII - Last of the Magna-era machines... This is equivalent to the Mark 5 miter with the exception of the wing-styled angle clamp.

Anyone else have any other examples that I've missed?? Not sure if the 8-in Magna-Line table saw had cheaper version of what I've seen on the Model 710...

National Retail Partner, or Just Another Store…??

I picked up a vintage Mark 5 advertising flyer recently. It’s a nice one, showing the earliest retail price of $269.50, but nothing special. I have quite a number of these in my collection, so I didn’t need another, but this one interested me for what was on the back… Knowing that “R.H. Macy & Co.” is better known as simply, “Macy’s” - the big national retailer, sponsor of NYC’s famous Thanksgiving Day Parade, setting for the movie “Miracle on 34th Street”, yeah that Macy’s - then perhaps this was evidence of a previously undocumented relationship between Magna Engineering and another major, national retail partner (not named Montgomery Ward)??!! Perhaps I’d stumbled upon a heretofore unknown part of Shopsmith lore???!!

As is turns out, the answer was, “nah…”

Because despite Encyclopedia.com stating that, “By the late 1940s, Macy’s was not only the world’s largest store but the United States’ largest department store chain”, most of that size was derived from various regional brands that made up the Macy’s family of retailers, and Macy’s itself in 1954 was largely just a New York City local department store.

Turns out, Magna confirmed this themselves with their published list of local retailers for NY and NJ. Macy’s - as well as Gimbel Brothers, their legendary NYC rivals - warranted no more consideration than Weed & Co. of Buffalo, NY… Still it must have been quite an experience to get a Mark 5 demo at Macy’s in time for Christmas, 1954!

John,

Nice side by side comparison of the different Miters. As you said for the Mark 2 Miter

Cut costs at all cost! Shorter thinner bar with no holes of any sort. Miter stop screws removed as well.

The picture below shows the Mark 2 Miter closer up. It uses the same Protractor as the Mark 5 of the day but is not drilled and tapped for the angle stops. The Indicator Mount does not have the Miter Stop Plunger either. And of course, the Miter Gauge Bar is a very simple one with holes for only attaching the Protractor, Protractor Lock Stud and Indicator Mount.

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One of the early Model 10E Miters I received had the Hold Down set up shown below.

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A block was added to the Protractor for the post to screw into. It works similar to the Universal Hold Down as can be seen in the picture from the top of page 2 of the instructions below. The Universal Hold Down is much more versatile than the Hold Down set up shown on the Model 10E Miter above.

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Example A works much like the Safety Grip introduced for the Mark 5 Miter.

Shopsmith Correspondence Course

A lot of us are familiar with Professor Ben Spaulding's original 10-part Woodworking Instructional Course targeted to new hobbyists adopting the revolutionary Mark 5 SHOPSMITH back in the late 1950s. .
I acquired a copy of Lesson One of Ten recently, and found a surprising insert! .
Turns out, this was designed as a correspondence course! The Professor really had his teacher's hat on for this one, informing his students that they should be working on a(n admittedly, self-paced!) semester schedule, so "this particular course must be completed by July 1, 1957." But, as your reward for timely completion of the enclosed chapter test... .
...and for the cost of a 3-cent stamp, the good Professor would send you subsequent lessons, with those completing all 10 lessons receiving a "diploma-certificate testifying to your accomplishments and your craftsmanship." Interestingly enough, subsequent chapter tests left off any mention of the "correspondence" aspect, or due dates. .
I've never stumbled on one of those diplomas before, but I have seen a number of these lessons with a blank chapter test still neatly tucked into the booklet. Anyone have one of those original diplomas in your collection??!

SHOPSMITH - Star of the Montgomery Ward Powr-Kraft Catalogs

I picked up some unusual hardcover Powr-Kraft tool catalogs not too long ago, covering the last 2 years of Model 10ER production, and the first 2 years of the space-age Mark 5! .
While these Magna Engineering products were likely racking up big sales for Ward's, it took until a couple of years into the Mark 5's run to get SHOPSMITH headlining the catalog on the front cover...

I was very excited to see that someone was offering a hardcover set of these catalogs, as I've only seen them in their fairly flimsy magazine-styled softcover versions. I had seen some full-product Ward's catalogs in hardcover, so I assumed these were similar - maybe even from a store or catalog outlet where the literature would need to be a bit more durable. Well, it turns out that these were nothing more than someone's home craft project - a good job of bookbinding, but clearly not something that Ward's offered as an original printing. These will last a good long time, however, so worth preserving...

Mystery of the Evolving Cut-Off Wheels

Hope everyone enjoyed a merry Christmas and happy holidays! Just before the start of the holidays, I got an early delivery of an accessory that I had seen in catalogs, but never had one in hand... .
It's not that I hadn't seen a cut-off wheel accessory before, but I hadn't seen one in the traditional mid-50's Magna color scheme. And since I'd done some "[blank] through the years..." posts to this thread in past, I was looking forward to doing the same with some of the variants I'd collected: .
The mystery cropped up when I noted that I had 3 different part numbers on three different wheels that matched 3 different numbered envelopes... .
So I did a little checking, and I noted that all accessories catalogs for the Model 10E/10ER family that featured a cut-off wheel listed the wheel under part number 175-1, until the July 1952 catalog where the same accessory was listed under the new 5-digit part number scheme - 12 067: .
The 5-digit part number matched my newly-acquired item, and the original part number matched my earliest example in the red envelope. So, how do I explain this one??! .
It's "Magna Engineering Corporation" era item, based on the envelope verbiage, so not a "future" part number from Magna Power Tool, Yuba, or Magna American. But there are no references to this part number in any accessories catalog that I've been able to peruse, so not sure who gave instructions to the Carborundum Corporation (3rd party makers of all these early Magna-branded cut-off wheels) to create this mystery part number. If anyone else in the enthusiast community has info on, or a reference to, part number 12 284, I'd love to see it.

Until then, all I know is that Magna clearly kept the folks at Carborundum pretty busy with the part number changes! .

Have a Happy New Year!