Shopsmith Forums

Great job searching the old phone books, Dave. I have used them in plotting my family's history.

patchworks,

Welcome to the Shopsmith Forum.

That is a nice bit of history you have found. Shopsmith Model 10E serial number 11005 would have been made in 1948.

The thing I wonder is the serial number 11005 or is it ER11005. The letter prefix does make a bit of a difference. Serial number 11005 would have been made in the Western Plant at the beginning of 1948 while serial number ER11005 would have been made a bit later after the Eastern Plant began production.

patchworks wrote: ↑Tue May 06, 2025 12:04 am Note that I'm putting together a more complete history of the machine that I will post soon...

Thanks for sharing! What an interesting story. Looking forward to seeing more details on this!

Russ,

Here's a pic of the nameplate...it's definitely a 10E. I've been searching this and other forums for clues as to date of manufacture (e.g., Everett Davis' documents), but haven't seen anything concrete to help me determine a time-frame. I guessed '48, but haven't seen any definitive clues as to serial numbers in that year...especially to pinpoint it to the beginning of '48...where's the data from which you've made that determination?
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Dave,

There is no documentation or records as to when a given Model 10E or 10ER was made. We know some things and base guesses from that. The first 250 Model 10E's were shipped out in November 1947 to the West Coast Montgomery Ward stores beginning with serial number 1001. To begin with all the Shopsmith Model 10E tools were made in San Francisco California. As demand increased an Eastern Plant began making the Model 10E and those serial number began with the prefix E and later ER. The prefix R was then added for tools being made in the Western Plant. At a later point in time the serial number prefixes were discontinued and both plants shared serial numbers. It is those prefixes used by the two plants that make it important to include them. I have seen both R 41009 and ER 41009, but R 41009 would have been a few months before ER 41009. We know that in April 1951 serial numbers R53198 and ER40908 were made in their respective plants as a major change was made to the Model 10ER going to Single Wedge Locks. Notice how far ahead the serial numbers from the Western Plant were over the Eastern Plant. There have been owners who have original sale documents giving the date of purchase. All these and other information pieced together are how those best guesses are made.

Your Model 10E was made in the Western Plant prior to the opening of the Eastern Plant.

Mark VII Era SPT Owner’s Manual

I recently picked up a Model 620 jointer Owner’s Manual, this one from the Magna American Corporation days. Initially I didn’t think it was anything noteworthy - I’ve seen plenty of Magna American-branded manuals, as they continued to manufacture and sell SPTs with the Goldie Mark 5 franchise the ownership had acquired from Yuba Consolidated Industries in the early 1960s.
. My new acquisition on the right, doesn’t look any different than one I already had in my collection on the left. The new one is a little different, however. It has a print date of “9/64” (September, 1964), which is well past the date by which they had introduced their new Mark VII.
. And a closer look at the front shows it features the “505xxx” part number scheme Magna had recently adopted (and that largely survives to this day…).
. Inside there are further changes. While the various corporate entities that produced Mark 5s over their initial run generally never spent any money on new artwork over the years (black and white photos can mask a few cosmetic changes!), Magna was focused on new platforms like the Sawsmith and Mark VII for mounting SPTs, so needed to feature those systems in new artwork found in this “newer” manual (on the right, in the first picture below).
. In use with the Mark 5 on the left, and newer Mark VII on the right… And as of late 1964, they hadn’t yet produced an updated PTWFE (“Modern Power Tool Woodworking” wasn’t published until 1967), so were still promoting the Mark 5 version to complement their newest platform.
.

Of course, not the first time recycled older information, drawings or pictures were used in newer manuals and not even the for the Jointer. Below is the upper half of the cover for the 1st Owner's Guide for the Model 620 Jointer. Opps, isn't that a picture of the Model 4E Jointer on a Model 10ER?

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Magna-Line Table Saw Inserts

Some time ago in this thread, I mentioned the difficulty of finding accessories - especially in-box accessories - for systems that sold poorly. Case in point is the Mark 2. Despite many years of diligent collecting, I've only found one example of a Mark 2-specific accessory (coincidentally, a table insert) in its original packaging.
. .
I've always believed that the significantly lower quality of the Mark 2 relative to it Big Brother, the Mark 5, was its undoing, and the general budget-conscious approach of that machine is reflected in the cheap quality of the accessories and their packaging that made them less likely to be purchased, or to survive to the modern day. And based on the relative number of units I've come across personally, I'm guessing even the poor-selling Mark 2 outsold the Magna-Line Table Saw by a wide margin - despite the fact that the Magna-Line Table Saw is a fine and functional machine!
. .
All that made me believe it would be nearly impossible to find any accessories for such a low-volume Magna product as their table saw.

Nearly...

So a new member of one of the Facebook groups for Shopsmith users asked the group, what was this funny table insert I got with my recent used system purchase?? While the packaging is reminiscent of a Greenie-vintage table insert
. .
...it doesn't look like anything that would fit a Mark 5 (or MV 500), MV 510/520, or Mark 7...
. .
Well, being one of the few people today who has seen a Magna-Line Table Saw up close and realizing the color motif for these inserts is bright yellow, I didn't even need to look at the fine print on the package to know where this belonged.
. . . .
The really crazy part is that this person didn't just have one of these - he had two!
. .
And fortunately for me, he was willing to sell these, as he realized he had no use for them for his own machine. Maybe someone in the history of this user's machine was a retailer, who scooped these up during an inventory purge, or maybe someone got them cheap at a yard sale not realizing they wouldn't fit a Mark 5.

I guess the moral of the story is: keep looking, even for those [nearly] impossible items! Next on the list is an upper saw guard for the table saw...

I’m so glad you are able to scoop these up, John.

John,

You are correct when you said

I guess the moral of the story is: keep looking, even for those [nearly] impossible items! Next on the list is an upper saw guard for the table saw...

I looked up the Guard in the manual.

_ .
I believe I have seen one of those for sale before but didn't relate it to the Table Saw. Keep looking.

In the meantime, I am still watching out for the Model 10 Lower Belt Guard.