Shopsmith Forums

Second time I haven't received a phone call when I was supposed to.... I got an email this morning though. "Good Morning: This appears to be shipping damage, we are going to send you a carton to bring the Powerpro back and have it fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience this is causing." I am livid right now. Pass the buck and cover up.

I sent them another email.

Take a deep breathe. It might be shipping damage and then again it might not. As long as it gets fixed do you really care. Yes, it has been frustrating and time consuming. Let us just hope and pray that this is the most frustrating situation you deal with.

Has Shopsmith seen the damage?

I am hoping that either you or someone else will post pictures of the screw heads in a unit that is not damaged. For reference purposes, I would like to see what Shopsmith considers to be correct.

dusty wrote:Has Shopsmith seen the damage?

I am hoping that either you or someone else will post pictures of the screw heads in a unit that is not damaged. For reference purposes, I would like to see what Shopsmith considers to be correct.

Yes, I have sent 2 emails with all relating pictures to them. I too would like to see "correct" countersinks but I can't provide them.

Indeed shipping stresses may have started the 'crumbling', but poor machining of the countersinks had to be the 'beginning'.

Just the way I sees it.

I am a nine-year Shopsmith user who upgraded to Powerpro a few years back. I also did eight days at the Shopsmith Academy in Dayton back when Shopsmith had offered it (a great customer value to really learn this complex tool imho).

...then I used Shopsmith to rebuild my 1939 house, which was largely tablesaw and bandsaw use. Did some small-scale lathe turning too, for hobbies.

Last month, I decided to make a home copy of a giant Jenga game I saw at a party (also homemade, but kinda rough). I got a few old-style 2 x 4s from the local home deconstructing outfit.. real dry, dense wood. I sawed the pieces to length, chose the clear ones, and proceeded to sand to dimension with the wonderful SS conical sanding disc. ...and ran into the heat shutdown problem within ninety minutes of heavy sanding (outside, on the patio, hot weather).

For those who don't have this attachment, the conical sanding disc is much different than the flat sanding disc, and can literally be used as a better planer than the regular SS planer, especially with very dense, dry hardwood or with very figured wood. I tend to use it to really control the dimension aspect. The conical sanding disc can create a lot of side loads during repeated heavy sanding operations like I was doing, which naturally means heat build-up inside the PowerPro. I made 60 pieces for the Giant Jenga set, anticipating breakage, dog capture during evening garden games, etc. The PowerPro started shutting down about halfway through the sanding portion of the project, and would shut down for about every 5 minutes out of nine, despite air cooling with a leaf blower.

I called SS and Anita, aware of the heat problem on the PowerPro for certain operations, just now sent me a replacement module for the DVD motor.

I want to add this 2- bit comment to the discussion to document that heavy continuous conical disc sanding can also overheat the original PowerPro. Key word = "continuous" meaning literally hour+ of it.

I still have to install the replacement module which came after 3 weeks of notifying SS. To be continued...

BTW - I've had the PowerPro for at least three years, and I have never ever had it overheat in any other operation yet. Of note, I rarely do routing with it, and when I do, it is usually a quick operation, less than 15 min.

I hope this is a useful addition to the discussion.

Welcome to the Forum, Dad of Hedgehog!

Thanks for your comments! I would really like to see your finished giant Jenga thing.

After a day of rest could you again sand for - say 15 minutes?

With pleasure - here are three Giant Jenga pix.

After about an hour, the PowerPro would work for about 20 minutes, and then revert to the 4 min or less on / 5 min off routine. After a day's break, it would take an hour to ninety minutes (remember - hot July days) for the heat shutoff to manifest.

Hmmm... maybe I'm stoopid but I can't seem to figure out how to attach the Jenga pix... any hints?

DadofHedgehog wrote:With pleasure - here are three Giant Jenga pix.

After about an hour, the PowerPro would work for about 20 minutes, and then revert to the 4 min or less on / 5 min off routine. After a day's break, it would take an hour to ninety minutes (remember - hot July days) for the heat shutoff to manifest.

Hmmm... maybe I'm stoopid but I can't seem to figure out how to attach the Jenga pix... any hints?

Ok, I really AM "stooopid" ;-) here are the Giant Jenga pix.

How about a new thread for Jenga?

Sorry to hear about your troubles Skizzity. Truly frustrating to have to exchange evidence back and forth constantly to get the problem solved, especially after spending a tremendous amount of money on the setup.

I have been strongly considering a powerpro headstock upgrade myself and this posted experience on both the conical sanding and routing functions has definitely given me cold feet on making the jump.

Cheers,
John