Shopsmith Forums

I have a 510 from the late 80's to early 90's and I am wondering if it is single bearing or two bearing quill. How will I know which quill I have?

bduemig wrote:I have a 510 from the late 80's to early 90's and I am wondering if it is single bearing or two bearing quill. How will I know which quill I have?

You can try to figure it out based on the serial number.

Per http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... gquill.htm if your unit was manufactured after 11/01/84 then it has a two bearing quill. If it was before that, it could have been upgraded during its lifetime. http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/serialnumber.htm is there to serve as a reference for the birthdate of your unit.

Of course, the best way to be sure is to remove the quill. That involves digging out the putty-type stuff thats covering the set-screw on the top of the headstock. from there, you can remove the quill. Once you have it out, you can shine a light to see if you see a bearing or just a dust shield. If you see a bearing, I would use your allen wrench as a depth guage to see how far down the bearing is. If its only about half-way through the quill housing then you definitely have a two bearing quill.

I agree, check the serial #.
I have a 1996 510 with two bearings & an 1980 Mark V with a single Bearing quill. It looks like a 2 bearing but it is not. I could not tell until the shaft was out of the quill housing that it was a single bearing quill, it has a shield or guide where the 2d bearing gos.
I replaced bearings on both units. I was going to to upgrade to the 2 bearing quill on the 1980 Mark V. But after looking at them side by side the Single bearing quill looks thicker & it heaver than the 2 bearing quill. So I just replaced the Bearings on both & have the same run out 0.001.