Shopsmith Forums

I've been busy in Florida. I met with Bill Mayo yesterday who is really doing good. I got some old 10E/ER tubes off of him and he demonstrated his motor repair on Mark Vs.

I learned rather a convoluted way that Teknatool who makes the Nova G3 and other chucks and the DVR motor has an office in Saint Petersburg, Florida-adjacent to Tampa. I was in the area today & received a tour of their facility. I was thoroughly impressed with their focus on complete customer satisfaction and any concerns I might have. They just moved to a larger facility and have all kinds of chucks along with their Nova lathes. They share Shopsmith's dedication to total customer satisfaction. Have an issue with a chuck,give them a call or email them & it will be resolved. http://www.teknatool.com

I have upgraded two PowerPro headstocks. I had one of the first 10 received in August of 2010 and a second I received in June 2012 which I think was over their 1,200th. Any tiny issue I noticed with the first mod was resolved completely with the second- to include getting a new power switch, washers to prevent the wedge lock thread stock plastic from falling off, the ground wire already tie-wrapped back and other things. Just be sure to follow the instructions in the manual as the DVD hasn't been upgraded with those changes yet. But real men...<ahem>

I believe I read a thread recently on a runout problem with the G3 & Teknatool shipped out a replacement as soon as possible. I am very impressedwith the Teknatool DVR motor so much that I have two of them- one for my horizontal Mark 7 and one for my vertical Mark 7 along with all my other Shopsmiths.

If you have an issue with a PowerPro, Shopsmith is just as dedicated to ensuring total customer satisfaction. The warranty isn't just printed words on a paper, but money in the bank as far as I'm concerned as I didn't have to pay an extra cent for an issue with my first DIY PowerPro upgrade which required I send my headstock back. It was a DIY. What did I have to pay for my repair? Nothing.

I hadn't planned on ever being a wood turner, but with the Shopsmith/Teknatool marriage being a good one and I look forward to learning to turn. See if you can check out the Webinars- I'm not sure if they're still going on, but Doug Reid has some great You Tube videos on the use of the Mark 7 (or an upgraded Mark 5). Check out the shaper feature and how easy it is with the double tilt upgrade.

I wonder what Hans Goldschmidt would think of the new Mark 7?

I will be spending two weeks in Orlando starting the 16th, how far away are they from DisneyWorld? What do I need to do to get the tours?

st pete is about a hundred miles and a ninety minute drive from orlando depending on time of day and traffic conditions

The Teknatool US operation is a relatively small one and more of a warehouse operation than an actual manufacturing facility although it looks like they could easily manufacture things if they had to with a CNC machine.

I have an industrial engineering background and I enjoy visiting both small and major automotive assembly lines like I had the opportunity in Gothenburg, Sweden to see the Volvo assembly; the General Motors Vauxhall automotive assembly line in Luton; microbreweries in Shefford, UK; and a couple places in Japan in 2002, as well as, the Magic Hat Brewery in Burlington, Vermont. The best of the latter places were the free samples offered at the beginning or end of the tour.

In Feb 2008, I visited the Shopsmith plant on Poe Ave in Dayton, Ohio when Nick Engler was doing the Saw Dust sessions. I had gone there to shop at the retail store & learned it was closed. Nick gave me a lesson on the strip sander along with a factory tour where I saw my first 10E/ERs being used as special machine tools. This was set up long before CNC was ever thought of.

The Shopsmith operation is/was a textbook operation of what I studied in college many years ago. It helped to get the gears moving in my head to where I have 5 10E/ERs, a Greenie, 4 1974+ gray Mark Vs, and soon to have two upgraded 520s into Mark 7s.

The Teknatool operation in Saint Petersburg as I mentioned above is focused more as a warehouse chucks like the G3 and others Nova lathes which are all neatly warehoused on shelves getting ready to fill orders and most importantly to help provide immediate customer support for these products.

I am not a wood turner as of yet. I had hoped to see an assembly line, but that didn't happen as it is not located at this facility. This operation is standing by to provide immediate customer support to customers who experience any issues with Teknatool and their Nova lathes.

I just happen to live one mile from Route 19 which happens to run right past the Teknatool facility. I happened to have a unique issue and just by chance made contact through the Teknatool support channels &mentioned I would be in Florida. I don't thing too many people have as many Shopsmiths I have, let along two DVR DIY PowerPro upgrade kits. They do not have a complete Shopsmith at this facility. But they have a small one man unmanned repair station which only indicates one thing to me: high reliability otherwise, I'm sure people would be working making repairs.

If you were in Orlando, you would be driving a long way to perhaps walk around 5 minutes. However, each of us are different and I have a condo just up the road which is ironically so close. I had studied the history of Teknatool and had some questions on the history of the company and wanting to meet the people operating a company in a similar way as Shopsmith- high quality control and ensuring total customer satisfaction.

If you have questions, comments, etc; I suggest give Teknatool a call and if there is some type of problem with one of their wood lathes or chucks, I'm sure they will get your problem remedied immediately.

Conversely, if you have an issue or concern with the Shopsmith PowerPro, I would call the people at Shopsmith as my first step in remedying and Shopsmith issue. I know from my own experience, that everyone at Shopsmithi is devoted to ensuring the same level of customer satisfaction/support.

I had a problem with my first one and it runs bettter than the Mark 7 I saw at the Lowe's demo on Memorial Day weekend. A new Shopsmith Mark 7 is expensive, but they say the same thing about an expensive divorce- why? Because it's worth it! <smile>