Today in my shop (frank talk of stop collars)
Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 5:47 pm
I'm sorry but I have to do this, yes another history lesson so to speak.
I got my shopsmith new back in 1976. At the time I knew of no one else who had one. I was a member of a woodworking club with about 150 members and none of them admitted to having a shopsmith. I don't think that was unusual at that time.
I did get a 3-day class as part of the purchase price so there were about 20 people who attended the class, meaning at least 20 people owned them. I was already a woodworker and the class was more of an introduction to shopsmith and the extra "deals" they would sell you.
Shopsmith also had catalogs, and publications they sent out to you. Most had some good information and projects/demos to help you expand your knowledge. That and the PTWFE helped a lot.
Of course now-a-days we have the forum, ready made with "experts" on almost every subject. But back then you had a lot of "alone" time with your tools. If you wanted to do something you had to figure it out yourself. Wanted a different set up on the shopsmith, you were on your own for that.
What I'm about to tell you about is something that I developed to fit my needs. I have never seen or heard of anyone else doing this but with so many other users I'd have to think others have done this.
Stop collars was something I learned about when I worked in a machine shop, some of the products we produced used stop collars. Not that they were all that complex but more like I'd never used them.
When I got the shopsmith it came with some, many of you will be thinking of them on the tail stock.
[ATTACH]18664[/ATTACH]
This model has a single set screw to lock it in place but there are a few other designs out there and we are going to look at another design in a little while. These collars come in various sizes, the ones pictured are 1-1/4" inside dia. Keep in mind that the legs on the extension table and the main table are also that size. (10 series machine do not use this size but the concepts will be the same)
Well before shopsmith introduced the adjustable stop collar there was the need for this sort of adjustment for both the table saw and the drill press. The introduction of the adjustable stop collar has now given us users a much nicer way of doing things. Yes I was right there when they come out to place my order. If you don't have one I save up for one. This is a picture of the adj. stop collar:
[ATTACH]18665[/ATTACH]
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... collar.htm
If you want to order one.
The stop collars were an early way of dealing with the issue. In the same way that you use the adj. you can use the fixed. We will get in to that in a short while.
One problem I found that also made these collars useful was being able to return to a previous setup without the hassle of redoing all the settings. That alone make it worth while to get some extra sets of them.
At this point I'll introduce you to dual split stop collar.
[ATTACH]18667[/ATTACH]
As you can see this makes it possible to add the stop collar above the carriage. This is useful if you have not added a collar above the carriage before putting the main table on. Or if it turns out that you find out you want to be able to return to this depth after you have done a set up.
[ATTACH]18668[/ATTACH]
With the collar attached you can raise the main table or even take it off and still return to the same setting height wise.
[ATTACH]18669[/ATTACH]
More coming.
Ed
I got my shopsmith new back in 1976. At the time I knew of no one else who had one. I was a member of a woodworking club with about 150 members and none of them admitted to having a shopsmith. I don't think that was unusual at that time.
I did get a 3-day class as part of the purchase price so there were about 20 people who attended the class, meaning at least 20 people owned them. I was already a woodworker and the class was more of an introduction to shopsmith and the extra "deals" they would sell you.
Shopsmith also had catalogs, and publications they sent out to you. Most had some good information and projects/demos to help you expand your knowledge. That and the PTWFE helped a lot.
Of course now-a-days we have the forum, ready made with "experts" on almost every subject. But back then you had a lot of "alone" time with your tools. If you wanted to do something you had to figure it out yourself. Wanted a different set up on the shopsmith, you were on your own for that.
What I'm about to tell you about is something that I developed to fit my needs. I have never seen or heard of anyone else doing this but with so many other users I'd have to think others have done this.
Stop collars was something I learned about when I worked in a machine shop, some of the products we produced used stop collars. Not that they were all that complex but more like I'd never used them.
When I got the shopsmith it came with some, many of you will be thinking of them on the tail stock.
[ATTACH]18664[/ATTACH]
This model has a single set screw to lock it in place but there are a few other designs out there and we are going to look at another design in a little while. These collars come in various sizes, the ones pictured are 1-1/4" inside dia. Keep in mind that the legs on the extension table and the main table are also that size. (10 series machine do not use this size but the concepts will be the same)
Well before shopsmith introduced the adjustable stop collar there was the need for this sort of adjustment for both the table saw and the drill press. The introduction of the adjustable stop collar has now given us users a much nicer way of doing things. Yes I was right there when they come out to place my order. If you don't have one I save up for one. This is a picture of the adj. stop collar:
[ATTACH]18665[/ATTACH]
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... collar.htm
If you want to order one.
The stop collars were an early way of dealing with the issue. In the same way that you use the adj. you can use the fixed. We will get in to that in a short while.
One problem I found that also made these collars useful was being able to return to a previous setup without the hassle of redoing all the settings. That alone make it worth while to get some extra sets of them.
At this point I'll introduce you to dual split stop collar.
[ATTACH]18667[/ATTACH]
As you can see this makes it possible to add the stop collar above the carriage. This is useful if you have not added a collar above the carriage before putting the main table on. Or if it turns out that you find out you want to be able to return to this depth after you have done a set up.
[ATTACH]18668[/ATTACH]
With the collar attached you can raise the main table or even take it off and still return to the same setting height wise.
[ATTACH]18669[/ATTACH]
More coming.
Ed
