Shopsmith Forums

Multiple SS? I've wondered about just that. I'm now down to ONLY room left for 1 SS and I love the Bandsaw & Drill Press but since I have the Conical sander I can see having one SS being set up as a DP and another SS set up as a BS. The Conical sander would be easily converted from the DP mode. The only way I could accomplish that would be to cut the tubes and hope I could get the two units to fit where only one is now. Possible?

Yeah, probably possible. You have a lot of possibilities.

Do you have 2 Shopsmiths right now? Or are you thinking about adding a second one. If the latter, might I recommend picking up a 10ER for your dedicated drill press? Then you could use your Mark 5/V for horizontal functions. Even with the tubes cut down to make it shorter, you can leave room for the carriage and table so you'll still have table saw, disc sander, drive your bandsaw, etc.

One of my 10ERs is a dedicated drill press and the footprint is very small. I temporarily have the base sitting on a 1'x1'x2' block of cypress (with the long side running horizontal on the floor). Eventually I'll build a taller base for it with locking casters so I can roll it in and out of a corner. It should be easy enough to do the same thing with a Mark 5, but I just think the ER makes a great dedicated drill press.

A 'dedicated' 10 E/R drill press could be wall mounted. Motor clearance needs to be maintained.

JPG40504 wrote:A 'dedicated' 10 E/R drill press could be wall mounted. Motor clearance needs to be maintained.

Yep. I thought about wall mounting mine, but I like to move things around too much.

For a drill press function only, the Mark V base can be mounted/bolted to a stand or wall platform by using longer bolts or studs in place of the bolts that holds the bench tubes. I mounted the headstock on backwards (upside down) to take less overall space. I use a small bottle jack to raise or lower the headstock. I even cut off 1/3 of the main table at the outward miter slot to take less space. I found I did not need the full main table. I use this shopsmith as a drilling, tapping and milling machine by using a X/Y vice with rotating table on top of the vise and use a large face plate on the accessory end of the drive sleeve shaft for manually tapping threads. This keeps the tap or die turning straight. I use the 1/4" or 1/2" router chuck to hold the taps or dies and for the milling bits. I will be happy to answer any questions about this conversion. Thanks.

I'm reading these posts and trying to visualize the setups Any pictures would be great for us challenged with understanding these things:D