Shopsmith Forums

I have had an old greenie Magna jigsaw that I obtained from a neighbor. When I got it, it had lost its mounting tubes and so I never did anything with it and it sat in a corner of the shop. Earlier this month I ordered a set of tubes (for the strip sander) from Shopsmith and have been playing around with the jigsaw ever since receiving the tubes.

Today, I got curious and checked out the jigsaw serial number chart http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/faq/jigsaw.htm and discovered that my jigsaw, serial number EX51183
[ATTACH]19729[/ATTACH]
was made between October and November 1954 and is thus appears to be an early one (maybe the EX in the serial number means "Experimental").

It seems to be pretty much identical to others I've seen posted except the lower chuck only has screw (for tightening the blade) on the one side of the chuck. The opposite side where the adjustment screw would be is smooth, as seen in this photo.

[ATTACH]19730[/ATTACH]

Incidentally, you will notice in the photo that I have the lower fiber back up rod turned out of the way. As I read the on line manual, the lower backup rod is only used for sabersaw operations where the blade is not secured in the upper chuck (which has its own back up support tube).

algale wrote:I have had an old greenie Magna jigsaw that I obtained from a neighbor. When I got it, it had lost its mounting tubes and so I never did anything with it and it sat in a corner of the shop.

Earlier this month I ordered a set of tubes (for the strip sander) from Shopsmith and have been playing around with the jigsaw ever since receiving the tubes.

Wished I read this earlier. I was out in the cold garage today pulling a leg from the jig saw and from the strip sander so I could compare them. My old jig saw with straight legs doesn't line up well with my new system and I had no adjustment to fix this. I had a feeling that they might work but I wanted to be sure. Now they get added to my must list for 2013.

Today, I got curious and checked out the jigsaw serial number chart http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/faq/jigsaw.htm and discovered that my jigsaw, serial number EX51183
[ATTACH]19729[/ATTACH]
was made between October and November 1954 and is thus appears to be an early one (maybe the EX in the serial number means "Experimental").

It seems to be pretty much identical to others I've seen posted except the lower chuck only has screw (for tightening the blade) on the one side of the chuck. The opposite side where the adjustment screw would be is smooth, as seen in this photo.

[ATTACH]19730[/ATTACH]

Incidentally, you will notice in the photo that I have the lower fiber back up rod turned out of the way. As I read the on line manual, the lower backup rod is only used for sabersaw operations where the blade is not secured in the upper chuck (which has its own back up support tube).

I still use mine from time to time as a jig saw it is more often used as a sander or with the files. The scroll saw works better for me for cutting but the jig saw was all I had for a lot of years and it did fine. Did not want to loose the ability to have it so the new legs will solve that issue.

Ed