Create a review for a woodworking tool that you are familiar with (Shopsmith brand or Non-Shopsmith) or just post your opinion on a specific tool. Head to head comparisons welcome too.
I just learned something: The current basic Mark V model number is 505. ShopSmith currently offers the Mark V three different ways. Check out this web page: http://www.shopsmith.com/markvsite/purchaseNB.htm
Without giving a model number, it shows a basic unit with no tubes, floating tables, etc, with a price of $2999. Then there is the Basic unit with the 510 Table System for $200 more. Following that is the Basic unit with the 520 Pro Fence Table System for $499 more. It gives part number 555861 as the Basic unit; 555924 Basic with 510 system; 555869 with 520 system.
I thought it was odd what htz308 said about his 505 being new in 2004:
I purchesed my 505 brand new in 2004. It is the 50 year anniversary model so it couldn't be from the 50's, 60's, or 70's. IT is a 510 with out the floating tables. If yours was a demo model it probably saw alot of abuse and was reconditioned.
I just learned my new thing for the day:D .
Tim
Buying US made products will help keep YOUR job or retirement funds safer.
I recently acquired a 92 model 510 and a upgrade 520 unit and I noticed a little difference in the carriages. The shopsmith replacement number is the same for both the 510 and 520 carriage and yet two different methods are used to secure the table legs. I added the pics so that you can see the difference. Do any of you folks know about the difference?
ldh
I do see the split in the "510" carriage versus the no split in the "520". Sometimes manufacturing methods or techniques change. I would think that the parts are interchangeable even though they are slightly different. It makes me wonder; however, are all of the components that make up a new Mark V actually MADE in the USA? Also, does the 520 upgrade come with a new carriage?
Tim
Buying US made products will help keep YOUR job or retirement funds safer.
Tim,
I think the 520 is an upgrade from a 510R, so the carriage may be from the original 510. The 510 was born a 510. I have always used a 500 so I don't know much about the 510 or 520. I became interested in the 510 and 520 after reading all the posts from folks that have them. I just happened to be waiting in the weeds at the right time and purchased both at a very reasonable price. I have a winter shop and a summer shop so they both will have a kind and loving home.
ldh
Hi Idh,
I have never done work on a 500. I bought my 510 brand new, in 1995, from a show at a fair where they show every year. I drooled for years before making the plunge. I think that you will like using the 520 more though, due to it's upgraded table system. That humble opinion is only based on what I have read on this forum:D . I will probably never upgrade, as between the Incra Ultimate Fence/Router System Package that I purchased last year for my 510, and the stand alone 12" table saw that I have, I do not see any benefit in having the 520 system.
ldh wrote:......I have a winter shop and a summer shop so they both will have a kind and loving home.
ldh
I am betting that your winter shop is in Arizona, so where is your summer shop?
Tim
Buying US made products will help keep YOUR job or retirement funds safer.
My brand-new 520 upgrade has the split carriage, so it's apparently not a 510 thing (nor should it be, logically). Perhaps SS uses two different suppliers? Or was it a design change, with old-style and new-style parts jumbled together on the shelf? (this happens a lot in manufacturing, as geekish students of vintage guitars quickly learn).
If the solid carriage is effectively the same as that in the 500, it strikes me as a weak design, since nothing holds the elevetion except the teeth in the locked pinions. The split carriage solidly clamps the tubes.
Bill,
Thanks for the good information. I think I will swap the 510 carriage with the split and put it on the 520. The 520 upgrade must have been an earlier version of the carriage. I might as well make the 520 as new as possible.
One has the C head and the other has the B head from 89. Both run well with seemingly little wear.
ldh
Tim,
Colorado at 7000 feet, nice place to work in the summer time, but would be brutal in the winter. Just the opposite for Phoenix. I have so many jigs and fixtures for my 500 it will take a while to adjust to the 520.
ldh
IDH
Just adding my .02 cents worth to this topic. I have only owned a 510 which was manufactured in Sept of 1993 and it has the split in the carriage that you are talking about. I have since upgraded it to a 520 after seeing how much better the fence/rail system worked while at a TA. As for getting an upgrade carriage, that only comes with a package going from a 500 to a 510 or 520.
Ron,
Most people scoff at $.02 worth, but I always put it in my pocket and as a result my pocket is always full. Both the 510 and 520 are in excellent shape, so now it is just a matter of building jigs. I am off this morning to look at a 510 for a friend. I turn a bit so I think I will try my hand at building that Longworth chuck that was featured in an earlier thread. I was watching one of the Sawdust Sessions the other day and Jim McCann was using some 1,2,3
blocks he had made for setup. Enco has a real steal on two steel 1,2,3, blocks for $16.
ldh
