Shopsmith Forums

After seeing some recent post on DIY drum sanders, I think that something like that is not beyond my ability. There are tons of good videos on youtube as well. I can see myself making a drum sander, 6" x 80" belt sander with a swingarm attachment for creating compound radii on the face of a piece of wood, powering a shopfox buffer/polishing station, maybe an undertable oscillating spindle sander, and a horizontal resaw station. For those of you that have been through these projects before, I had a few questions:

1) Where can I find a nice little right angle takeoff gearbox so that I could mount a spindle buffer to the SS table while in drill press configuration and power it from the main quill?

2) When designing a bandsaw type too, what determines the correct diameter of the saw wheels? I dont need but aobut 16-18" capapcity and i imagine that the best blade for reswaing is the widest one so i dont think that i could just stretch out an older SS 11" bandsaw.

What are you gaining by 'polishing' in drill press mode instead of already horizontal?

Unless a third wheel(or four) is added, the max throat depth will be 1/2 the wheel diameter.

Wider is better for resawing.

when polishing a guitar body it is best to have a good deal of access around the polishing wheels, especially when you make one piece neck and body guitars (neck through) like I do. The Grizzy/Shop Fox buffer has very long arbors to give nice side clearance and if i were to mount in under the drill press table while it is being driven my the main quill from overhead then that would give me access to swing the body around underneath the tool without being hindered by a pedestal or the way tubes. I tried this in another luthier's shop and it is truley ideal.

apexsunguitars wrote:when polishing a guitar body it is best to have a good deal of access around the polishing wheels, especially when you make one piece neck and body guitars (neck through) like I do. The Grizzy/Shop Fox buffer has very long arbors to give nice side clearance and if i were to mount in under the drill press table while it is being driven my the main quill from overhead then that would give me access to swing the body around underneath the tool without being hindered by a pedestal or the way tubes. I tried this in another luthier's shop and it is truley ideal.

Could ya(as a diy junkie!) make a 'long' arbor that extends through a pillow block bearing mounted to an extension table and buff off the end of the SS in horizontal position?

Food for thought!

JPG40504 wrote:Could ya(as a diy junkie!) make a 'long' arbor that extends through a pillow block bearing mounted to an extension table and buff off the end of the SS in horizontal position?

Food for thought!

Almost anything is possible. I find when using the Shopsmith headstock as a power source, you are only limited by your imagination as to what you can attach to and around the Shopsmith. You can use the Shopsmith do many unique tasks and projects by building jigs and using drive systems, I used belts, to attach your tools and equipment. I was able to construct a 10" tiltable arbor saw table SPT on the way tubes like the planer and drive it with belts and a jack shaft. I used a 510 main table on the top. I disassembled it for painting and it is still stored in pieces.

JPG40504 wrote:Could ya(as a diy junkie!) make a 'long' arbor that extends through a pillow block bearing mounted to an extension table and buff off the end of the SS in horizontal position?

Food for thought!

You could do that but for two reasons. That would put the buffing wheels pretty low, at least for me since I am 6'3". Its also helpful to have two arbors side by side so you can have a rag on one and a polishing wheel on the other or two polishing wheels with different grit compound on them. The buffing assemly that I like looks like the attached. So what i really would need is a nice gearbox that can change the direction of the main headstock work by 90 degress

apexsunguitars wrote:You could do that but for two reasons. That would put the buffing wheels pretty low, at least for me since I am 6'3". Its also helpful to have two arbors side by side so you can have a rag on one and a polishing wheel on the other or two polishing wheels with different grit compound on them. The buffing assemly that I like looks like the attached. So what i really would need is a nice gearbox that can change the direction of the main headstock work by 90 degress

Not hard to do using the buffer you displayed. Use a 5/8" ID V-belt pulley on the quill shaft and mount the buffer on a large board (2X10) extending out from the front of the Shopsmith and attach the board to the way tubes. I use the planer screw-on attachment arms for these quick projects. Extend the quill to align the belt each time. I use link belts as it is easy to change the belt length. Belts work much better than gear boxes for me and are lighter in weight plus you have to attach the gear box to something.

billmayo wrote:Not hard to do using the buffer you displayed. Use a 5/8" ID V-belt pulley on the quill shaft and mount the buffer on a large board (2X10) extending out from the front of the Shopsmith and attach the board to the way tubes. I use the planer screw-on attachment arms for these quick projects. Extend the quill to align the belt each time. I use link belts as it is easy to change the belt length. Belts work much better than gear boxes for me and are lighter in weight plus you have to attach the gear box to something.

Duh! Again the master simplifies it!

Well then is there a good way to make a right angle with pulleys? I have seen some others mount the buffer in the manner that bill describes but it is easiest to work on the guitars if they are waist level. You buff on the lower front quadrant of the pads since you can see the work from that angle and its easiest to brace to guitar in case something catches. Thats why I really want to mount it on the drillpress table. I will look into link belts for the application though!

Have you seen this YouTube video for a Shopsmith/StewMac Buffing Station?
There is also a thread covering the build on the Telecaster Guitar Forum .