Shopsmith Forums

On the SS website the serial #s for 1985 begin in two places so does 1986 and 1987. Can anyone explain the purpose of this, please? I saw a headstock on Ebay with a serial # 014200 that claimed to have a double quill bearing. I determine because of the toggle switch that the headstock was from the eighties. It is difficult to pinpoint the year because of my confusion with the serial #s. Thanks for help here.

godavid2 wrote:On the SS website the serial #s for 1985 begin in two places so does 1986 and 1987. Can anyone explain the purpose of this, please? I saw a headstock on Ebay with a serial # 014200 that claimed to have a double quill bearing. I determine because of the toggle switch that the headstock was from the eighties. It is difficult to pinpoint the year because of my confusion with the serial #s. Thanks for help here.

All units shipped with a two bearing quill have sn starting with 19xxxx.

The 'C' headstock began in 1991(square switch).

Any Mark 5/V poly-v drive headstock can be upgraded to a two bearing quill.




FAR more important is it's overall condition!;)

JPG40504 wrote:All units shipped with a two bearing quill have sn starting with 19xxxx.

I guess my 1986 SS 510 has a single bearing quill? It's serial number is below, 5728. No one has changed anything since it was shipped. When I felt inside the quill when I had it apart for service I thought I felt a second bearing, but I am no expert!

It should have a double bearing quill.

This is from Jacob Anderson's website: http://www.jacobs-repairshop.com/my_web_site_012.htm. According to his website they ran two styles of serial numbers in 85, 86, 87 depending on if it was made in the early or late part of each year. Anyone know why? I'm more apt to believe that the V510's used the newer serial number scheme 000xx and the V500 ran the old style 20xxx until they didnt sell anymore 500's. I'm leaning more toward this since the 510 are stamped with a leading "51 - ".



Here are my 2: 1985 (#200862) and 1986 (#221219). Both have double bearing quills.

joshh wrote:It should have a double bearing quill.

I'm more apt to believe that the V510's used the newer serial number scheme 000xx and the V500 ran the old style 20xxx until they didnt sell anymore 500's. I'm leaning more toward this since the 510 are stamped with a leading "51 - ".

This is what I assumed as well - I couldn't see why they would use two serial #'s schemes for these years other than it coincided with the introduction of the 510 and it would make sense that they would do the separate schemes for the 500 and 510 until they stopped making the 500, after which they went to the date as the serial # (which is the only thing they've done with serial numbers that made any sense IMO).

As for the two bearing quill, unless you are turning large, heavy pieces of wood or otherwise subjecting your quill to a large amount of lateral torque, I think the two-bearing quill is not as magical an upgrade as it seems many folks feel. All other things being equal between two headstocks (including cost), I would choose the two-bearing version if given a choice, but I wouldn't spend a bunch of $$ or time doing the upgrade unless I had a specific need for it. Just my opinion, which is rarely worth a whole lot.

joshh wrote:It should have a double bearing quill.

This is from Jacob Anderson's website: http://www.jacobs-repairshop.com/my_web_site_012.htm. According to his website they ran two styles of serial numbers in 85, 86, 87 depending on if it was made in the early or late part of each year. Anyone know why? I'm more apt to believe that the V510's used the newer serial number scheme 000xx and the V500 ran the old style 20xxx until they didnt sell anymore 500's. I'm leaning more toward this since the 510 are stamped with a leading "51 - ".



Here are my 2: 1985 (#200862) and 1986 (#221219). Both have double bearing quills.

And both have sn > 19xxxx

rcplaneguy wrote:I guess my 1986 SS 510 has a single bearing quill? It's serial number is below, 5728. No one has changed anything since it was shipped. When I felt inside the quill when I had it apart for service I thought I felt a second bearing, but I am no expert!

The 510 was created after the 2 bearing quill release, so it most likely is a two bearing quill.

The 500/510 different sn sequence makes sense!

Thanks for the insight. I agree with the assessment of the two profiles. The ser. # beginning with zeros are for the 510 and the other for the 500.