Shopsmith Forums

First of all, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Now on to business. As a Christmas present, I recently completed the conversion of my son-in-law's 1986 model 500 to a 510 using the parts from my 510 to 520 conversion. My S-I-L gave me the old 500 parts (carriage, main table, fence, saw guard, extension table) and, before going to eBay, I listed them for sale on the 'other' SS forum on Yahoo.

A SS owner indicated interest - he is converting a Mark VII, he has already added a Mark V power head and he wants the better sawguard capabilities of the 500. I am not well versed in the Mark VII so he and I are posing the question for the group - will the model 500 parts fit on the Mark VII?

Additional questions: Will the model 500's main table fit in the Mark VII's carriage? If it does, should the Mark VII's carriage be retained? What else have we forgotten to ask? I believe the Mark VII's table is a bit bigger than the 500's and I would hazard a guess that the 500's saw guard will NOT fit on the Mark VII's table (for a variety of reasons).

That's it! Look forward to the replies.

bobgroh wrote:First of all, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Now on to business. As a Christmas present, I recently completed the conversion of my son-in-law's 1986 model 500 to a 510 using the parts from my 510 to 520 conversion. My S-I-L gave me the old 500 parts (carriage, main table, fence, saw guard, extension table) and, before going to eBay, I listed them for sale on the 'other' SS forum on Yahoo.

A SS owner indicated interest - he is converting a Mark VII, he has already added a Mark V power head and he wants the better sawguard capabilities of the 500. I am not well versed in the Mark VII so he and I are posing the question for the group - will the model 500 parts fit on the Mark VII?Sorta, depends.

Additional questions: Will the model 500's main table fit in the Mark VII's carriage?Yes, but backwards. If it does, should the Mark VII's carriage be retained?See below. What else have we forgotten to ask? I believe the Mark VII's table is a bit bigger than the 500's and I would hazard a guess that the 500's saw guard will NOT fit on the Mark VII's table (for a variety of reasons). Correct on both.

That's it! Look forward to the replies.

To gain a saw guard(from somewhere else) you have to give up the extra depth of the MVII table and the extension(width) table attaching to the main table.

The MVII 'spear/arrow' would need to be removed and replaced with a fixed length 'stop' similar to the M10 / Greenie stop rod if the MVII carriage is retained.

IIWM, the larger table etc. is more desirable than a guard. Besides they are occasionally 'found' though pretty scarce.

Just an update - the other SS owner decided, as a result of the info supplied here and in other emails from me, to forgo any attempt at changing the Mark VII over to a Mark V model 500 table and carriage. Mostly, I think, because he just didn't want to give up on a bigger table! Can't say I blame him - I surely wouldn't have gone that way.

Now I have to put my 500 parts on eBay or maybe Craigslist.