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I finally decided to take my grandfather's 1955 greenie down to the bones. It's a great machine that's served me well for a decade and he used it to build the family ranch so I know it's got some miles on it. After some errant wires caused the retaining ring to shear off and the sheave to become, shall we say, irreparable I took the whole thing apart. Pictures are at the link below and I'll be using this site for reference along the way. Over the next few days I'm going to add my list of issues, questions, and steps. Feels good to be working on this and with my 6 year old's interest in woodworking I want to do it right so he can own it himself one day.

Photos

High level issues:
- Switch works intermittently
- No access hole
- Dingy chrome
- Badges faded
- Wheels don't fully retract
- Worn pork chop teeth
- Pork chop plate rough/burred
- Mounting screws loose
- Chipped paint
- Rust
- Power cord black exposed wiring
- Capacitor has broken tab
- No hole in fan sheave
- Retaining ring broken
- Control sleeve roller bent (replace)
- Quill feed teeth worn
- Carriage wedges worn
- Gouge in pivot lock detent
- Pivot lock spring broken
- Jointer depth of cut plate still on
- Replace bearings? (jointer, idler)

I got an offer from my parents' neighbor to powder coat but I'm not sure what parts that would be and what colors I cold get. I'm pretty committed to the Rustoleum Hammered Verde Green/Silver motif.
I want to drill an access hole; need to look into how that is done and then how to secure the plate. I believe SS would do that but I'm pretty sure it's out of my price range.

Steps:
- Disassemble (complete)
- Strip paint
- Body work (access hole)
- De-rust
- Prime
- Paint
- Replace components
- Assemble
- Marvel at the accomplishment
- Make sawdust

Patrick.
Love the picks. Are you going to do a full restoration or just make it serviceable? Don't make it too pretty or you won't want to use it and get it dirty.
Bill V

Patrick,

Must be great getting your son involved with the restoration. I had two girls, which love dearly; but they are all girl. I might be just a little jealous.

Good luck with the restore.

Nice condition(except for the control sheave). Well worth the effort the two of you are expending. Noticed a couple of 'replaced' parts.

All things considered, it is in very good condition. IIWM, pretty would be on the agenda.

A labor of love considering its history and I hope your 'helper' will continue his interest and appreciate that history.

Do let us look over your shoulders please.

Being an "A" headstock, it likely has no oil holes in the control sheave and floating sheave hubs. A must do alteration!!!!


"I did not detect any 'missing' parts(a broken spring is a minor fix).

Bill, we're going for somewhere beyond serviceable but perhaps not quite as polished (literally) as mickyd's. There are some items like the tables that I don't expect to get pristine and the chrome I most likely won't take to a full shine. But I've never seen the paint intact in my life and that has contributed to the rusting.

JPG, good eye on the parts. I'd gone to the double quill bearing a few years ago and if I recall correctly the day my father brought it to me I both broke the tie bar and the coupler to the jointer. So multiple replacements and part of my goal here is to get as much of the external back to stock as possible. Speed control handle, find a period accurate replacement to the black handle, and the original greenie paint job. Internally I want to get oil holes on the sheaves because you're right, they aren't there, and one of the items I found during tear down was that the sheaves were pretty well gummed up from lack of maintenance.

pds0006 wrote:Bill, we're going for somewhere beyond serviceable but perhaps not quite as polished (literally) as mickyd's. There are some items like the tables that I don't expect to get pristine and the chrome I most likely won't take to a full shine. But I've never seen the paint intact in my life and that has contributed to the rusting.

JPG, good eye on the parts. I'd gone to the double quill bearing a few years ago and if I recall correctly the day my father brought it to me I both broke the tie bar and the coupler to the jointer. So multiple replacements and part of my goal here is to get as much of the external back to stock as possible. Speed control handle, find a period accurate replacement to the black handle, and the original greenie paint job. Internally I want to get oil holes on the sheaves because you're right, they aren't there, and one of the items I found during tear down was that the sheaves were pretty well gummed up from lack of maintenance.

The rusty bench tubes are common as they were not plated, but painted. Originally they came with only two red handled levers. One for the table height, and and for use on either side of the quill shaft.

pds0006 wrote:Bill, we're going for somewhere beyond serviceable but perhaps not quite as polished (literally) as mickyd's. There are some items like the tables that I don't expect to get pristine and the chrome I most likely won't take to a full shine. But I've never seen the paint intact in my life and that has contributed to the rusting.

JPG, good eye on the parts. I'd gone to the double quill bearing a few years ago and if I recall correctly the day my father brought it to me I both broke the tie bar and the coupler to the jointer. So multiple replacements and part of my goal here is to get as much of the external back to stock as possible. Speed control handle, find a period accurate replacement to the black handle, and the original greenie paint job. Internally I want to get oil holes on the sheaves because you're right, they aren't there, and one of the items I found during tear down was that the sheaves were pretty well gummed up from lack of maintenance.

Where are you located? There may be a Shopsmith owner near by that can help you. I drill a 3 1/8" access hole under the LOGO cover location on the "A" headstock casings. I use a bracket and two screws to hold the LOGO cover on after drilling the hole. I have reconditioned Gilmer Drive headstock parts available. If you are interested, contact me off line. Thanks.

Another 3rd generation SS owner user. My "Greenie" 1955 was also originally purchased by my Grandfather.

Handed down to my Dad in 1970
Handed down to me in 2001
Reconditioned by me a few yrs ago.
It's still a pleasure to use.

I'm not going to rush this because, well, I won't have the time to even rush it. Between work and kids I'll be lucky to get a couple consistent hours each week. That said, I got a good day this weekend and was able to start the Citristrip. For anyone wondering, yeah that stuff works.

Bad before picture:
[ATTACH]24016[/ATTACH]

Better after picture (about half the items done):
[ATTACH]24017[/ATTACH]

I had my space heater running just on the right side of the frame and used that to drive off any lingering moisture. Some items still have paint, particularly the newer tie bar, and I'll either wire wheel them or let them sit with more Citristrip longer. The remaining parts include the headstock, legs, jointer, and a few base/carriage pieces.

I also got some parts into the evaporust (off-brand actually) and scrubbed parts down to remove dirt. Pretty happy with that, got some pretty rusty parts back out as bright silver and then put them all in an oven at 175 to dry them all the way out. I chucked up a cleaning wheel in my drill and worked on on of the table bolts; I was surprised to see how shiny it got. I may have to rethink the notion of bringing parts up to a shine if it's this simple.

Notes:
- Was there ever a design change to the tie bar? I had to replace that 10 years ago and while I can strip it down and repaint it, if it isn't the same design for some reason I want it gone.
- Got a 3" hole saw to cut the access hole. I've never drilled metal so first time being on the family heirloom has me a bit nervous. I'll also need to be sure about where the hole is relative to the posts and I need to decide how to make the badge attachment before I permanently drill the headstock.
- How to drill the sheave for an oil hole. I still need to figure out if I need to drill anything or if replacements will have those. I think the lower fan sheave is staying and it doesn't have a hole so at least that.
- I cannot find an expansion plug for my way tube setup! Every store now carries these plastic numbers without any metal; I may need to order this off Amazon.
- I'm going to do electrolysis for the major pieces. How to do the legs with their huge size/bulky shape?
- Can the tubes be removed from the main table, accessory table, and jointer? It would be easier to de-rust the inside that way.
- How do you remove the depth of cut gauge from the jointer? It's riveted in as far as I can tell and I don't want to mar it or be unable to reattach it.
- What about painting the letters of the various handle? Maybe not the grid but at least the letters. I never look at the words but it always feels like they should be more legible.

pds0006 wrote:- I'm going to do electrolysis for the major pieces. How to do the legs with their huge size/bulky shape?

How about using a large plastic trash can.