Shopsmith Forums

Hello all,

At the risk of causing any jealousy, I was given for free what I believe to be a 1958 Mark 5 from my in-laws (SN 355174). It seemed to be in really good shape. That is, until I got it home.

Overall, it is in decent shape, especially for it's age. But the carriage casting was broken at the table support ear. Also, the table support tube was bulged on the end, making it impossible to remove from the carriage on one side.

I used a rotary file on the end of the tube, and was able to finally get the carriage piece off of the table section. What seems to have happened is, at some point, when the way tubes were up for drill press operation, maintenance, etc, the assembly was dropped abruptly on some object that broke the casting and smashed the table tube. In doing so, the pinion for the table lift had many teeth sheared off, so this had to be quite an impact.

I've got most of the machine apart already, and I'm working on getting paint on it. I hope to learn much from the folks here, and look for opportunities to share what I may know, or a chance to use my home foundry for some custom add-ons

Welcome!!! I am sure what you need to know someone here knows it. Also the Sickies here are really complete and many from SS its self. with videos.

Smoken,
you have what is known as a "greenie" lots of those around!! Here is a link from the stickies on S#s.
Serial number data - Serial number table from ShopSmith website, mickyd serial number table filling in the blanks on ShopSmith site table

Where are you located ? Hopefully we have someone in your area to help. Your unit is fixable. You will be able to find all the parts and get plenty of help from the people here. Glad to hear you want to keep it and fix it up. Won't be long you will have your second unit !

Lets try this S# thing again!!!
Bottom of the page.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/faq/markv.htm
Here is another version.
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/attachm ... 1241207093

SmokinJoe must live in my town. One of our Stop signs went missing a few months ago.

Oh, that couldn't have been me. I stole mine fair and square from the Air Force base I used to work at years ago I'm in Peoria, IL, and I've already sourced most of the parts I need. These things are really fun to work on, and I'm excited to get it running.

All the bearings are actually in really good shape. None of the dust shields are damaged, and only two show signs of seeping lubricant. Even then, everything turns really smoothly. I'll probably replace them all for good measure.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the machine. It seems to be very well thought out in it's design both for function and assembly/disassembly. All right, I gotta go. You guys are distracting me from working on this thing.

Here's a quick look at the carnage of the carriage.




Two nights ago, I replaced the bearings on the gilmer drive shaft. Turns out, I have a whole box of 6205 ZZ bearings sitting in the shop! And my wife calls it a junk pile.... So that was a nice freebie. My cousin will be helping me machine the quill and shaft to accept the triple bearing mod that I've read about on here in the near future, so I'm excited about that.

I've begun prepping the parts for paint. Trying to sand this powder coat into a uniform surface is less than pleasant. Oh well, I'm having fun!

BTW: Does anyone have a way of getting the support tubes out of the floating table? They're a bit nasty, and I'd like them to shine like the rest, but they seem to be a press fit, or maybe a heated fit?

smokinjoe79 wrote:Here's a quick look at the carnage of the carriage.




Two nights ago, I replaced the bearings on the gilmer drive shaft. Turns out, I have a whole box of 6205 ZZ bearings sitting in the shop! And my wife calls it a junk pile.... So that was a nice freebie. My cousin will be helping me machine the quill and shaft to accept the triple bearing mod that I've read about on here in the near future, so I'm excited about that.

I've begun prepping the parts for paint. Trying to sand this powder coat into a uniform surface is less than pleasant. Oh well, I'm having fun!

BTW: Does anyone have a way of getting the support tubes out of the floating table? They're a bit nasty, and I'd like them to shine like the rest, but they seem to be a press fit, or maybe a heated fit?

If you are talking about the table that you removed from the carriage, the tubes are a shrink fit. Later models also had dowel pins that needed to driven out. I have had success using my propane torch to remove the legs.

BTW, I have an extra carriage, you can email me at the address below if you are interested.

Good luck with your toy!