shopsmith 10e serial 23155 restored for use as a drill press.
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 12:59 am
Hello and thank you to all who have posted about their Shopsmith 10 series machines. I had read and re-read many of the past posts, prior to beginning my restoration. Here is the story of my shopsmith 10e's restoration.
About a month ago, I finally decided that I something other than a benchtop drill press. Dont get me wrong, my duracraft bench top press has served me faithfully for almost 25 years. But it has always had the drawback of very limited space under the chuck. So, I started to keep my eyes open on the local craigslist for floor standing drill presses. While searching, I kept seeing Shopsmiths. Most were the 500 or Mark v, I was not drawn to them. Then I saw a very old rockwell drill press. I was hooked on that look!! I loved the exposed belts, the belt guard and in general, the amazing 1940's style. Good Old Solid Cast Iron American made Genius, but the prices were way out of my range (read college age kids). One day I saw a posting for a shopsmith 10. WOW... what a great looking machine! I did some research and found out everything I could about 10e's and 10er's. I poured over the pictures of the one I had seen on Craigslist. It appeared to be a 10e... 1948 vintage!! and the price was tiny. Long story short, It came home with me. I did a bit of a safety check and fired it up. The motor ran smooth and cool, the belt was a mess, but all told, it did what it was supposed to do.. It went round!!!!
I took it all apart and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. I painted and painted. Let me tell you after years of spray can hammertone restoration projects, I was a expert at getting that great hammertone look from a can. But this machine had way to many round(ish) parts for my methods with a spray can to work. I read up on brushing on hammertone and I can not be happier with the results. I will never pick up another can of spray hammertone again. Brushing it on is far superior.
About a week into the tear down and painting, another 10 series came up on craigslist, for way less money (just about free!). This one had the speed changer and the scroll saw (which has a bad crank shaft). So I picked that one up for the speed changer alone! During the tear down, I got a chance to check the bearings on my original drive and spindle. They were dry and didn't respond to my attempts to re-grease them. So, I ordered a new set and I put in both sets of new bearings. I also had to rewire the beast, as the old rubber wire was crumbly. Lots of sanding and buffer wheel time was spent as well.
Because I had the second machine, I did rebuild the 10e with a couple of 10er parts. ie speed changer and quill depth marker. So its a bit of a franken machine, but thats ok. Today was the first day that she ran under her own power after the rebuild and is now certified complete. Smooth as silk and quiet too.
Again, thank you all for the hints, tips, tricks and help, that you never knew you were giving.
Here are the before and mid pictures. It was too late tonight to get any good pictures of the finished machine. I will post tomorrow if anyone is interested.
About a month ago, I finally decided that I something other than a benchtop drill press. Dont get me wrong, my duracraft bench top press has served me faithfully for almost 25 years. But it has always had the drawback of very limited space under the chuck. So, I started to keep my eyes open on the local craigslist for floor standing drill presses. While searching, I kept seeing Shopsmiths. Most were the 500 or Mark v, I was not drawn to them. Then I saw a very old rockwell drill press. I was hooked on that look!! I loved the exposed belts, the belt guard and in general, the amazing 1940's style. Good Old Solid Cast Iron American made Genius, but the prices were way out of my range (read college age kids). One day I saw a posting for a shopsmith 10. WOW... what a great looking machine! I did some research and found out everything I could about 10e's and 10er's. I poured over the pictures of the one I had seen on Craigslist. It appeared to be a 10e... 1948 vintage!! and the price was tiny. Long story short, It came home with me. I did a bit of a safety check and fired it up. The motor ran smooth and cool, the belt was a mess, but all told, it did what it was supposed to do.. It went round!!!!
I took it all apart and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. I painted and painted. Let me tell you after years of spray can hammertone restoration projects, I was a expert at getting that great hammertone look from a can. But this machine had way to many round(ish) parts for my methods with a spray can to work. I read up on brushing on hammertone and I can not be happier with the results. I will never pick up another can of spray hammertone again. Brushing it on is far superior.
About a week into the tear down and painting, another 10 series came up on craigslist, for way less money (just about free!). This one had the speed changer and the scroll saw (which has a bad crank shaft). So I picked that one up for the speed changer alone! During the tear down, I got a chance to check the bearings on my original drive and spindle. They were dry and didn't respond to my attempts to re-grease them. So, I ordered a new set and I put in both sets of new bearings. I also had to rewire the beast, as the old rubber wire was crumbly. Lots of sanding and buffer wheel time was spent as well.
Because I had the second machine, I did rebuild the 10e with a couple of 10er parts. ie speed changer and quill depth marker. So its a bit of a franken machine, but thats ok. Today was the first day that she ran under her own power after the rebuild and is now certified complete. Smooth as silk and quiet too.
Again, thank you all for the hints, tips, tricks and help, that you never knew you were giving.
Here are the before and mid pictures. It was too late tonight to get any good pictures of the finished machine. I will post tomorrow if anyone is interested.
