Shopsmith Forums

I have an interest in knife making. My first step would be simple stock removal done on a belt sander. From a factory, these devices can be very expensive. It struck me that they are simply an electric motor with a pulley set up to route the belts, with a tool rest for the piece being worked. I have a spare Shopsmith, and was wondering if anybody has ever seen a set up for using their Shopsmith head as a motor for a home made set up? I was thinking that I could cut the spare down into being a Mini setup and rig something to it. The ability to vary speeds, along with available gear reduction and increase assemblies seems like a match made in heaven.

Anybody here ever do this or know of somebody who has?

A mini with a belt sander? As such it could still be used as a power station for other SPTs.

Here are a couple of threads that may be of interest:

http://shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?t=5468
https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=10157

I believe that the second one was written up in a magazine.

Unless space is an issue, a full size Mark v with a belt sander, strip sander or disc sander could be used and still have the ability to power other SPTs.

No, I have not seen what you describe but you don't mention any tasks that could not be done on a Shopsmith with some accessories.

rb61 wrote:I have an interest in knife making. My first step would be simple stock removal done on a belt sander. From a factory, these devices can be very expensive. It struck me that they are simply an electric motor with a pulley set up to route the belts, with a tool rest for the piece being worked. I have a spare Shopsmith, and was wondering if anybody has ever seen a set up for using their Shopsmith head as a motor for a home made set up? I was thinking that I could cut the spare down into being a Mini setup and rig something to it. The ability to vary speeds, along with available gear reduction and increase assemblies seems like a match made in heaven.

Anybody here ever do this or know of somebody who has?

No, but I have sharpened knives on the strip sander - see "Sawdust Session" #10. http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Arch ... _Index.htm


And the Shopsmith Academy shop Tips show the knife holding tool that you can make. Drawing and measurements are on the blackboard. http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/Tips_Ar ... Knives.htm

And one of these holds the knife holding tool right where you want it. http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/Tips_Ar ... Knives.htm

Here is the magazine (Machinists Workshop, Oct/Nov 2013) referred to by BuckeyeDennis with my grinder on the cover:
[ATTACH]26247[/ATTACH]

I use it a lot but have never made a knife with it. Sharpened a few with the holder charlese mentioned and it works great. Here is a pic of the holder:

[ATTACH]26248[/ATTACH]

Here is the magazine (Machinists Workshop, Oct/Nov 2013) referred to by BuckeyeDennis with my grinder on the cover:
[ATTACH]26247[/ATTACH]

I use it a lot but have never made a knife with it. Sharpened a few with the holder charlese mentioned and it works great. Here is a pic of the holder:

[ATTACH]26248[/ATTACH]

Thanks for everybody's input on this. It is the exact direction I was thinking in. As for why do I want to set up a second Shopsmith dedicated to this...? I want to be able to keep the wood working and the metal working set-ups separate from each other. I don't want to mix metal filings and saw dust together on the machines- and don't want the chance for metal filings to find sawdust I might have missed during clean up and set it on fire....

rb61 wrote:Thanks for everybody's input on this. It is the exact direction I was thinking in. As for why do I want to set up a second Shopsmith dedicated to this...? I want to be able to keep the wood working and the metal working set-ups separate from each other. I don't want to mix metal filings and saw dust together on the machines- and don't want the chance for metal filings to find sawdust I might have missed during clean up and set it on fire....

Since I do more metal working than wood working, please contact me as I have modified Shopsmiths for a lot of metal working tasks. I am even in Florida so you may be able to visit my shop. Thanks.

Bill