Shopsmith Forums

I (as well as many) thoroughly enjoy these forums. I am one of (perhaps) many who lurk clandestinely.

A few years ago, I was at a party- a fellow asked,"anyone want a shopsmith?" Remembering my youth, I recalled my dad used his to build a cabin for our 16' BostonWhaler and so after no one said "Yes!" I did.
It languished in the garage for a year, looking rather formidable- really, what could one do with such- a thing?
I acquired some resolve and began the process of attaching the tables.....
Now, September of 2014, I can say with some pride I've used it as a lathe(candlesticks from a dead juniper on my property) tables made from oak and mahogany jointed together, presents for grandkids...

I've purchased a jointer, planer, biscuit jointer, various lathe accessories, table saw sled, and I'm quite sure more I'm not recalling-

Today I'm looking at the upgrade portion of the Shopsmith site,520 upgrade and there I saw an aluminum bar to align the tables-arriving in the garage I found two similar items. About 3" long,2"wide a 90 degree on the side.

So after all the rambling, how are they used?

I won't be so verbose next time.

Thank you guys for the great forum.

mediadaddy, review this and if you still have questions about how to use the alignment gauges come back and ask again.

I use the alignment gauges the same way as Dusty shows; but the instructions suggest something different.

Per the official method, you are supposed to take the tables off the Mark V, invert the tables on a flat surface, loosen the rails and then place the long leg of the alignment gauge under the table with the short leg pointing up. This lets gravity pull the rails down to the alignment gauge's reference surface.

I think Dusty's method is better because you can see what is going on with the long leg and make sure it is registering properly on the top of the table. You can also more easily see if the reference surface of the gauge is making consistent contact with rails. Not very important with the original 520 rails which had a nice wide flat surface but if you have the newer 520 rails with the magnetic strip (for the rulers), there's only a very thin aluminum lip on the rail. I think the better practice is to put the gauge against that lip only as it is a more consistent surface than the glued-on magnetic strip.

Al

P.S. On a side note, I have the upgraded rail profile but don't have the magnetic strip installed -- it's a long story -- so I have to reference off of the lip because the gauge isn't tall enough to reach the surface where the strip should go.