Shopsmith Forums

The CL ad said if you bought the 20" Shopsmith scoll saw for $150, you'd get a Shopsmith band saw for free.

That seemed worth a 2 hour drive.

When I got there I met Bryan. A former member of this forum he's a professional woodworker who mostly turns pens. He is moving and divesting some of his Shopsmith equipment he no longer uses. His garage was full of more woodworking equipment than I have seen outside of a Woodcraft catalog.

First up the scroll saw:
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Missing its plastic shield but otherwise operational (we tossed it on his power station and it is in working order). Did the deal and true to his word he pulled out the free band saw:
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He casually mentioned that somewhere he had some new tires (the orange silicone ones) and he will send them along when he finds them during the packing up of the garage this week.

Then he said he'd sell me this for $50:
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Even without the platens and table, that seemed too good to pass up. (On the way home he called to say he found the platens and was confident he could find the table while packing up the garage this week.)

As I was getting ready to leave he said he had some other things... See Post # 2.

So after saying he had a few other things to show me he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. For $20 he gave me:

Two molder heads with two molder arbors (one is already mounted to the second molder head) and a bunch of molder blades (some new):
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Plus a 6" stacked dado set:
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Plus a mystery object wrapped in paper which he said was a circle cutting jig. This is what came out of the wrappings. Anyone know what it is? Don't think it's Shopsmith:
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He also threw in two maintenance DVDs, several 12" inch sandpaper discs, and a bunch of scroll saw blades!

This should be fun!

SCORE!!!

I would say you did alright.

Congratulations!!

Great deal, algale! Doubt if there's a better deal anywhere! Congratulations on your find!

Looks like the circle cutter might work on the Shopsmith bandsaw. For starts, you will need one of those table extensions. http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... bleext.htm

I'm convinced the "mystery" parts are NOT part of the Shopsmith circle cutting jig. If you look closely at the Shopsmith band saw circle cutter, none of those parts match any of the "mystery" parts I got.

Still trying to figure out what it is. I've already texted the seller and told him that if he discovers he's missing something that he needs for some piece of machinery, I will happily return the "mystery" parts.

The "Mystery Parts" look like part of the Shopsmith Universal Hold Down Set.

See the picture in ShopSmith Accessory Catalog 1954 page 3 in the middle.
Also see Universal Hold Down instructions

rpd wrote:The "Mystery Parts" look like part of the Shopsmith Universal Hold Down Set.

See the picture in ShopSmith Accessory Catalog 1954 page 3 in the middle.
Also see Universal Hold Down instructions

Looks like you nailed it!

Word to the wise: vacuum out the gear box of your scroll saw periodically!

This morning I started the process of rehabbing the new toys. The first thing I noticed was that the hub of the scroll saw was very stiff to turn manually. I had noticed this when I inspected it but it was running, so I bought it.

I went through the scroll saw manual and the only real maintenance I found was to add a couple of drops of oil to the pump seal. No other oiling or greasing specified.

I opened up the access panel to the pump seal/gear box and immediately saw the reason for the stiffness.
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The gear box was clogged with sawdust and what I think was chips from acrylic pen blanks.

Funny that the manual wouldn't advise checking this, although if you add the oil annually, you would naturally see any accumulation. I could see, however, that the tape that holds the pump seal cover down was undisturbed, so I guess the prior owner never added oil to the pump seal so I'm guessing he never bothered to open it up. For point of reference, this is a 1996 scroll saw!

Even after I vacuumed out the gear box, there was still a fair amount of debris impacted in the teeth of the gears. I removed that with a nylon brush. After that, everything moved smoothly by hand so I oiled the pump seal and closed it up.

I used some Mother's mag and aluminum wheel polish on the table and it cleaned up nicely.

Chucked a blade and made a couple of test cuts. All is well.

At some point I may splurge and buy clear flip down cover that is broken off, but I think I got a real bargain!

I don't think maintenance was the previous owner's strong suit. In fact, he told me he managed to blow up six Shopsmith power heads. Expensive habit.

I expect there was a similar lack of maintenance on the free band saw and the strip sander. I will check them out later.