Shopsmith Forums

I've had a very old shopsmith in my garage for the last 13 years. The SN goes back to 1957 and as far as I can tell its unmodified. I do know the owner history, its an original Mark V, with the 3/4HP motor. It was owned by a retired WWII merchant marine ship captain and he apparently used it mainly for building ships in bottles and hobby type crafts. He was a friend of my dads so I knew him slightly. He died in 1990 and just prior to his death, his health declined (he was 100+), gave it to my Father who promptly stored it in his garage and never did anything with it. In 2002 Dad gave it to me when I indicated an interest in getting into woodworking. Dad wanted to clear his garage but like most depression babies has a real problem getting rid of things. Anyway I helped him with his guilt and took it off his hands. I still had kids in school/HS/college and work etc with no time or $ for a hobby so it's sat in a corner of my garage since. The kids are on there own now, so I can now get started. I'm doing a some evaluation of what I have vs what I want/need/afford and the shopsmith is part of that evaluation.

My dad actually had the original documentation and promo the shopsmith promo pamphlet from when it was bought new. The cost was $279.

Anyway I took a good look at it last weekend and it appears to be the swiss army knife of basic power tool wood working. You can buy things that can do each of the tasks better but the shopsmith does them all pretty good. It appears that the ship captain had most of the add-ons for using it as a table saw, and lathe, disk sander. After taking a look at it, I'm thinking if I keep it to use it for things like turning, morticing, horizontal drilling. I don't think Ill use it for a bandsaw, joiner or router as I don't have the add-ons and from the shopsmith prices for those add-ons I think I can do better pricewise/quality with a standalone. I'm a little nervous about using it as a table saw.

In any case I plugged it in last weekend and flipped the switch. It started up and beyond some squeaks when I first flipped it on, it sounded fine, no funny smells. It does have some bearing rattle that you hear from old steel bearings but there is no side play in the spindle. I ran the spindle speed up and down most of the way with no problems that I could see or hear. It worked fine for some 1/2" holes I drilled in a 4" X 4" the just to load the motor down a bit. The motor seemed to have no difficulty under a mild load.

OK given that this thing has been sitting in garages and not touched for 30 years besides general clean up what should I do to resurrect this thing or should I bring it someplace and have them tune it up.

I wish mine had been in that good of shape when I got it but after some TLC and elbow grease she's back running like I think she did when she came off of the showroom floor.

Read the sticky posts at the top of the Maintenance and Repair forum.

This beast needs oil on those shafts the sheaves slide on.

FWIW, a 1957 Greenie is NOT 'very OLD'! You may be lucky it is not older, as they were difficult to lubricate properly.

A pix of what you have could help us help you.

Ive attached some pictures of it. The SN on it is 281532 Ive read some of the stuff on line and I think it's an original greening. There is a pretty good coating of dust on it, very little rust. Im thinking that what needs to be done is more in the nature of cleaning, lubrication and given how long its sat around, I suspect the belts in it would be pretty dried out. But I don't have any of the manuals and such.

Here is a link to some online manuals -

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/productmanuals.htm,

and here is where you can order the main manual -

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... sindex.htm.

The manuals can also be found on Ebay, etc.

Mike

You can download a copy of the manual for you "Greenie" here Early Shopsmith Mark V Manual

It appears you have the earlier greenie version("A" headstock).

Sep/Oct 1954.

What a nice looking machine. Almost every one of that vintage that I've found has a lot of rust on it.
One thing to keep in mind is that the grease in all the bearings, unless they've been changed is over a half century old & likely to be congealed. If I was going to use the machine, I'd change all of them including the motor bearings. If you're mechanically inclined, it's not too hard to do. If you're not, it's a useful skill to learn, and there's enough knowledge base on this forum to help you through it.

Welcome!
I showed up just over a year ago, having purchased a 1980's shopsmith off craigslist. It came with a second, broken one I believe was from 1959 (serial number plate missing). I had no real idea about them beyond the basics. I was surprised at how very well built they are and, even more so, at the fantastic help I've received here. The two together have made bringing them back to life a real pleasure. The newer one just needed cleaning and a few small fixes and was back up and running quickly. I ignored the older one until recently and just pulled the last bearing out (in this case it was a bearing in the motor). The whole process was new to me and I've been surprised that none so far has been very hard.

So, other than welcome, two things I suggest:

Ask lots of questions! People here are very willing to help out. Almost anything can be fixed on these things.

Read through the "sticky" first two posts in the maintenance section. Very helpful!