Shopsmith Forums

Hello all, I am not a woodworker as of yet. I recently purchased a shopsmith 510 . I am into building banjos. I bought the shopsmith to do various sanding and drilling chores.I can build the neck using the shopsmith, but not the wood rim because I do not have a lathe to turn the rim with. The rim can be built either by laminating 3 plies of maple ,or other woods into an eleven inch diameter circle that is 5/8" thick by 3 1/2 " tall.my problem is that the rim has to be turned to fit the tone ring. does anyone have a setup or ideas for that job? Here is a web link that shows th rim.
http://members.tripod.com/~banjoist/Lathe.htm

Go to http://www.songofthegreatlakes.com/

This guy is a great Shopsmith fan...And an accomplished banjo maker. He should be able to answer a lot of your questions.

Doc

banjopikker wrote:Hello all, I am not a woodworker as of yet. I recently purchased a shopsmith 510 . I am into building banjos. I bought the shopsmith to do various sanding and drilling chores.I can build the neck using the shopsmith, but not the wood rim because I do not have a lathe to turn the rim with.

The Shopsmith is a very nice lathe what am I missing? The chuck you show should be able to mount on the Shopsmith, if the manufacture does not offer the correct adapter www.bestwoodtools.com will make a custom one for you for less than $50. If it has a standard thread you can get adapters made in China for <$20 but I would not reccommend one for technical reasons covered elsewhere.

paulmcohen wrote:The Shopsmith is a very nice lathe what am I missing? The chuck you show should be able to mount on the Shopsmith, if the manufacture does not offer the correct adapter www.bestwoodtools.com will make a custom one for you for less than $50. If it has a standard thread you can get adapters made in China for <$20 but I would not reccommend one for technical reasons covered elsewhere.

The link is to Ritchie Dotsons site. I only have a shopsmith.The lathe chucks that I have are too small to hold the rim. My Shopsmith only has the standard tool rest. I am going to check the shopsmith site for other options on that. I have never done any wood turning so I am not too familiar with the ins and outs of it. I have some studying to do.

banjopikker wrote:The link is to Ritchie Dotsons site. I only have a Shopsmith.The lathe chucks that I have are too small to hold the rim. My Shopsmith only has the standard tool rest. I am going to check the Shopsmith site for other options on that. I have never done any wood turning so I am not too familiar with the ins and outs of it. I have some studying to do.

Virtually any chuck will fit with the correct adapter. I purchased an adapter for the standard Shopsmith tool rest holder (not technically a rest) that allows me to use a carbide bit like is shown in the picture. It was customer made for the Shopsmith and was less than $20.

One of the assumptions you are making is that it is necessary to have a chuck to make a tone ring, and that's just not true. I have made several banjos with nothing more than a faceplate. You simply glue the tone ring blank to a wooden disc with a piece of newspaper between the two wooden parts. Screw or bolt a faceplate to the wooden disc and you're in business. After turning the tone ring, simply place the edge of a sharp chisel on the seam between the disc and the ring. Tap lightly and the two parts will separate cleanly.

With all good wishes,

I don't think ShopSmith is specific to large projects. My projects usually will hang on a picture hook. Having never worked on a banjo, I can only respond to what I see in the picture. I could picture using scroll saw to cut 3 circles and then glueing the thing together to form the center ring. I'm probably totally off base, but I'm just showing that there is probably more than one way to form the end product. Good luck. Gary

Like Nick Said - Faceplates work!

When I wanted to turn my first two pepper mills, I didn't own a chuck. So glued up the two pieces of walnut on a piece of paper from a note pad and the paper also glued onto their own piece of plywood. Fastened to plywood with screws onto the faceplate.

This worked good to turn the outside of the entire (top and base) of the mills. Since the base of the mills were fastened to the faceplate, after separating the top, I had to dismount the base, turn it around and re-center it on the plywood. This part was a chore, but got it close enough to bore a counter bore and a bore through the piece. Who said I needed a chuck? I did! Before doing more mills, I bought one from Shopsmith.

However, a single mounting can be done very well on a faceplate.

Would the universal tool rest from shopsmith be worth getting for the job of turning the rim? Would it be possible to mount a cutting tool on it ?

Yes and yes.

With all good wishes,