Shopsmith Forums

Denver, front range area. 1959 Shopsmith Mark V. 360194
My dad got this when he worked as the Shopsmith demo guy
at Monkey Wards. My sister and I thought he was sort of a star
when we would go see him working behind the plexiglass walls....
all the people gathered around. Our house was full of candle stick holders
and bowls. I grew up as the third hand to the man who was a cabinet maker.
In Jr/High school, I was not much interested in wood shop....I grew up
in wood shop.
Dad's gone now. I have all his tools and all the knowledge he gave me.
The Shopsmith has sat idle in the corner of the garage for many years now.
I finally had time to fire it up last night. The on/off switch doesn't work.
He put a thumb switch in the power cord line. Will need to replace that.
The speed dial works but it screamed like a stuck pig. Will probably need to
replace the belts??? I'm guessing they are the originals.
My passion is making usable material from rough logs. I like to build small cabinets,
boxes and band saw boxes. With retirement insight now, I will have the time
and tools to do that full time.
Looking forward to being a part of this community.
Will have questions as I bring the Mark V back to life.
I'll see you on the road.

Welcome to the forum, you will find a lot of answers here.

Welcome!

Liked the back story, thanks for sharing.

Ed

Welcome to the madness. Great story, my dad taught me many many things, but woodworking wasn't one of them, I wish it had been .... LOL.

Glad to see you getting her running again!

Welcome indeed!

1959 = Mark 5.

oil oil oil!!!

See sticky posts at the top of the 'maintenance and Repair forum.


We never appreciate what we have until we no longer do.

Welcome! Just do your initial cleaning, rust removal and maintenance and that old shopsmith will run like a champ again. From what I can tell so far about shopsmith is that you really really have to make effort to kill these things. Just don't start out again until you are oiling it up, then once you have that done you should be on the right track to becoming obsessed in sawdust therapy with the shopsmith

Thanks for the welcome.
It has been fun so far digging through all the old drawers
in the garage, finding all the pieces and parts.
I learned some simple turning when I was a kid.
In high school, I built a bunch of dulcimers.
I used the table saw on the SS to cut the base/head blocks.
It was about a 6.5" deep angled cut. I set up the table outside the blade.
I built a real kluge of a contraption to hold these blocks.
It worked, but was a pretty scary operation.
I used the drill press for the tuner holes.

............ok, so here we go.
I have a Mark 5. What model?
I probably need to know the exact model when I start ordering parts.
I down loaded the How to and Maintenance pins.
Fortunately, it lived in the heated basement.
Moved out to the garage after I left home. Little or no rust.
I want to use the drill press as a vertical, drum sander.
Any thoughts on that?

JPG wrote:We never appreciate what we have until we no longer do.

It seems like now that Dad is gone, I have a millon questions.
Why did I not ask them when I could?

There is something about these machines that just
beckon you to make stuff.

Beside color, there are two variations of a Mark 5. That is the type of belt used between the idler shaft and the main shaft. The older version is a 'Gilmer' and the newer is a 'Poly-V'. The quill splined shaft is different between the two as is the main shaft pulley, main shaft and control sheave hub. The older Gilmer is upgradable to the newer, but $$$$$

carbonman wrote:Thanks for the welcome.
............ok, so here we go.
I have a Mark 5. What model?
I probably need to know the exact model when I start ordering parts.
.....
It seems like now that Dad is gone, I have a millon questions.
Why did I not ask them when I could?

There is something about these machines that just
beckon you to make stuff.

Carbonman I totally understand what you are saying when you wrote that.

I have heard that series of questions more than I can count and your dad, being a demonstrator, and a long time Shopsmith advocate (like most of us here) could have upgraded the machine in many ways through the years… in a host of different ways.

Is it a real greenie? What serial number is it? Does the serial number truly reflect the version of the headstock on the machine today? Was the gilmer drive updated with new Poly-V and Quill? Is it a two bearing quill? Is it a 3/4HP or 1 1/8 HP motor? Is it a later B series or even C series headstock that has been tribute repainted to the original green color scheme? Has it been upgraded to a 510 Table system?

What is here?
How do I identify it?
How do I know what is original from what is upgraded 25 years ago?
How do I even know what should be here and identify the accessories?

It’s a bunch to ask. Those questions are indeed why I revised an original document to “Buying a used Shopsmith v2.pdf”

You will find it here:
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... 90#p185690 along with links to other posts with side by side parts illustrations illustrating differences between models you will find nowhere else.

Coupled with those sticky posts at the top of the Maintenance and Repair forum, a bit of elbow grease and time, and your dad will be smiling down on you as you make his pride and joy, truly yours. Post pictures of your journey for all of us to enjoy.

Since you are in the Denver area, I am planning on totally rebuilding an updated Greenie for one of my sons-in-law who lives in Colorado Springs and bringing it to him in the spring of 2016. Maybe we can meet and have coffee while I am there. I will PM you when I plan on delivering it and work out any details I can to meet you.