Shopsmith Forums

We have seen a few options presented of how some like to use their shopsmith either bolted to a wall or on a stand or perhaps two drill presses back to back. Some are full size other are have cut off tubes of various lengths.

All well and good but for a moment let's look at yet another option. In my case since I have several shopsmiths I opt to have one set up in drill press mode all the time. I also use the rest of the full size machine to store SPT's.

For the moment lets look at the drill press. I have the headstock with in about 5" or 6" of being all the way up. For me this puts the controls and levers at a good height for standing and having leverage. Some might want it at different heights and that is not an issue.

I have mine on a 500 for no particular reason. If I need more space I always have one of my 520's that can be raised up and used. For most drilling that I do the table is a good size so I'm pretty happy with that.

I have the three handle drill press feed and that is to the right, I also have the stock handle mounted on the left. This comes in handy sometimes and if one or the other gets in the way they can come off. We will talk shortly about a small modification I made to make the three handle one easier to deal with.

I've also mounded a bracket on the very top of the tubes that has a place to mount a lamp. For a long while this was my only local light source and while it worked it was not ideal.

I have another bracket mounted between the table and the headstock. In the rear of the unit it has a magnetic tray where I can stick "stuff" for temporary storage.

Below the table I have a stack of drawers that I built some years ago as under-shopsmith storage units. There are 4 units and I removed the wheels on two of them and stacked them 2 x 2. They are mobile for when they need to be moved We will talk about these later on as well.

Most of the time I can raise or lower the table just by unlocking and lifting or lowering. At times when I might have added weight such as drilling accessories or larger work pieces it can be come a bit too heavy so I have a bottle jack that can be used. You will see that later as well.

I do have a drawer system under the shopsmith as well. I think this must be version #3 or so. It it free standing and on wheels.

Now we can get to the meat of the subject. The required pictures!

This first picture is of the shopsmith as I have it for normal operation as a drill press.
Yes the headstock is white. Yes I like it that way. Now notice that as mentioned it is with in 5 or 6 inches of the top. Notice the bracket that holds the light is at the top. The bracket holding the magnetic tray is between the headstock and table. And, yes my shop is a mess and packed to overflowing.

Sitting below the shopsmith table is my shelving unit(s).
If you have any questions about them or the other under shopsmith unit below this unit please check out this thread.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/gener ... t2756.html

A few things have changed since then but it will provide some answers to some possible questions. As they are placed the width is about 24-1/2", the depth is about 13-1/2" back to outside of the handles, and it is 33" tall.

This is a different view of them.
At this point I have to take a break and hope to get back to finish off what I have to say sometime later this evening.

Ed

Well that explains the white/curly maple color scheme!

Another thing popped into my head after seeing this. Can the PP control panel be rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise?

I wish I had a better picture of what is stored on the shopsmith but it is such a jumble that this will not make things very clear but here it is.
On the far end is a Joint_matic. Then with the table and arm removed is my old jig saw. Next are both strip sanders(one with a cover on it). The belt sander is next. Then there is a plywood top extension table and below that is the oscillating sander. There is even a small bit of room left unused if you can believe it. If you have questions about the home made mounts that can be found here:

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/gener ... 11176.html

In the lower storage unit I have the blade storage unit that I built here:

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... age#p27050

The point here is that even if I had made this a shorty or a mini or hung it on the wall I would not have this much extra storage room. Keeping it full size provides all of that. And yet if I ever need the machine in another application it is will need to be uncover but it is still functional as a whole shopsmith.

The drill press handle as shown here is going to look a little different then the factory one. Yes the red handle is the give away. I did that because I kept trying to unscrew the other ones then the one that lets you take it off. Extreme perhaps but I haven't made that mistake since the switch.
The other thing I wanted to get back to is the jack. This is a simple bottle jack that I paid like $10 for.
Way over kill lift wise but it works. This does restrict the location of the table such that with the jack in place the table to chuck distance is 13". Without the jack the table hits the cabinets below and this allows 15" of space. The cabinets can be moved so I still have the full shopsmith length possible.

So I think this wraps this up. You can decide for yourself if it is worth modifying your shopsmith or just modifying your thinking.

Ed

To much to read, with the Power Pro, one $$$$$$ DP unless you use one a heck of a lot, or I missed something by not reading all.

ERLover wrote:To much to read, with the Power Pro, one $$$$$$ DP unless you use one a heck of a lot, or I missed something by not reading all.

The type of headstock is not the point. Use of space and cutting or not cutting up a shopsmith is more to the point.

However since you ask, this head stock is one I got the skull from Bill Mayo and the guts are a kit from shopsmith. I now have an intact headstock that I have yet to decide what I'm going to do with. I might sell it, I might rebuild it, I might just save it as spare parts, or I might collect enough parts to make yet another shopsmith. Since it took about 3 months for the powerpro to arrive it made more since to install it here then on the 520 I was going to put it on. The other 520 will not be used this winter so in order to get some hours on the powerpro and possibly weed out any issues I put it there on the drill press where it will get used over the winter.

Time will tell if I fall so much in love with it there that it stays or if I will go back to my original plan and move it to the 520. It's really nice to dial in the speed this way and having the much slower low end is nice because I don't have to resort to the speed reducer so it is making a good case for itself staying as a drill press. But the plan is still to upgrade the 520 with dual tilt and move the headstock then. Sill who knows.... I still have my other powerpro to use for everything including as a drill press if I think I want or need to. It is making me wish I had a third powerpro in the plans but that is unlikely due to the cost.

Ed

So now we know what the additional curly maple parts will be(at least one anyway).

I take they did not come with 'the skull'.

P.S. I added jam nuts to my three handle quill feed handles that are not doing double duty as a set screw(i.e. the black ones on yours). I like the ER hub better(separate set screw, but larger bore).

Nicely done Ed ! Another nice take on the drill press. I really like the white paint job.
Paul

Ed, the permanent drill press as SPT holder is brilliant. Nicely done shop built way tube mounting bases too. I might be interested in your extra headstock...I would deputize it.

Tom

The drill press handle as shown here is going to look a little different then the factory one. Yes the red handle is the give away. I did that because I kept trying to unscrew the other ones then the one that lets you take it off. Extreme perhaps but I haven't made that mistake since the switch.

I understand Ed. I had the same problem. What I did is wrap a piece of black electrical tape around the base of the screw handle.