Shopsmith Forums

My New Year's resolution for 2016 is to buy something directly from Shopsmith. I haven't done that for a very long time and I want to do my part, even in a small way, to keep them around for years to come. We would all be worse off without them. Maybe a strip sander. Always wanted one!

Tom agree, and they do have unique things!!!! I do not need much from them, except some replacement parts, but this past year I bought there conical sanding disc, love it for when I need it for its purpose, never seen anything like it anywhere else and not SS specific, I mean WC or Rockler could sell that for any disc sanding machine.
More specific to SS, I bought a lift kit for the table in drill press mode, not the lift kit to get there.
I will support them if for regular things if they are competitively priced, belt sander belts, BS blades, ect,but if not, many other suppliers choices.
I hope they know it is a consumers market out there with the net.

ERLover wrote:Tom agree, and they do have unique things!!!! I do not need much from them, except some replacement parts, but this past year I bought there conical sanding disc, love it for when I need it for its purpose, never seen anything like it anywhere else and not SS specific, I mean WC or Rockler could sell that for any disc sanding machine.
More specific to SS, I bought a lift kit for the table in drill press mode, not the lift kit to get there.
I will support them if for regular things if they are competitively priced, belt sander belts, BS blades, ect,but if not, many other suppliers choices.
I hope they know it is a consumers market out there with the net.

A question. The conical sanding disk requires the table be capable of being tilted towards the disk. Do stand alone disk sanders have that capability?

John, most tilt, without looking at one I dont know if they tilt towards the disc or just away from it. Good observation.
As usual I should have done this b4 posting, I only looked at this one and it tilts both ways.
http://www.zoro.com/dayton-disc-sander- ... lsrc=aw.ds

You also need a rip fence for jointing a long edge; miter gauge for the short end grain. I think many disc sanders have a miter slot/gauge but not a fence.

A fence can be improvised, I have one of these and have used for a make shift fence many times.
http://www.rockler.com/all-in-one-low-p ... ved-clamps

Actually your news years resolution could still be made for 2015. Then again in 2016. No rules say that resolutions have to be made at the beginning of the year!

Noticed a couple of assumptions that were made here in this thread.

First the conical sanding idea was introduced way back in the 1960's. The "disk" looked like a saw blade, one side flat, the other conical (2 degrees I seem to remember). They mounted either way like a saw blade without teeth. (The version that is now sold is much newer, as a guess, 1990 or so. (The instructions on mine do not have the 520 listed.))

I still have a version I got in the early 1970's for the rockwell table saw I had at the time, it was sold by Sears. I believe this was also a thread on this forum but I'm not sure what to search on to find it.

The Mark VII came with a flat/conical disk. No not the current version but still the same idea.

Here is current example of these older versions still being sold:

http://woodworker.com/woodtek-tapered-e ... 95-430.asp

BTW if you don't have the conical sanding disk from shopsmith there is still time to order one this year and take advantage of the larger size they offer over the 10" saw type ones.

Ed

Years ago I bought a comical sanding disk from SS. Yes, I spell it differently. In my case it is the correct spelling. I don't know why I bought it or what to do with it. It's still in the box, brand new. I think that's pretty comical! I'd better do some research to try to remember why I bought it.

The Strip Sander was my most recent 'big' accessory from Shopsmith. Since I work on a lot of small boxes, tools, cabinetry, I really use it a lot. Actually have even daydreamed about getting a 2nd one, so I could have different platens or grits available at the same time. Haven't talked the Finance Ministry into that one, yet!

Chris

nuhobby wrote:The Strip Sander was my most recent 'big' accessory from Shopsmith. Since I work on a lot of small boxes, tools, cabinetry, I really use it a lot. Actually have even daydreamed about getting a 2nd one, so I could have different platens or grits available at the same time. Haven't talked the Finance Ministry into that one, yet! Chris

Thanks Chris! I'd enjoy hearing and seeing more about how you use the strip sander on your projects. Also, do you do any sharpening with it?

Tom