Shopsmith Forums

The new casters are great and have been extensively reviewed.

I used the caster installation guide p/n 556425 (which comes with a drill bit) to install mine. As the stock photo shows, there's not much to this little jig but it does take all the fuss and guess work out of the installation of the new casters.


It works as advertised. If you don't want to hassle around with a paper guide or risk dulling a bit in your set, this is the way to go.

No need to invert the machine. Take off the caster brackets. Use this jig to locate and drill the new holes, install the new casters in the bracket and remount the bracket through the new holes.

The new casters will be close to the floor in the "down" position but will definitely free-wheel until you raise the Shopsmith into one of the two "up" positions.

Well they finally got it right!

Wonder what Bill's looks like.

algale wrote:The new casters are great and have been extensively reviewed.

I used the caster installation guide p/n 556425 (which comes with a drill bit) to install mine. As the stock photo shows, there's not much to this little jig but it does take all the fuss and guess work out of the installation of the new casters.


It works as advertised. If you don't want to hassle around with a paper guide or risk dulling a bit in your set, this is the way to go.

No need to invert the machine. Take off the caster brackets. Use this jig to locate and drill the new holes, install the new casters in the bracket and remount the bracket through the new holes.

The new casters will be close to the floor in the "down" position but will definitely free-wheel until you raise the Shopsmith into one of the two "up" positions.

What is the measurement (distance) between the existing and the new drilled holes? Thanks.

"Got it right" I was never sure they got it right, I was doing mine during the disaster of revisions and copy machine reproductions. I did mine the old fashion way and measured each hole to get a location that was flat on the ground and then 1/4" step followed by 1/2" step. The last I recall shopsmith went with less distance.

Did they also note that on older machines the pedals are in the wrong location and how to deal with that?

My memories are of what a debacle this was.

Ed

billmayo wrote: What is the measurement (distance) between the existing and the new drilled holes? Thanks.

Hi Bill,

I feel like a complete idiot but I'm not sure how to get accurate measurements for you.

The jig has two 9/32nds holes that are guides for drilling the new holes. A peg of a different diameter fits very snugly in the old lower caster hole. A third hole of still a different diameter is used to bolt the jig on (through the old upper casater hole) while drilling.

With all these different sized diamters, I'm not sure how to get really accurate measurements off the jig and I think it might be important because the new casters basically kiss the floor when installed and the Shopsmith is in the down position. If my measurements were off by even a very small amount, I think the Shopsmith might sit too low and the casters would never be completely off the the ground when the Shopsmith is in the down position.

Al

Could you just annotate (correct) this sketchup drawing of my template.

Measure from the edge of the hole for a more accurate measurement.

dusty wrote:Could you just annotate (correct) this sketchup drawing of my template.

Yes, if you can live with measurements that aren't center to center. For instance, I can throw some calipers and measure the diamters of the pegs/holes and the NEAREST measurements between them. But not on center. Will that do?

algale wrote:

billmayo wrote: What is the measurement (distance) between the existing and the new drilled holes? Thanks.

Hi Bill,

I feel like a complete idiot but I'm not sure how to get accurate measurements for you.

The jig has two 9/32nds holes that are guides for drilling the new holes. A peg of a different diameter fits very snugly in the old lower caster hole. A third hole of still a different diameter is used to bolt the jig on (through the old upper casater hole) while drilling.

With all these different sized diamters, I'm not sure how to get really accurate measurements off the jig and I think it might be important because the new casters basically kiss the floor when installed and the Shopsmith is in the down position. If my measurements were off by even a very small amount, I think the Shopsmith might sit too low and the casters would never be completely off the the ground when the Shopsmith is in the down position.

Al

The 'top' two holes will suffice. Measure the distance between the outer edges of the holes. Subtract the radius of each hole. That be the c-c spacing. IIRC the original holes were 5/16 for 1/4" screws.

Now as for the casters 'clearing' the floor, that is not necessary. There is slop in the caster sleeve etc. and although the wheels may rest on the floor, there is no weight on them.

As Ed said, first up = leg 1/4" off the floor, second up = leg 1/2" off the floor.

IIRC the new holes s/b about 1 5/8" above the original holes(c-c).

Here are my measurements.

The peg is .280 in diameter.

The first hole is .290 in diamteter.

Looking at dusty's sketch, the distance between the rightmost side of the peg to the rightmost side of the first hole is 1.706.

The second hole is .245 in diameter.

The closest distance between the first hole (right edge) and second hole (left edge) is 2.182.

The third hole is .286 in diamter (I suspect the first hole was originally the same diameter and may have been accidentally enlarged by .004 when I was using it as a drill guide).

The closest distance between the second hole (right edge) and third hole (left edge) is 1.436

Sorry these numbers don't seem to make a whole lot of sense. I've taken multiple measurements of each and it is hard to get repeatable numbers.

Is it accurate to say the drill bit supplied was 9/32"?


If so, the increment is 1 11/16" (1.688).

All holes are 9/32" (.281).[All but one]

That makes sense with Dusty's 2 7/16 dimension.

i.e. 2 7/16 + 1 11/16 = 3 18/16 = 4 1/8 = caster hole spacing.

The way I see it.

[]I do not understand the smaller locating hole???