Shopsmith Forums

I have two older Mark V's (and a 10er...) and was considering a Powerpro upgrade for one of them. I am doing a good deal of face jointing and planing of red oak with my planer attachment and seem to be pushing the limits of the current headstock. The jointer is working with older blades so I know it will improve some with a new blades but the planer has brand new blades ans still can't take much off on wider oak and mahogany (and this is in comparison to other 12" 110 volt planers I've owned such as Dewalt).

Has anyone noticed a substantial increase in performance its the Power Pro headstock for these type of operations? The Shopsmith I would be putting it on does not see any use as a table saw, drill, lathe, or any other operation other than jointing, planing, and bandsawing. I have a ton of cabinetry I will be building and need to do a good deal of s4s work on my rough lumber , current shop layout if optimized around the Shopsmiths so I'd like to use it rather than new machines if possible.

I have both a Mark V (500) and a PowerPro. The PP is just awesome for planing, IMHO just as good as a ProPlaner and the jointing is as good as the SS jointer can do. You will have no speed degradation in either process.

BTW, my planer is a hand crank fed unit, although I have used a mounted motor feed on a PP and a ProPlaner so I have some (limited) experience with all three ....

JMHO

Although I use a DeWalt 735 thickness planer, I have used the jointer with the Powerpro. The PowerPro headstock does an admirable job with the jointer. The speeds are even in the display, if you bring them up.

P.S. Recommended speeds vary over width of board being jointed, but there is only a 50 RPM difference. Recommended same as normal saw speed.

Thanks for the replies, is there a marked difference in planing performance between the 1 1/8" mark v motor and the PowerPro ? I have the 3/4" motor right now and it is underwhelming for planing wide boards and taking ridiculously light cuts is too slow.

I originally had my Shopsmith planer for use on the Mark V with the 1 1/8 HP motor. The manual says a maximum of 1/32" depth of cut on wide oak. Later I mounted the planer on the Shopsmith stand with 1 1/2 HP motor and it made a big difference on depth of cut. The Powerpro has even more HP so you will certainly notice a difference.