Shopsmith Forums

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post. It seems the county is in garage sale mode and I've picked up 3 shop smiths at low low prices. I have a machine shop and have been in the process of modifying all three for my metal work and my fledgling wood working hobby. I picked up an ER10 that was in a barn for decades, a Mark VII that had broken parts but the motor was good, and a relatively new (1980s) Mark V with all the attachments all in one weekend for under $500.

This thread will document some of my repairs and mods that I hope some of you find useful. First up is modifying the ER10 to accept the modern belt sander and sanding disc for use as a metal grinder and tool sharpener. I began by machining aluminum parts to hold the main tubes and the belt sander mount.

I welded a 1x2 steel base and used locking casters to eliminate half the space the old table used.

One problem was the table miter gauge was broken. I tried soldering it but the quality of the pot metal wouldn't accept solder and I didn't feel like buying the alloy that would fix it when I have a full machine shop.

SOOOOOO... I measured out the part and cut a new one on my CNC machine. I even matched the notches for the spring loaded pawl to stop at 90 and 45 degrees.
Once I had the new part I shimmed the new mount to have the table square and true within .001" to the sanding disk travel. You can do that when you have the machines I do.

Bolted the new aluminum frame to the new steel frame.
An overview of the new frame and mount which takes half the foot print of the old frame. The table, miter gauge, and rip fence are not shown.

Forgive the mess. But now I have a great roll around sander / grinder that is very flexible. All that is left now is to fashion a belt guard.

Prices:
ER10 used = $55
Aluminum = $55
Fasteners = $15
Steel = $40
Casters = $40
Time to complete = 24 hours (in my spare time)

A few notes:
I would have left more room for the quill travel. I doubt I will ever use the quill travel but upon completion it would have been a great feature. This may happen eventually as I may put a steel table on the disc sander side for extra rigidity.
I would have left about 3" of the original tube frame so I could re-use the existing end-plate mount as a grinding wheel mount.
The table stop thumb screw crashes in to the aluminum frame mounts. It is not a big deal since I can just mount it on the opposite table leg but something I should have seen.
I kept the original 3 stage sheaves even though I will not change the speeds. It is better to have it and not need it.
I used a lovejoy joint between the motor and the belt sander. McMaster Carr has them on the shelf.

Aligning the two shafts was the most difficult part of this entire project. I used bar clamps, my forklift, and a lot of C clamps to get everything aligned. This is where the quill really helped. I was able to get everything lined up and use the quill to push the motor in to the lovejoy couplers with no force. Any misalignment is absorbed in the coupler.

I hope you enjoy this and feel free to ask any questions.

P.S.

One thing I didn't mention. The slot for the miter gauge on the ER10 table and the sanding belt table do not match. For my work I probably won't use a miter gauge much but it would be a nice feature. I will most likely just buy another one and keep it with this machine.

Welcome to the forum ! The best part of the SS illness is the McGiver possibilities. Thinking up projects that require modifying the SS is the best part. You have done a beautiful job ! Now what will you build ?
Paul

Welcome to the addiction/asylum!!! Just clean up any metal dust because these were made for wood working, but I am sure you know that.
Exceptionally nice Mods, done by a true Machinist.

ERLover wrote:Welcome to the addiction/asylum!!! Just clean up any metal dust because these were made for wood working, but I am sure you know that.
Exceptionally nice Mods, done by a true Machinist.

The ER10 body has no vents where grinder dust can build in. Also, the motor that came with the machine is a totally enclosed model so no dust there to worry about either. I will probably remove the dust collector on the belt sander when I work with steel. But most of my work is aluminum. I will use this machine mostly for deburring and polishing aluminum. And of course sanding when I get more in to wood working. It's been great.

alohacnc wrote: The ER10 body has no vents where grinder dust can build in. Also, the motor that came with the machine is a totally enclosed model so no dust there to worry about either. I will probably remove the dust collector on the belt sander when I work with steel. But most of my work is aluminum. I will use this machine mostly for deburring and polishing aluminum. And of course sanding when I get more in to wood working. It's been great.

Nope, but a wide open bottom?

If and when I do any metal work on my shopsmith I cover the tubes so keep them clean. I also make sure the sawdust is cleaned up. Aluminum would not be an issue but ferrous metals can spark into a bit of saw dust and either catch fire then or smolder for hours then, well we all know that things can go very wrong very fast.

I got a strip sander off ebay and the inside has some melted areas where I have to guess a small fire happened. I would guess the user did not clean out the saw dust then went on to grind something and found it before it was total destroyed or perhaps only a small amount of material was there it burned out.

I cut aluminum on my chop saw. Those pieces go everywhere. I hate to do it because of the mess. I clean up afterwards and then for days after that I'm still finding "chips".

Ed

reible wrote:If and when I do any metal work on my shopsmith I cover the tubes so keep them clean. I also make sure the sawdust is cleaned up. Aluminum would not be an issue but ferrous metals can spark into a bit of saw dust and either catch fire then or smolder for hours then, well we all know that things can go very wrong very fast.

I got a strip sander off ebay and the inside has some melted areas where I have to guess a small fire happened. I would guess the user did not clean out the saw dust then went on to grind something and found it before it was total destroyed or perhaps only a small amount of material was there it burned out.

I cut aluminum on my chop saw. Those pieces go everywhere. I hate to do it because of the mess. I clean up afterwards and then for days after that I'm still finding "chips". Ed

That's ironic. I love cutting aluminum and hate cutting steel. Aluminum chips are no big deal. Especially since they don't spark or oxidize. As for grinding steel I purposely eliminated the old wood frame for the sake of the heat caused from steel dust. It's nasty stuff. If you ever want some fun get some hot steel spark mixed in with some Magnesium chips.

My frame is completely open just for the sake of this being a grinding / sanding station. I was going to add some expanded steel shelves for storage but decided against it. With these nice casters from Home Depot I can roll it to the middle of my shop floor and just sweep up when finished. I haven't figured out what I'll do when I work with wood. I will probably just use the saw blade dust collector from the MV and put back the belt sander dust collector.

You caught my lack of tube protectors. Thanks for that. I didn't consider it. I'll come up with some kind of simple sheet metal part that can just sit on the frame under the disc sander.

JPG wrote:

alohacnc wrote: The ER10 body has no vents where grinder dust can build in. Also, the motor that came with the machine is a totally enclosed model so no dust there to worry about either. I will probably remove the dust collector on the belt sander when I work with steel. But most of my work is aluminum. I will use this machine mostly for deburring and polishing aluminum. And of course sanding when I get more in to wood working. It's been great.

Nope, but a wide open bottom?

I don't think my metal dust will be an issue as it doesn't linger in the air quite like wood. When I use this contraption for wood I will put on the table saw collector and the belt sander collector. From my head rebuild it appears all the moving parts are protected quite well from dust intrusion. If it ever becomes a problem I'll take care of it then.