Shopsmith Forums

Yes, this again....Sorry. I am just wondering if this is normal. It is driving me crazy. At the deepest it is over 1/64. What can I do to fix this? Am I just too picky? My Dewalt DW745 is way more flat.

It is a little bit much. My first 510 table had up to .01" variances across the top. I recently purchased another one off of Ebay to replace it which has an incredible .002" variance. So there can be a big difference. Personally I think anything over .005" is too much but I lived with .01" for several years. If you purchased it new from Shopsmith I would definitely complain and see what they would do about it. If not you could try to get a better one off Ebay like I did but there is no guarantee it will be any better. I was able to buy the one I have now and sell my old one for only about a $25 difference. Or you could try to have it ground down so it is flat which is probably a job for a local machine shop.

I think shimming the mounting screws is a more reasonable approach.

No guarantees of success however.

I think they have an unadvertised flatness spec. I don't remember what it is, but I think it is discussed here if you search the forum. Yeah, I wouldn't be happy with that.

For what it is worth, "Nick" who was the original, official forum guru, said you cannot shim the table flat.

As for having it ground flat, I would think that would make alignment of the other tables a total pain in the rear, since the alignment gauge references off the top surface.

EDIT: Found the thread. Read the whole thing, but here's what Nick said about flatness"

A. Check for flatness. If the machine is new, use a PRECISION GROUND straightedge to check that the table is flat. Don't trust a metal rule or a jointed board. Place the straightedge on the table so it stretches diagonally from corner to corner. You should not be able to slide a crisp new dollar bill folded in half (.010"-.012" thick) under the straightedge anywhere along its length. Check the other diagonal. If the table is not flat, there is nothing that you can do to true it short of taking it to a machine shop and having it reground. Send it back to us and we'll beat on it with a big hammer.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... t=131#p729

By the way the procedure in the link above given by Nick fixed a huge flatness problem on my main table. I'm still not happy with the table flatness but that is life.

The procedure that Nick outlines to align the the table is the best I have found. I have tried nearly every procedure given on this forum with the exception of Reible's latest and none work as well as Nick's which is the one specified in the Shopsmith manual. Perhaps the manufacture knows about the machine they build.

Ed in Tampa wrote:By the way the procedure in the link above given by Nick fixed a huge flatness problem on my main table. I'm still not happy with the table flatness but that is life.

The procedure that Nick outlines to align the the table is the best I have found. I have tried nearly every procedure given on this forum with the exception of Reible's latest and none work as well as Nick's which is the one specified in the Shopsmith manual. Perhaps the manufacture knows about the machine they build.

Are you referring to the procedure of taking the table to a machine shop to have it reground flat? If I understand correctly, Nick says nothing can be done for the flatness other than that. Shimming won't work. Maybe I missed it.

Some money pics....right-front to left-rear seems to be the worst but both off.

That's not a precision ground straight edge, but I think it is worth calling Shopsmith, telling them you are concerned that your main table is out of spec. See how they respond.

algale wrote:That's not a precision ground straight edge, but I think it is worth calling Shopsmith, telling them you are concerned that your main table is out of spec. See how they respond.

I know but it is the only thing I have close that reaches 28" across. The starrett at the beginning is only 12". Is that precision ground? It measured the same with calipers for parallelism.

Waiting for the engineers on Monday.

I think a Starrett is precisioun ground.