Shopsmith Forums

Hello Everyone

I've arranged to purchase a lightly used Shopsmith Mark 7 for a great price, and am expecting delivery of it this coming Saturday. I'm new to shopsmith, and woodworking, so I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions. I thought I'd introduce myself to the forum.

Here's why I bought a shopsmith: About a year ago I bought a house, which I really love except for a rather hideous kitchen. I started looking at having it remodeled with some new appliances and some high end custom cabinets. I discovered that custom cabinetry is insanely expensive. And As I investigated the different options, I kept thinking, "I bet I could learn to do that."

When I started to seriously consider going the "do it yourself" route, I started to think of all the other woodworking projects that I could do around my home to increase its value. I have a room with a huge bay window and every time I see it I think, "I could put built in bench seating there and get some nice extra storage." and I'm a bookworm, I always need more bookshelves so now I'm thinking of building/adding some nice custom built in book cases. Learning to do it myself just made more and more sense the more I thought about it.

I have a small garage with limited workspace, so the shopsmith seems like the perfect option for me to start my new hobby. I think if I can really learn to become an accomplished woodworker, that the shopsmith will more than pay for itself. Plus, there's just something really nice about being able to say, "I built that."

I'll end this post with a couple of questions that I've been wondering about:

1) Would it be worth having an electrician run a 220 V line in my garage? I'm not so much worried about the cost of it but rather, does it really make a difference for most tasks?

2) My plan is to work through the instructional materials that come with the course. Assuming that I work through them carefully and diligently should I have the requisite skills to build things like bookshelves and nice kitchen cabinets? I guess I'm asking how comprehensive they are? Are there other books or courses that users would recommend?

Thanks in advance for any answers/insight/input that anyone has. I'm very excited to start my new woodworking journey.


Warm Regards

I too have the powerpro headstock and I have never had any issues running it on 120V. It does have slightly more power with 220 but it is plenty good at the lower voltage. Unless you plan to add other tools that need 220 I wouldn't spend the money to have it installed.

As to the other question..... that is pretty hard to answer. Everyone will have a different level of skill at a different time in there journey into woodworking. Simple book shelves shouldn't be a big deal pretty early on but things like kitchen cabinets well...... Perhaps do not plan on it to early on but there are a lot of things you will be able to do and enjoy some successes early on and build your skill set.

I should also warn you that while it looks like you should be able to save money it may take a while to get to that point. You will find that there are a lot of tools calling your name and the bad news is they all cost money and or time to build.

When you get to the point you think you have the skill set you will most likely have the tools as well. No need to jump on those other tools as it is a natural progression and at this point you have no idea how you are going to feel about woodworking and will not until you have done some of it. Not everyone enjoys it, not everyone is cut out for it. Get your machine and find some small projects to do and go from there.

Ed

Since you say money is not the object, go ahead and have the 220V line put in. I added one to my workshop and I am glad I did. It will be on its own circuit breaker. Most every garage I know has all the 110 V outlets on one 15 Amp circuit and with newer houses it is also the same as the GFCI circuit that is in the bathrooms. Than means that running the Shopsmith Mark 7 at a heavy load and a dust collector at the same time will not be possible if the Shopsmith is running on 110 V even if the ciruit is 20 Amp. You will enjoy the flexibility that having that separate circuit provides. It will also give you some flexibility down the road on other 220 V tools you may look at.

I designed my own workshop and I have a dedicated 110V 20A circuit for my dust collector, a dedicated 220V 15A circuit for my Shopsmith, a dedicated 110V 15A circuit for my router table, and another 110V 15A circuit for plug in power tools so I am not limited in operations. I can be using the Shopsmith with dust collector while my wife is using the router table and someone else is using a plug in orbital sander.

I recommend a dedicated 20A 120v circuit(or more than one).

The distance from the breaker panel to the garage is another thing to consider. If too far, #10 wire is desirable.

The most reasonable scheme that provides for future expansion may be to run a feeder to a breaker panel in the garage. Then any circuits can be run from there(short run).

Heed Ed's advice re a gradual start. Get comfortable with both the machine and your capabilities slowly.

Welcome to the madness.

2nd what JPG said. If you are going to the expense of running 220 to the garage, think big and run a feed from your existing panel to a sub panel in the garage, lets say 40-60amp panel, then run you shop needs off of that. It will give you a lot more flexibility in the future. It would not cost much more then just running the 220 to the garage, and as the Capt said, "Scotty I need more power" which will if you keep growing in wood working. Lack of proper amperage to motors is a slow but sure death for them.

stephen_a._draper wrote:Since you say money is not the object, go ahead and have the 220V line put in. I added one to my workshop and I am glad I did. It will be on its own circuit breaker. Most every garage I know has all the 110 V outlets on one 15 Amp circuit and with newer houses it is also the same as the GFCI circuit that is in the bathrooms. Than means that running the Shopsmith Mark 7 at a heavy load and a dust collector at the same time will not be possible if the Shopsmith is running on 110 V even if the ciruit is 20 Amp. You will enjoy the flexibility that having that separate circuit provides. It will also give you some flexibility down the road on other 220 V tools you may look at.

I designed my own workshop and I have a dedicated 110V 20A circuit for my dust collector, a dedicated 220V 15A circuit for my Shopsmith, a dedicated 110V 15A circuit for my router table, and another 110V 15A circuit for plug in power tools so I am not limited in operations. I can be using the Shopsmith with dust collector while my wife is using the router table and someone else is using a plug in orbital sander.

That is simply not true.

jsburger wrote:

stephen_a._draper wrote:Since you say money is not the object, go ahead and have the 220V line put in. I added one to my workshop and I am glad I did. It will be on its own circuit breaker. Most every garage I know has all the 110 V outlets on one 15 Amp circuit and with newer houses it is also the same as the GFCI circuit that is in the bathrooms. Than means that running the Shopsmith Mark 7 at a heavy load and a dust collector at the same time will not be possible if the Shopsmith is running on 110 V even if the ciruit is 20 Amp. You will enjoy the flexibility that having that separate circuit provides. It will also give you some flexibility down the road on other 220 V tools you may look at.

I designed my own workshop and I have a dedicated 110V 20A circuit for my dust collector, a dedicated 220V 15A circuit for my Shopsmith, a dedicated 110V 15A circuit for my router table, and another 110V 15A circuit for plug in power tools so I am not limited in operations. I can be using the Shopsmith with dust collector while my wife is using the router table and someone else is using a plug in orbital sander.

That is simply not true.

It might be, if the wife or kids fires up a blow dryer in that bathroom that was postulated to be on the same circuit.

The Mark 7 can pull as much as 15A at 110V and The DC-3300 Dust Collector is rated at 8A at 110V. With both running on the same circuit means that up to 23A could potentially be called upon in a heavy ripping or planing operation so what I said is in fact true.

Adding a subpanel to the garage is much more expensive than adding one 220V outlet. I paid an electrician $164 to put in a 220V 15A outlet in my workshop. It uses the same 14 gauge wire that is used in 110V 15A circuits. It uses two breaker slots on the circuit breaker box.

Putting in a 40A subpanel requires 8 gauge wire to the subpanel which is much more expensive. A 60A subpanel requires 6 gauge wire or 4 gauge if over 75 feet.

This man is new to woodworking and is not planning to turn his garage into a production woodworking facility.

stephen_a._draper wrote:The Mark 7 can pull as much as 15A at 110V and The DC-3300 Dust Collector is rated at 8A at 110V. With both running on the same circuit means that up to 23A could potentially be called upon in a heavy ripping or planing operation so what I said is in fact true.

Adding a subpanel to the garage is much more expensive than adding one 220V outlet. I paid an electrician $164 to put in a 220V 15A outlet in my workshop. It uses the same 14 gauge wire that is used in 110V circuits. It uses two breaker slots on the circuit breaker box.

Putting in a 40A subpanel requires 8 gauge wire to the subpanel which is much more expensive. A 60A subpanel requires 6 gauge wire or 4 gauge if over 75 feet.

This man is new to woodworking and is not planning to turn his garage into a production woodworking facility.

I did not say it would not cost more, naturally it would in materials and a bit more in labor but giving him some foresight and options to think about.
1 dedicate 20 amp circuit in my HO is not enough if you start getting other dedicated machines, agree they may not all be running at the same time.

I would recommend deciding how much you actually like woodworking before going to the expense of either option for power upgrades. If you decide that you like woodworking then, I would go with the extra power panel and a 220v outlet if you can afford it.

As far as other books that are available, it depends on what you are interested in. I would recommend waiting until you are familiar with the SS first. Most of the books and plans that are out there are for tilting arbor table saws instead of a tilting table. Read through the directions before attempting something and think it through to make sure it makes sense on the SS. You can sometimes find alternate ways to do things that are easier or faster because of the versatility available and you can also save multiple change overs by rearranging steps.

Welcome to the forum.