Shopsmith Forums

Hello!

Just bought a 520, ran fine in the owner's garage before I bought it. In the process of transporting and getting it setup in my garage, my little junior helper decided the speed control knob looked like fun and changed the speed setting while it was powered off. I know this isn't a great idea, but what should I do now? I haven't powered it up, not sure what to do to protect the motor/sheaves, etc?

Any help is appreciated!

thanks,
wes

Power it up and see if it runs right. If it does, try different speeds. If you are lucky, it has survived with no damage. If not, you may not have variable speed.

Pop off the inspection cover (remove screw and rotate on your 520) on the back of the headstock and look at the area where the quadrant (pork chop shaped arm) to verify it does not appear bent off center of the pulley shaft end.

Next, while rotating the quill assembly by hand, adjust the speed dial slowly as you continue rotating the quill til it rests on slow. Mounting the sanding disk can help you rotate the shaft.

Perform the lubrication steps, which are facilitated by doing the above steps. Something that you need to learn anyway as the unit needs oiling about every 10 hours of use.

Likely didn't harm anything, but repeated use of the speed dial that way could.

Great teaching moment for the youngster, who can begin learning shop skills with you.

Lubricate, cleaning and waxing and you should be well on your way to some fine work once you've verified all the alignments for accuracy and so on.

Read through the first two sticky posts in this forum and you will find pretty much everything you want to know.

Everett

You may be ok if he only tried to turn the speed up because that doesn't hurt anything. It's turning the speed control down (when the spindle isn't turning) that risks damaging the speed control.

So turn it on, and try running it all the way up and then slowly down (always go slow when turning down).

Most likely he turned it 'up'(too hard to turn it down).

Although that is the lesser of the evils, if turned too far, it may have pulled the loop off the arm(not likely unless the control sheave is 'sticky').

Heed what Everett posted. Most likely all will be well.

Hey thanks you guys, I'll go through it today as suggested.

Wes,

I just posted an update this morning to another thread titled "Buying a Used Shopsmith - Revisited" that has a new document (2nd one down) titled "My Method to the Shopsmith Alignment Process" you may find it helpful.

I wrote it purposefully without pictures as I wanted you to envision how the alignment process works within your mind.

Realizing you are new to Shopsmith, the first document may help a bunch as well since it has a good bit of nomenclature definitions, pictures and part identifications. Below that you will find links to other threads that have oversize illustrated exploded parts diagrams to help visualize the internals of the machine.

I am so happy you have joined us here. Welcome home Wes.

Everett

Thanks, Everett, I'll check out the updated info.

I went through the info in the manual and watched the shopsmith video on cleaning and lubricating the headstock, then went through it in my typical painstaking manner, powered up, and it runs like butter through mayonnaise: smooth... Got the bandsaw setup, aligned, and tried it last night, that thing is awesome. Lathe and tablesaw this weekend hopefully.

thanks again you guys.
wes