Hello!! And Help!!!

[InspireVeterans]

Hello everyone!!!
Greetings from Grants Pass, Oregon.

Today I purchased a 1958 Shopsmith in running condition. It is missing some basic tooling and it needs a little love. But I got it cheap and I really want to use it for wood turning mainly.

I literally exhausted my (holy crap budget (the hidden money for those rare must have buy it now or its gone times)) and I dont regret it at all. That said, it did not come with a faceplate or a drive spur. I do have a live taper from my craftsman metal lathe I think has the #2 taper. I was thinking I might be able to find a 5/8 hole steel pulley I could fabricobble into a faceplate? Also considering just turning a rough drive spur blank and hand filing the teeth. I will also likely be blacksmithing my own turning tools from old truck coil springs.

Money is tight with a wife and 4 daughters at home and living on VA Disability. But I have wanted a wood lathe for a very long time and I am willing to build off a great foundation which is this old shopsmith.

Do you have to purchase the gear down for wood turning?? Do any of you turn without the gear down?

Any tips, suggestions, etc would be greatly appreciated. I am more a metal guy than a wood guy and I have 0 experience with a shopsmith. I am very mechanically inclined and not affraid to deal with anything new.

[garys]

I do minimal turning on my Shopsmith and don't have a speed reducer on mine. It would be nicer if it ran slower, but I seldom use it for that kind of work so I haven't needed a speed reducer.

[Hobbyman2]

Thank you for your service

I hope you get many years of fun from your machine.

Many people have turned a hobby into a few extra dollars .

[ChrisNeilan]

Welcome to the forum and Happy New Year! I do a lot of turning, but no so much on my shopsmiths. I wouod start with spindle turning, not faceplate. You ust need the correct spur drive and live (or dead) center. The shopsmith will turn bowls, but just a tad too fast on the slowest setting. Younmight also want to add some weight to the machine (think sand bags on a shelf underneath) for stability as bowl blanks are allways out of balance. Coil springs are not good for turning tools, that steel will not hold an edge very long. If just starting out, consider making your own carbide tipped tools- easy to fabricate, and cheap if you buy your cutters from Capt Eddie Castelin (http://www.eddiecastelin.com). Good luck and welcome to the vortex of woodturning. By far you can spend more money oin turning tools and accesories than any other hobby I hayve had- but you don’t need too!

[InspireVeterans]

Thank you to everyone for your input. I will certianly do more research into the various methods of turning tool fabrication. I havent met many edged items I couldnt create. I do have a 4 jaw chuck for my craftsman metal lathe that I never use. It has independant jaws and I prefer the 3 jaw that is synchronized. Im guessing that there are some adapters available to go from shopsmith shaft to the threaded chuck?

Also wondering if anyone has run a shopsmith on a variac? I am guessing I could drop the voltage a bit to slow it down a little after it is up to its full low running speed. Has anyone done this?

[JPG]

Thank you to everyone for your input. I will certianly do more research into the various methods of turning tool fabrication. I havent met many edged items I couldnt create. I do have a 4 jaw chuck for my craftsman metal lathe that I never use. It has independant jaws and I prefer the 3 jaw that is synchronized. Im guessing that there are some adapters available to go from shopsmith shaft to the threaded chuck?

Also wondering if anyone has run a shopsmith on a variac? I am guessing I could drop the voltage a bit to slow it down a little after it is up to its full low running speed. Has anyone done this?

No! Not a good idea. Induction motors do not like to run voltage starved.

[Ed84]

Thank you to everyone for your input. I will certianly do more research into the various methods of turning tool fabrication. I havent met many edged items I couldnt create. I do have a 4 jaw chuck for my craftsman metal lathe that I never use. It has independant jaws and I prefer the 3 jaw that is synchronized. Im guessing that there are some adapters available to go from shopsmith shaft to the threaded chuck?

Also wondering if anyone has run a shopsmith on a variac? I am guessing I could drop the voltage a bit to slow it down a little after it is up to its full low running speed. Has anyone done this?

You'll fry the motor with a variac. DC motor rpm is voltage dependent but the shopsmith motor is AC. AC motor RPM is dependent on the number of poles (magnets) in the motor and the frequency (60hz) from the grid. Both are fixed and can't be adjusted. Frequency can be adjusted by special electronics using pulse width modulation. I assume the PowerPro uses PWM to get variable speed. A mk V does not have that. Dropping voltage with a variac will increase the current and likely fry the windings (Ohms law). Or significantly reduce their life, without a decrease in RPM.

The magic smoke can't be returned to the motor once it is released.

If AC motor RPM could be adjusted by voltage regulation, all shopsmiths would have been built with a reostat for speed control rather than the mechanical speed changer.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[dusty]

Thank you to everyone for your input. I will certianly do more research into the various methods of turning tool fabrication. I havent met many edged items I couldnt create. I do have a 4 jaw chuck for my craftsman metal lathe that I never use. It has independant jaws and I prefer the 3 jaw that is synchronized. Im guessing that there are some adapters available to go from shopsmith shaft to the threaded chuck?

Also wondering if anyone has run a shopsmith on a variac? I am guessing I could drop the voltage a bit to slow it down a little after it is up to its full low running speed. Has anyone done this?

You'll fry the motor with a variac. DC motor rpm is voltage dependent but the shopsmith motor is AC. AC motor RPM is dependent on the number of poles (magnets) in the motor and the frequency (60hz) from the grid. Both are fixed and can't be adjusted. Frequency can be adjusted by special electronics using pulse width modulation. I assume the PowerPro uses PWM to get variable speed. A mk V does not have that. Dropping voltage with a variac will increase the current and likely fry the windings (Ohms law). Or significantly reduce their life, without a decrease in RPM.

The magic smoke can't be returned to the motor once it is released.

If AC motor RPM could be adjusted by voltage regulation, all shopsmiths would have been built with a reostat for speed control rather than the mechanical speed changer.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Ohm's Law: E(voltage) = I (current) * R (Resistance) Restated: I = E/R where R is constant. If voltage goes down, does current not do likewise???


Yes - running an AC motor with less voltage than it was designed for is NOT Good for the motor.

[chapmanruss]

Again, Thank You for your service to our Country. Our Military both past and present do not hear that enough. As for your questions Ed know his motors. Do NOT try to vary the speed of the AC motor as you suggest. As Chris said start turning some spindles or the like. I have a Mark V 520 (now a Mark 7) and have made some nice pieces even with the 700 RPM minimum speed. A small bowl I made came out great and started that with a rounded blank cut on my Band Saw SPT. If your blanks are close to being balanced to start with you can run a higher speed (700 RPM) and be okay. When your fund builds up again look for a good deal on a Speed Reducer. In the mean time since your new find is a 1958 Shopsmith Mark 5 it could probably use some cleaning and maintenance. If you do not have the manuals see Everett Davis' post in Maintenance and Repair. It is the post titled "Shopsmith Large Format Drawings, Illustrations and More" and has a link to a lot of great Shopsmith information. Many thanks to Everett for all of that.

Russ

[reible]

Wrong equation. Use one for power, P=V*A so if you want the same power you need to do what if the voltage drops? ie if P=1000 and V=100 then A= (P/A)=10. Now lets lower the voltage to 50, (solving for new current) A=P/V = 20, or a current increase. This of course doesn't quite work this way but does show that if the voltage is lowered the current will have to go up to keep the same power level.

Ed