10ER quill return spring safe insertion into housing
Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:36 pm
I just purchased a 10ER (my first encounter with a Shopsmith after learning about them less than a week before purchase) which I'll likely be starting a restore thread on. As I've already gained so much useful information here, on Youtube, and on the Yahoo user's group, I thought I'd share something that simplified my reinstallation of the quill return spring into the housing. Mine was caked with sawdust, presumably because the front tab on my headstock is cracked off, making the top/front gap in the housing a lot larger.
I referred to this video for almost everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S66Lf9VAjnA
However, even with safety glasses and thick leather gloves on, I felt that I almost needed a third hand to hold the spring "flat" as I wound it tight enough to clamp it with locking pliers. I saw no way out of drawing blood, and don't have a great vise for holding the pinion shaft without marring it, so I decided to try something else.
I inserted the shaft back into the headstock with the tool in vertical press mode, placed the back side locking collar about 3/16" closer to the end, allowing the spring to stay safely away from the tabs on the headstock. I then bent a piece of insulated 12ga copper wire to go through the tang, and wrapped it around the front way tube, twisting it together 3 times alternating front and back so there was no risk of anything popping loose.
With a quill lever reinstalled on the opposite end of the shaft, I didn't have to fight the spring at all. The only issue is that you will want to have a second 6" needle nose locking pliers/vise grip to transfer the spring from one to the other to reinsert the spring the correct way into the housing. Hope this helps someone else like me who is just starting out trying to eventually turn rust into sawdust. Without a decent vise, this method calmed my nerves a TON.
I referred to this video for almost everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S66Lf9VAjnA
However, even with safety glasses and thick leather gloves on, I felt that I almost needed a third hand to hold the spring "flat" as I wound it tight enough to clamp it with locking pliers. I saw no way out of drawing blood, and don't have a great vise for holding the pinion shaft without marring it, so I decided to try something else.
I inserted the shaft back into the headstock with the tool in vertical press mode, placed the back side locking collar about 3/16" closer to the end, allowing the spring to stay safely away from the tabs on the headstock. I then bent a piece of insulated 12ga copper wire to go through the tang, and wrapped it around the front way tube, twisting it together 3 times alternating front and back so there was no risk of anything popping loose.
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