Shopsmith Forums

I am considering buying a basement-dwelling Shopsmith that has a serial number indicating that it dates back to 1955. There is some rust, but the motor runs quietly. I have never owned one before.

Assuming that no "upgrades" have been applied:

a) Is there any parts list for the older Mark V units that one can use to verify that all parts are present?

b) Is there any documentation on how to correctly disassemble this beast? I need to carry this thing home in a station wagon, not a pickup truck.

c) Is there a "buyers guide" for newbees? Don't want to get ripped off, but the asking price is reasonable versus the prices one sees on ebay.

Most of the information you are looking for is posted on YouTube or on this site. It is amazing the information that is available for Shopsmith, new and old. If you can't find it on this site, go watch a video or two. I will email you the packing list that came with my 1957 model. The product manuals are a little too big to send as attachments but they do still sell them. If you need a specific page, let me know and I will try to scan it in for you.

As WileyCoyote said above, there is a lot of info on this forum. If you haven't explored the various forums yet, look at the Maintenance and Repair forum first. There are three posts that are "stickies" ... they always stay at the top of the list. You can learn just about everything you want to know by exploring and reading those. If you have trouble deciding which one to read first, I recommend the one started by Everett Davis, Shopsmith Large Format Drawings, Illustrations and More. https://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/main ... 16113.html
Look on his Google Drive for a PDF document entitled "Buying a used Shopsmith v2" on the main page of his Google Drive.

If you can post pictures (2050 dpi max x 1180 dpi max x 2MB max) of what you are considering buying, you will get lots of good advice. And also tell us what you are considering spending.

packetfire wrote:I am considering buying a basement-dwelling Shopsmith that has a serial number indicating that it dates back to 1955. There is some rust, but the motor runs quietly. I have never owned one before.

Assuming that no "upgrades" have been applied:

a) Is there any parts list for the older Mark V units that one can use to verify that all parts are present?

b) Is there any documentation on how to correctly disassemble this beast? I need to carry this thing home in a station wagon, not a pickup truck.

c) Is there a "buyers guide" for newbees? Don't want to get ripped off, but the asking price is reasonable versus the prices one sees on ebay.

Here is a link to the manual for that era Mark 5. http://songofthegreatlakes.com/ssm5manual.htm

If you are still looking see page 5 of the manual Ron provided the link to above. Everything shown on that page came with a new 1950's Mark 5 plus a long handle 5/32" Allen Wrench. Sorry for the slow response.

chapmanruss wrote:If you are still looking see page 5 of the manual Ron provided the link to above. Everything shown on that page came with a new 1950's Mark 5 plus a long handle 5/32" Allen Wrench. Sorry for the slow response.

The 5/32" allen wrench is included in item "11" with the chuck and key.

And to think I put in new contact lenses this morning

chapmanruss wrote:And to think I put in new contact lenses this morning

VERY easy to miss!