Shopsmith Forums

I recently picked up a late 70's Mark V 500 and after a good cleaning it seems to run well. My only problem seems to be that the quill feed will not lock when extended. The quill stop works good but I just can't lock its position anywhere. The lock handle turns in all the way but does not lock the feed. Also, there seems to be about 1/8" back and forth play when set on "0" when I pull on the quill (I don't know if that's because I can't lock it.) Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your patience.

I suspect you are missing a washer or two on the quill feed lock. Take it apart and check the exploded parts diagrams to make sure you have all the parts. Here's the link to the exploded parts diagram of the headstock. https://www.shopsmith.com/service/heads ... iagram.htm

Some amount of play at the end of the quill is “normal” but 1/8th seems a lot. Sometimes you can eliminate it by loosening the set screw in the knurled silver knob, pulling on the end of quill while retightening the knurled knob. Having a helper for that makes the job easier, as does mounting something like a turning faceplate that will allow you to get a grip on the spindle.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

Let us get some terminology defined.

The quill 'lock' is on the switch side of the headstock and requires a wave washer behind the very large wingnut.

The quill feed 'stop' is on the other side and has the marked dial etc.

I am suspicious that the quill stop is adjusted for 1/8" feed range. Loosen the quill stop wingnut and rotate the dial all the way to above 4". Leave the wingnut loose. That should allow feeding the quill out to over 4".

The lock and stop are independent functions.

Thanks for all the help. It was a stupid mistake on my part when reassembling. I had the quill stop lock wing on the quill feed side and the feed lock wing on the stop lock. I reversed and it now works. Sliding the knurled silver ring in took out all the play in the quill spindle. It was a pain getting the set screw out of the knurled ring. I actually had to drill it out because it would not budge. Luckily it didn't damage the threads.
Thanks for your knowledge. It's nice to know us newbies can rely on your experience.
I've completely cleaned up this used machine and repainted it. It looks pretty nice except for some pitting on the tubes. Someday I may remove them again and have them turned, but for now they aren't bad and everything slides smoothly.

diplexer wrote:Thanks for all the help. It was a stupid mistake on my part when reassembling. I had the quill stop lock wing on the quill feed side and the feed lock wing on the stop lock. I reversed and it now works. Sliding the knurled silver ring in took out all the play in the quill spindle. It was a pain getting the set screw out of the knurled ring. I actually had to drill it out because it would not budge. Luckily it didn't damage the threads.
Thanks for your knowledge. It's nice to know us newbies can rely on your experience.
I've completely cleaned up this used machine and repainted it. It looks pretty nice except for some pitting on the tubes. Someday I may remove them again and have them turned, but for now they aren't bad and everything slides smoothly.

No pix = it did not actually happen!

Pits on way tubes(and especially bench tubes) are not a major problem. Just keep em waxed.

As JPG said

Pits on way tubes(and especially bench tubes) are not a major problem. Just keep em waxed.

Having the way tubes turned to remove pitting will reduce the diameter and is not something you want to do. If you don't want the pitting on your way tubes you can consider replacing them.