Shopsmith Forums

I recently acquired a Shopsmith that included a jigsaw. I have a handheld jigsaw but no actual experience using it to date. Should I keep the Shopsmith jigsaw or sell it? Other than providing a stable platform, are there any significant advantages of keep the Shopsmith jigsaw? Thanks

IIWM, I would keep it.

But then I have only sold an SPT once and that was only because I had two of them..

That is very different than your hand held jigsaw.. Although it can use the same blades, you would normally use scrollsaw blades, which are much finer.
Your hand held wouldn't let you do work like this.

Wow! How many years did it take before you could produce artwork like that?

shoedo wrote:Wow! How many years did it take before you could produce artwork like that?

I have little to none artistic talent.

My wife, who was born in Wales, wanted to carve Welsh love spoons. She took a course at the local Lee Valley store. She would find designs in books and on line and then modify them to suit her taste.
The pattern was then printed out, I would glue it to a piece of wood, drill holes in all the internal spaces, and saw it out on the SS jig saw, mine is the earlier model for the 10ER. I had not used the jigsaw for much before that, but it is not that hard, you just go slow and follow the lines. You do get faster at blade changes doing all the small internal spaces.
The one in the picture above is just the sawed out blank. This is how it looked after she carved it and finish was applied.
She did quite a few of them. these are just the ones we kept, many more were given a way.

As Ron said it is very different then a hand held Jig Saw. I have one like yours and it is very close to the same year as yours was made. There was only one change made to the Jig Saw from it's introduction in 1954 until it was discontinued besides the color it was painted and that is the table tilt lock screw. I have used mine to cut both wood and metal. Although I have restored and sold others I would not sell my main one. The work Ron and his wife have done are beautiful examples of what can be done with both a Jig Saw or a Scroll Saw. I do prefer to use my Scroll Saw for that kind of fine work. The Jig Saw Ron is using is the one for the Model 10's and is different than yours but works the same. I have the same Jig Saws as Ron for my Model 10ER and 10E.

From the pictures it look like you Jig Saw is complete. With care and proper maintenance it will last a very long time.

I have also used it to cope the corners of the baseboards when we renovated.
Handy to have some times.

I would suggest setting it up and playing with it for a while before deciding.

They have an oil bath system so before using check the oil and it will most likey be dry..... do not run it dry.

Ed

As Ed says, do maintenance before using.
You can download a manual from this link.
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=10571

rpd wrote:

shoedo wrote:Wow! How many years did it take before you could produce artwork like that?

I have little to none artistic talent.

My wife, who was born in Wales, wanted to carve Welsh love spoons. She took a course at the local Lee Valley store. She would find designs in books and on line and then modify them to suit her taste.
The pattern was then printed out, I would glue it to a piece of wood, drill holes in all the internal spaces, and saw it out on the SS jig saw, mine is the earlier model for the 10ER. I had not used the jigsaw for much before that, but it is not that hard, you just go slow and follow the lines. You do get faster at blade changes doing all the small internal spaces.
The one in the picture above is just the sawed out blank. This is how it looked after she carved it and finish was applied.

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She did quite a few of them. these are just the ones we kept, many more were given a way.

DSCF0030.JPG

Those Welsh Love Spoons are very interesting. I've never seen them before, thanks for the inspiration!!!