Shopsmith Forums

Trying to make my machine more accurate as I’m having some issues with getting perfectly square cuts. I read a bunch of posts about how the blade should pretty much automatically be in the center of the insert when all the trunion bolts are loosened and the table pushed all the way to the right. For whatever reason my blade always is off from center, even when pushing the table as far over as I can.

Here’s a picture of the my rubber spacer in between my headstock main table carriage...what is the nominal size for a 510/520?

According to my dial indicator I need to move my outfeed side .009” to away from the blade which currently isn’t possible....getting really frustrated as aligning this thing has been causing headaches since day one.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!



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tbolish wrote:Trying to make my machine more accurate as I’m having some issues with getting perfectly square cuts. I read a bunch of posts about how the blade should pretty much automatically be in the center of the insert when all the trunion bolts are loosened and the table pushed all the way to the right. For whatever reason my blade always is off from center, even when pushing the table as far over as I can.

Here’s a picture of the my rubber spacer in between my headstock main table carriage...what is the nominal size for a 510/520?

According to my dial indicator I need to move my outfeed side .009” to away from the blade which currently isn’t possible....getting really frustrated as aligning this thing has been causing headaches since day one.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!



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First, the way tube spacer is only there to make sure when you drop the table down it will go through the slot in the insert. Yours seems to do that. That has nothing to do with square cuts. I would say your spacer is slightly under size but it is doing it's intended job. I had one from the factory that was way off.

Not sure where you read that, but that will not insure the blade is parallel with the miter slot. I suggest you read the table alignment procedure in the SS documentation. It has nothing to do with the way tube spacer.

0.009 is not much in wood working. If you you are tight against the bolts then move the infeed side toward the blade to make it parallel.

Could you post a picture of the saw arbor on the quill, It looks like you are using a 500 saw arbor with a spacer between the arbor and the spindle knob on a 510 table system.

John is right. The table spacer gets the blade close to the center of the blade slot, but it has nothing to do with whether the table is properly aligned to the blade or whether you will get a square cross cut.

But (and this is counter-intuitive and most woodworkers don't know this), the table being properly aligned to the slot has nothing to do with whether a cross cut is square! An unaligned table will result in a wider kerf and possibly burning and, in really bad misalignment, kickback. But an unaligned table will not cause the miter gauge to cut at an angle. If the miter gauge head is 90 degrees to the miter slot, you'll get a square cut even if the table is misaligned to the blade.

The ring on my 520 measures 1.455” wide.

I think you have the wrong blade arbor for use with your Mark V 510/520 table. From the pic, it appears to be a 555321, which is for a Mark V 500 table. See Russ Chapman’s thread below for photos of all the various arbor types.

https://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/view ... 71#p260771

(Ron, I think the thing that looks like a collar is actually the arbor wrench flat.)

500 arbors are shorter than 510/520 arbors, which would offset the blade to the left of the slot. But from your pic showing the arbor, it appears that your quill is extended a bit, which would offset it to the right.

I’m wondering if your spacer ring might also be from a Mark V 500, but I don’t have one to measure.

Interesting, I’ll send some more pics later of the arbor and quill. I really thought it was a 510 5/8” arbor, as it seems to be fine when I just back off the headstock a bit to center it in the slot. When the headstock and main table are butted close with the rubber thing, it is a good 3/8” to the right of center on the slot.


Literally after hours of back and forth with the trunnion bolts, I scrapped the weird magnetic base arm contraption that came with my dial caliper and made a little jig using a feeler gauge, and some parts from an old (Goldie I believe) miter gauge. This allowed for a lot more accuracy, and subsequently got to within .0015” from the infeed to outfeed.


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A question that might need to be answered:

With all of the normal hardware installed and the quill fully retracted, what is the distance from the right side of the aluminum collar to the left side of the blade? Understand that the rubber bumper predetermines separation between the carriage and the headstock. Note where my blade is with regard to the insert cutout. Also with respect to the center line of the trunnions.

The attached depicts these relationships on my 520.

I measured one ring at 1.47" and one at 1.25". I'm a bit surprised at the amount of variation in these. The one of mine that measures 1.25" puts the blade way to the right of center, barely in the slot. Not sure if it is relevant, both I measured were "C" headstocks. There is a bump I don't see in the originator's picture.

I don't see anything that would rule out the originator's arbor being a 555118, described in Russ's thread as a 5/8" arbor for 510 only. I have a couple of those and the critical dimension, as it pertains to this thread, is essentially the same as on 555608. (555118 measured 1.688", 555608 measured 1.694" from left edge of arbor to left edge of blade.)

- David

David is correct. 555118 and 555608 have the same base length so either will put the blade in the same place. The 5/8" arbor 555321 for the original 500 table system is about 3/16" shorter. I believe the OP is using the 555118 Arbor which was labeled as the 510 use only. To me the quill does not look extended. The placement of the blade in the slot as has been stated already is dependent on the bumper ring. Out of the two Mark's I currently have, one a 91 and the other a 06, both bumper rings are the same length. Before locking the carriage in place you can adjust the blade in the slot to your liking. None of this has anything to do with the table/fence alignment unless something is bent in the blade, arbor or spindle parts which is doubtful. I have had a bent spindle on a Shopsmith I purchased to restore so checking that first when doing a initial alignment is a good idea. I have no idea how a previous owner managed to bend it.

FWIW, a Mark 5/V 500 stop ring is 3/8" wide.

You are describing making the table/miter slot parallel to the blade(nothing to do with cross cutting angle).