Shopsmith Forums

Recently I tried to extract a broken screw. I've had pretty good luck doing this but in this case the screw broke off about 3/4" below the surface. Well it is out but.... bad stuff happens.
If you happen to be a bit off or the screw went a little off center to the entry hole the extractor might hit it. And when it does bad stuff happens. So not only did I have to extract the screw I also had to extract shards of metal. BTW these are not cheap, I seem to recall a set of three being about $50.

Another bad thing happened not too long ago. I was working on some sheets of 1/2" Baltic birch plywood and the wind caught it and blew it over. It wasn't even a big piece, 15" wide and 36" long. It tipped over such that it hit the handle on the table crank. I really didn't expect to see this:
While you can't really see it the plastic handle is also cracked.

Haven't priced a new one yet since I had a spare......

So you got any bad things you want to tell us about?

Ed

Time to order new parts from Shopsmith. This is one of the reasons that my Shopsmith is never allowed to leave the shop. The wind never blows in my basement.

reible wrote:Recently I tried to extract a broken screw. I've had pretty good luck doing this but in this case the screw broke off about 3/4" below the surface. Well it is out but.... bad stuff happens.

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If you happen to be a bit off or the screw went a little off center to the entry hole the extractor might hit it. And when it does bad stuff happens. So not only did I have to extract the screw I also had to extract shards of metal. BTW these are not cheap, I seem to recall a set of three being about $50.

Another bad thing happened not too long ago. I was working on some sheets of 1/2" Baltic birch plywood and the wind caught it and blew it over. It wasn't even a big piece, 15" wide and 36" long. It tipped over such that it hit the handle on the table crank. I really didn't expect to see this:

bhb.jpg

While you can't really see it the plastic handle is also cracked.

Haven't priced a new one yet since I had a spare......

So you got any bad things you want to tell us about?

Ed

Bad thinks have happened in my shop too but I avoid taking pictures that could become evidence.

garys wrote:Time to order new parts from Shopsmith. This is one of the reasons that my Shopsmith is never allowed to leave the shop. The wind never blows in my basement.

The wind doesn't blow in my shop either, but sometimes it "breaks".

The worst day woodworking is better than the best day plumbing! Except in case of personal injury...

- David

Mind you, those squiggles are there to mark the location of the screw, so that I wouldn't cut there.

Amazingly, it didn't seem to damage the saw blade.

Ed,
Don't feel bad. I have broken parts too but like Dusty says, No pictures, No evidence.

Tighten yer hubs!!

Yesterday using my jointer, it started to vibrate. The drive hub set screw loosened allowing the hub to slide down the shaft freeing the coupler. At the exact same moment I reached over to hit the power button, the coupler flew out of the machine at bullet-like velocity and smacked me right in the back of my hand. My left hand is now about 30% larger than my right.

I have to buy a new coupler now; it's deformed at the ends and the spring apparently vanished into the dimension of lost keys and single socks.

There were 359 other degrees that coupler could have used to leave the Shopsmith, but like a grapefruit aiming for your eyes, the gods of Bad Stuff Happens just couldn't pass up the chance to make it painful and costly.

Like you, I am new to PowerPro. Some who are not new to them have reported that your experience is not new and correlates with the PowerPro. As I understand it the thinking is that it relates to the pulsing nature of the power. Loose setscrews have been mentioned several times in other threads. Other users, including me so far, have had no problems. I recall that both thread lock compounds and Nylok setscrews have been mentioned. I haven't used either yet but since I'm aware of the problem I do put a bit more 'gutentight' on the setscrews when I tighten them compared to a 'conventional' headstock.

I'm sorry about your hand, sounds like Murphy's Law at work.

I think you should report your injury to Shopsmith. Perhaps this is a somewhat dangerous condition and the torque response should be smoothed out a bit.

- David

That is an interesting point. Within the first few cuts on the newly upgraded Shopsmith, the set screw for the saw blade came loose. Did I forget to tighten it? Maybe but not likely--I'm not new to this. So, yes, you do have to really crank down on those set screws.

I believe I will take your advice and send an email to Shopsmith. Does anyone from the company read the forum?

That coupler is about the only thing I can think of that, if it gets loose, can come flying out of the machine without anything to slow it down. If a dado head got loose--for example--you might need some sharpening services, but it isn't going to come flying out at you.

There are a couple of things that could have prevented this. One is using closed-end hubs on the accessories. That would keep the parts trapped if the set screw loosened. Or there could be a shaft guard cover over the hub. The bandsaw has one, why not the jointer? There is apparently a shaft guard for the headstock output shafts; It is shown in the headstock exploded view the PP upgrade instructions, but not mentioned in the text at all. It is 521889 Belt Cover Shaft Guard ... $4.95; maybe that should be included in the PP upgrade kit.