Shopsmith Forums

I had been looking for an affordable Shopsmith for some time now. I finally found one locally. I paid $500 knowing that the motor was possibly bad. However, I felt the unit would be worth the money because it included a bandsaw, a jointer, a belt sander, a jigsaw a dado set, a number of router bits, a bunch of sanding disks and a number of belt sander rolls. There are also 4 or 5 saw blades and some other things I haven't been able to identify yet. I figured if things didn't work out, I could sell the parts and recover the cost. The label on the head stock has faded such that there is no serial number visable. It appears that the lower saw guard is missing but there is a metal blade guard of some type but I don't know how it fits.

Back to the motor. I talked with Alex at Alex's Shopsmith repair service before making my purchase and was very impressed with him. The testimonials on his site were very good and his motor replacement prices seemed fairly reasonable. I wanted to ask the forum members if anyone has done business with him and their level of satisfaction with his work.

In addition, I would like the opinions of some of the forum members as to whether or not it would be worth it to move forward with the motor rebuild or replacement

I don't have the expertise to repair or rebuild a Shopsmith motor. Therefore, I would be willing to pay Alex or some other repair service to rebuild or replace the motor if the Shopsmith is worth it. My original thinking was, at the very least, I would be able to get a working table saw out of this deal.

First welcome to the mad . . forum.

How about "we" take a shot at the motor.

Alex who??? Where???

JPG wrote:First welcome to the mad . . forum.

How about "we" take a shot at the motor.

Alex who??? Where???

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzDbvD ... Bhw/videos

Alex is in the Albuquerque area and is not new to Shopsmith repair. If you call and talk to him I believe you will be favorably impressed. I have not had any work done by him because I do my own but I know people who have. In my opinion, very, very low risk.

bgeagle.... Just to be sure how do you know the motor is bad? I just purchased a SS yesterday brought it home it would not run. But figured out it's the switch. Someone told me that the older SS's have issues with the switches. Maybe you just have a bad $20 switch. Can you provide some specifics as to HOW you know the motor is bad?

Spooner, thanks for the quick response. The guy I bought it from said it was "probably" a bad motor.

I have a real dilemma. My wife and I decided in March to sell our home so that we could move closer to our daughter about 30 miles away. We expected our house to sell in several months only to have two instant offers, one of which was for much more than we were asking. So, with the Covid crisis kicking off, we felt compelled to move forward with the sale as quickly as possible. We immediately contracted to build a new house (complete with a third car garage for a "Shopsmith" workshop) only to see the Covid crisis go into full swing and many delays in the new house construction industry. Long story short, we are now "homeless" living with my daughter and son-in-law and all of our belongings (tools included) in several storage units. About the only thing I know the location of is a screwdriver! All this means that I had too much time on my hands and I bought a Shopsmith that needs work but I have no where to work on it and no tools to do so even if I had a place! I know it sounds comical and I suppose it is unless you're the one in the middle of it. It looks like I may be able to go to the storage unit and take a closer look at the headstock at some point but the conditions won't be ideal.

After talking with Alex, it seemed that a motor as old as this one appears to be would need more than a switch. But, based on your comments, it may not. As soon as I can get myself together, I will plug it up and see what happens then let you know. I suppose I should have held my post about the purchase until I was in better shape to work with it but I was excited that I could get into the Shopsmith world without a large cash outlay. Let me know where I can get a switch if I end up needing one. Thanks.

RPD, thanks for the quick response. Read my reply to Spooner below if you need a little "comedy" relief from all the Covid crap!

First you need to find time and a way to plug in the unit and try it out. The symptoms you get from that can often send you in the right direction.

Motor failures fall into one category. The motor windings which usually give you a short that instantly blows the breaker. A new motor or a complete rewind at a motor shop is the only fix.

More often, the centrifugal switch hangs up from sawdust. A cleaning usually fixes this. The starter capacitor can also fail, but replacements are cheap. The symptom here is that when power is applied, the motor hums and fails to run.

Next is the symptom of "nothing". You plug it in and turn on the switch. You hear nothing and the motor does nothing. That usually is a bad switch or wires disconnected to the motor. This is easy to troubleshoot with an ohmmeter and if the switch is bad, a new one fixes it. If you are handy, you can even disassembly the switch and buff burns off the contacts and repair the switch.

If you determine that your motor needs a repair that you can't or don't want to undertake yourself, Alex does good work. He repaired a the headstock of a barn find of mine, turned it around in a few days and it runs quieter than my much newer SS.

If it ends up coming to a switch bgeagle I know a guy. So let me know and I'll hook you up.