Shopsmith Forums

Hello all, I'm new to the forum (but have read a fair amount of the back posts)

I've had a Shopsmith 500 for a while (inherited) but added to it a jigsaw (which I had never had before) last fall.... an ebay purchase, but it arrived in good shape, without much wear and with nothing missing.

I set the thing up per the manual (which was, ok, a bit of a hassle), performed the ritual Purging of Ancient Sawdust and appeased the machine spirit with appropriate offerings of oil and fresh high quality blades.....

Everything went spiffy through much use until today I was cutting some lightweight pine and and the ungrateful machine decided to shatter a power shaft coupler all over the floor....upon investigation of the transfer case (because manually turning the drive shaft now no longer caused the piston to move) I found out that the nylon yoke on the yoke/bracket assembly (part #502275) had also suffered a critical existence failure and decided to spend the rest of its life as small pieces.

I'm going to have to see if I can find a replacement, so fingers crossed there.... fortunately the tool is not mission-critical.

My main concern is, is there some step or trick or unwritten rule I may have missed when setting the tool up that could have caused the two failures?

I've never had a Shopsmith break a coupler like that, and am a bit worried.

I suspect the yoke failed, and the rest are collateral damage.
I believe you can find 3D printed yokes on ebay,
or you can make one yourself that will be stronger than the original,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb17icIjzeA

A replacement power coupler is an easy find. Unfortunately since the Jig Saw is out of production Shopsmith no longer makes replacement parts for it. Very few replacement part are left in stock with SS. The yoke is no longer available so a 3D printed or the make your own are the only real options left. I have seen lower assemblies for sale but if the yoke is all you need then why buy all the extra parts and pay extra for having them sitting around.

Yeah I have spare couplers... it's just the breaking of one that really threw me, that has *never* happened to me before.

I've seen some posts from a member named Bill who has or had the yokes, but they were from ten years ago so I didn't want to presume.

Ron, that was an interesting video and I'd be up for trying that myself... off to the calipers to get some dimensions!

If the old post were by Bill Mayo I am sad to inform you he past away. Bill was a great resource on Shopsmith's and is missed.

If I was needing to replace the yoke on my Jig Saw I would probably go with the make your own as shown in the video.

Do any of you have a parts diagram for this saw I have a basket case I got with my ss and have no clue on what is missing thanks

Here is the Parts List and Diagram from the back cover of the manual.

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Murray wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 10:24 am Do any of you have a parts diagram for this saw I have a basket case I got with my ss and have no clue on what is missing thanks

Link to SS jigsaw manual
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=10571