Shopsmith Forums

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Small band saws present minor, easily solved issues. As standard construction, the Little Proteus requires 6 -5/8" or so under the guides for getting into optimal resaw position, slicing veneers. So on 6" resaw height band saws the blade guides get in the way for much of what you'd like to do. You could use it at standard construction further in front of the blade than ideal, or cutting thick stock in half with that configuration on 6" resaw height band saw.

You can just take off the upper wheel, ( a few second job) and then you've got the lower 2"high wheel doing all the work, -not a bad set up. The upper wheel only comes into play for stock thicker than 4 5/8". A better solution is to saw off some of the upper wheel, which I can do at no cost if you specify it. Then you could still take off the upper wheel for stock thinner than 4 5/8" allowing you to get the upper blade guides a bit lower, and for stock thicker than 4 5/8" you get the upper wheel pushing and feeding at the top of the board. These photos show the issues on a Delta 12" saw with 6" resaw height.

One of the advantages of the rig is it's easy to notch out or modify to configure for odd situations.

Another issue on resawing is lowest speed varies from drill to drill -- a lot! Several allow feed speeds as slow as about 2 fpm, which is actually about right, maybe even a little fast for a SS resawing 6" of hardwood. See: https://powerfeeder.alladd.com/about%20_drills.html

One of my customers, not content with the 4 feet per minute his Dewalt drill gave him, added a third stage of gear reduction, a classic case of thinking outside of the box. I've refined that modification, and will be adding it as an option for an extra $20 or so. For six inch resaw capacity saws it will require two modifications of the pesky feed roller. It changes the gear reduction from 3.8 to ten, so divide those fpm in the chart in the above link by 2.5 with this modification. Even slowed down tenfold, the drill can still give you feed speeds way faster than you can use.

I'm in the process of finishing assembling one of Al's Little Proteus Power Feeders. Someone asked about riving knives. The standard Shopsmith riving knife is an issue and you would have to check clearance when using it. If you have the non-through-cut riving knife, however, you will have no issues at all.
Installing on the Shopsmith fence is easy (I just substituted two 1.5 inch 3/8-16 bolts with a washer, mounted on 2 standard t-nuts, and it fit perfectly).

I’m looking foward to to your report, tucsonguy. Although it’s not a problem for a modern Shopsmith fence, a lot of table saw fences don’t have clamps at the back of the saw. So a conventional feeder that mounts to the saw table will tend to deflect the fence when it applies side pressure to the workpiece. Not so with a fence-mounted feeder. All the side-pressure stresses are internal to the fence and feeder, and the lack of a rear fence clamp is not an issue.

All the side-pressure stresses are internal to the fence and feeder,
Perfect description of the fence issue. The Shopsmith 520 fences are , at least in theory, perfect vehicles for the Little Proteus. They have a wide enough platform, and they clamp in back. The 510 fence will require a plywood plate down to the table on the right side of the fence, an easy modification to the feeder holder.

It's true, at least in my testing, that rear fence deflection is not a problem with a fence mounted feeder. It's uncanny , if you're used to the deflection caused by a conventionally mounted feeder. The SS fence, and theoretically, the fences on the most common of the current big box job site table saws, and both of those tools' miter guage slots, are ready for the Lil Pro to just pop on (with the right bolts or tee nuts), without the same concerns of fence lifting (unlike on T square fences, that cost as much as job site table saws, which have no rear clamp). I'm working on the hardware to offer an inexpensive option for mounting with people's purchase...
There was a fence mounted feeder made by a power tool company called Delta/Rockwell back in the 80's. It would have benefitted from a contemporary cordlesss drill as its power source. As it was, it was too fast for the market it targeted, and not robust enough for its speed. Here's a guy who updated one a few years ago, and loves it: http://mike-stalkfleet.com/blog/2017/12 ... er-feeder/

Fairly late to this thread but I have to say I am super impressed with what Al has invented with his Little Proteus! If I didn't already have a big investment in the Jessem table saw guides, I think I'd buy one! It sure would have saved me a lot of monotony when I was ripping hundreds of board feet of 1/4 wide x 3/4 cedar strips for my canoe!!

With power feed, you can rip strips for boats from 3/4" cedar like that 2 at a time with 2 saw blades and spacer. Best to use 7-1/4" 1/6" kerf blades, and splitters in custom insert for both blades.

This guy used 4 blades at a time! https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/gang-sawing/

I used to often cut 5/8" squares for my end grain cutting boards:
https://www.alladd.com/cutting-boards-l ... index.html
from hardwood, 2 at a time, with the baby feeder, and I tried this with mine and it worked at least as well.

A set up can be made with two routers to do the bead and cove in one pass :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMfpD_l ... x=13&t=70s

Cool video showing the Proteus ripping a long board on a Shopsmith with extension infeed and outfeed tables:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkE-0pTCPcQ

Wow! I have questions, is he a member here? I know his name is familiar. Really long 520 fence, 5' he says, wondering how he did that as I've always ASSUMEd that the SS version would lack some rigidity. And this version evidently only uses the front lock, or at least does not use the normal rear lock.(?) Must be kinda rigid cause that lock is way out on the infeed extension plus, of course, he's using a power feed. His infeed extensions are functionally similar but unlike the SS version, I wonder if the two (L/R) pieces are the same. Plus: "All with dust collection and HEPA filtration of the Powerpro headstock." Details! It ain't often that I think a utube video was too short or skimmed too fast through the details.

- David

DLB wrote: ↑Sun Mar 28, 2021 6:36 pm Wow! I have questions, is he a member here? I know his name is familiar. Really long 520 fence, 5' he says, wondering how he did that as I've always ASSUMEd that the SS version would lack some rigidity. And this version evidently only uses the front lock, or at least does not use the normal rear lock.(?) Must be kinda rigid cause that lock is way out on the infeed extension plus, of course, he's using a power feed. His infeed extensions are functionally similar but unlike the SS version, I wonder if the two (L/R) pieces are the same. Plus: "All with dust collection and HEPA filtration of the Powerpro headstock." Details! It ain't often that I think a utube video was too short or skimmed too fast through the details.

- David

Yeah, it is Geoffrey Baker (same guy that makes the purple splined hub drill press handles). Not revealing his identity for the first time or anything, i.e. you can see his name referenced in the thread below. He is quite active on FB when I lurked there in the past. Often find useful tips/tricks or things in his shop that I want to copy, e.g. he has the best PowerPro ventilation setup that I have seen anywhere.

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