Shopsmith Forums

Brand new member here and really excited to be part of the community.

Went to pickup my shopsmith today and on the way home lightning struck and the skies opened up and I had nowhere to hide.. in the end my new to me mark v 510 got a ~5-10 min bath at 70 miles an hour in the back of my truck. The rain cleared and I drove for another 10 mins or so before arriving at my garage.

I wiped everything down when I got home, plan to let it dry out and have plans to go thru and oil everything per the manual and check the belts, anything else I should do/check before I power it on in a few days?

Frustrated at my blind trust in my weather app and the circumstances but really excited to start making sawdust!

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks in advance

Get a bed size tarp and keep it in your truck along with tie downs, and oversized flags. I also always carried one or two huge size garbage bags. All of this took very little storage behind my seats.

If it we me, I'd also slide the belt cover off of the headstock and aim a fan inside. Might even drop the motor pan and blow fan all around and on the motor.

Dunk it in a kiddie pool full of rice maybe?


In all seriousness though, definitely get fans on it pronto to dry it out. Could even use a leaf blower or compressed air to try to get any trapped moisture out of the headstock. Also, wouldn't hurt to clean the waytubes, tables, etc. immediately and get a coat of Johnson Paste Wax (JPW) on them asap. Are there any signs of surface rust yet? It doesn't take long for it to spring up after getting wet usually. Welcome to the forum!