Shopsmith Forums

Belt cover from serial# 159532 has a hole in it with a simple metal hole plug. This headstock has seen very little use, the belts are like new. The guy I got it from says it was wrapped up and put away for years before he bought it an auction. He sold everything else but couldn't find anybody that wanted to pay the shipping for a headstock.

Anyone see this before? Is it for some kind of attachment?

My 1981 Shopsmith has the same hole and cover. I suspect Shopsmith put it there for us to ask questions about later.
My spare 1982 headstock also has it so it isn't something uncommon.

So maybe they had something in mind but never followed up.

Another thing I haven't seen before is this steel plate behind the lower sheaves. Is this just the faceplate for the motor? Seems to be made of cold roll steel, 16 gauge or so, and has picked up some light surface corrosion.

Not sure of the motor type, I only took off the belt cover to check out that plug. It's on the bench right now but once it's mounted again I'll drop the motor pan and look around for more new things (new to me anyway).

The capped hole between the way tubes was there for a number of years from later Greenies in the 1950's to the mid 1980's. Early Greenies did not have it and my guess is in the mid 1980's Shopsmith decided to stop punching the hole in the belt cover and save some production costs. Early Manuals beginning in 1956 has it as a way to lubricate the motor pulley. That would seem to be a more difficult way of accomplishing that task than removing the belt cover which around that time was held on by only 2 screws instead of 6 or 8 as was used on early Greenies.

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chapmanruss wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 12:08 pm Early Manuals beginning in 1956 has it as a way to lubricate the motor pulley. That would seem to be a more difficult way of accomplishing that task than removing the belt cover which around that time was held on by only 2 screws instead of 6 or 8 as was used on early Greenies.

Thanks, mystery hole solved.

My first thought was it might be for lubing but tossed that idea because it is so much easier to remove the belt cover. I've had 3 Greenie headstocks but all were made before 1956. Even with the extra screws it's still easy to take the belt cover off. Not having the nameplate hole was a real pain though.

Ed you said,

Even with the extra screws it's still easy to take the belt cover off. Not having the nameplate hole was a real pain though.

Ed, I agree it is much easier to remove the belt cover to lubricate the motor pulley assembly than to try to do it through a 1 inch hole. Not having the access hole behind the rear name plate on the "A" headstock was probably one of the main reasons it was replaced by the "B" headstock so soon (less than 2 years) after the Mark 5's introduction. If I had an "A" Headstock Mark 5 I was using I would add the hole behind the name plate and switch to the "B" headstock name plate to be able to lubricate the Idler Pulley Assembly and the back of the speed control assembly without having to take the headstock apart.

That 'cold rolled plate' is actually the end cap for the motor. It also provides a side shroud for the fan vanes on the back side of the 'fan' sheave.

JPG wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:22 am That 'cold rolled plate' is actually the end cap for the motor. It also provides a side shroud for the fan vanes on the back side of the 'fan' sheave.

I thought it would be that. There are a lot of configurations of Shopsmiths in almost 70 years of manufacture that I've never seen.

Even with the additions of the 510/505 and 520 table systems and the Mark 7 I believe there has still been more changes made in the headstock than all other changes combined.