Shopsmith Forums

I am the proud new owner of mickyd’s ShopSmith 10ER, S/N 72883. When I spoke to Mike a week and a half ago I told him I had recently begun woodworking therapy to relieve stress and anxiety from my job and the pandemic world, he told me that if I came and picked it up, I could have his resurrected SS 10ER, with the proviso that if I got out of woodworking that I would return it to him. I had never heard of a ShopSmith, but after doing a little research on the vintage American machinery I fell in love with it, and I hadn’t even seen it in action yet.

As I began working on and overhauling 1960s cars in the mid-1970s and was then a tech working on the U.S. Navy’s Close-in Weapon System (CIWS) and Tomahawk Weapon System armored box launchers in the 80s and 90s, I’ve been a bit of a Jack of all trades. Although I was primarily an electronics tech and have worked on computers since 1980, I love the smell of oils and cleaning fluids. Working on these old mechanical devices just relaxes me, so Mike’s provision to return this 10ER will likely add incentive to continue making sawdust.

Since Mike had not used this 10ER in a few years, I believe, and the headstock and carriage were very hard to move, I began tearing things apart a bit to check, clean, and lubricate all the moving parts. I wanted to make sure it was safe and that I wasn’t going to damage anything. Although Mike ran the motor for me before I took it home, I did not power it up for 4 or 5 days as I performed the maintenance and adjusted it. I read many of your posts in this SS forum, read the owners manuals and other documentation, and watched several videos.

I found and fixed a couple of problems, a couple of my own making, thanks to your advice in this forum. I found that over tightening the belts can lead to the speed changer pulley heating up and the quill return spring not working correctly. I suspect that those two problems were actually made worse by the motor and headstock pulleys being a little out of alignment with the speed changer pulleys; they were set back to the right maybe 3/16”.

I think I have found a bit of a problem with the speed changer though. It makes a lot of ratting and clacking noise. I suspect that when Mike cleaned all the rust from the ways, and the aluminum corrosion from the speed changer, that this created too much of a gap between the speed changer chassis and the ways tubes they ride on. Does anyone have an idea about how best to fix this?

Anyway, although I did do enough cleaning and adjustment to ensure it was safe and functional, I have been determined to not let this machine distract me , too much, from the project (building my woodworking bench) that is distracting me from my initial project (a simple fine furniture piece). So, now that I’ve owned this 10ER for a week, and I’ve cut a bunch of wood for my workbench, and I expect to cut some more tomorrow. I wish I had it it the previous week when I had to drill 16 holes through my 4” x 4” legs. The Ryobi drill press that I own only has a 2” throw, so I had to carefully mark each side of the wood and hope I did it well enough that they would meet in the middle. Fortunately I was successful, but the SS would have saved me a bunch of time.

I’m looking forward to learning more from you all, and participating in the discussions. Thanks for your help already!


Marc Jones
Proud New owner of Mickyd’s SS 10ER, SN: 72883

Marc,

First off welcome to the Shopsmith Forum and congratulations on receiving MickyD's 10ER. As you have already mentioned looking around on the site there is a wealth information to be found here. Since you are getting it into top running shape I am glad to hear you have a manual for it. But with that in mind after the Model 10E and 10ER were made changes for the better on maintaining these tools were found. Using wax like Johnsons original formula Paste Wax or similar wax instead of oil on some parts was one of those. The PDF below is a manual supplement I would suggest you add to the Owner's Manual and not just because I made it but because it is a good maintenance practice.

You mentioned the belts being out of alignment. Keeping those aligned will reduce wear and loss of power.

You said,

I think I have found a bit of a problem with the speed changer though. It makes a lot of ratting and clacking noise. I suspect that when Mike cleaned all the rust from the ways, and the aluminum corrosion from the speed changer, that this created too much of a gap between the speed changer chassis and the ways tubes they ride on. Does anyone have an idea about how best to fix this?

I am not totally sure what problem you are describing but when using the Speed Changer belt alignment is important and to help keep that alignment the nut on the long set screw in the headstock should be snug but not too tight. Moving the Headstock and Speed Changer combination on the way tubes with the nut too tight can cause binding and lead to the main casting of the Speed Changer to break in half. If the way tube holes in the Speed Changer were enlarged during restoration making it slightly loose I don't see that as a problem but if it wobbles some shimming may help. For that maybe some strips of paper or other thin material would do the trick.

You can always find help here on the Forum but you also have a great resource in your friend MickyD. Enjoy making sawdust.

Thank you Russ, I appreciate the update to the owner’s guide. I’ve printed out a bunch of the applicable documentation, put it in a notebook next to my woodworking bench for frequent reference in the shop, and this will be added to it. I’ve read a lot already, and watched Nick Engler’s Sawdust video on maintaining the SS, where he explained how to use Johnson Paste Wax and a black 3M pad to maintain the ways. I sanded some of the light surface rust from the ways and then lubed it with wax, and also performed a bunch of checks, and adjustments according to documentation prior to working with the ER10 the first time. So I feel pretty comfortable with it.

I still have a whole lot to learn about this tool, so always appreciate the advice.