Shopsmith Forums

Nick took us on a tour of Jim McCann's shop. Interesting especially considering what he has made.
https://youtu.be/O8-fU850MZg

He's a class act! I enjoyed a lecture or 2 from him on a Shopsmith Owners weekend back in 2008. Glad to see both Nick and Jim are in good health.

What interested me was the stationary tablesaw, drill press, bandsaw, jointer, and lathe. He did have the SS planer on a stand and belt sander on accessory stand. I wish I had seen that 20 years ago I would have bought a tablesaw, bandsaw, drill press and jointer for my shop. Always wanted to but felt if everyone else was living with constant mode changes I could to. Boy talk about imaginary peer pressure.
Seriously if I wasn't at the point of winding down my shop activity (age and laziness) I would buy a really nice bandsaw and tablesaw.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't know what I was expecting. I know anyone can buy whatever tool brand suits them, but I guess I was expecting there to be at least a single Mark V in his shop. Since his shop looked like about the size of a single car garage it is very similar to mine so I would have expected him to leverage the purported benefits of a Mark V/7 in such a small space. The DC-3300 in his shop looked interesting, like maybe it was a prototype model or something. IF I could redo my shop, I would definitely go with a cabinet tablesaw with a router table embedded to save on space and a good, large bandsaw.

RFGuy wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 10:50 am Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't know what I was expecting. I know anyone can buy whatever tool brand suits them, but I guess I was expecting there to be at least a single Mark V in his shop.

Must meant that Jim’s Mark V in the house!

thedovetailjoint wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 1:11 pm Must meant that Jim’s Mark V in the house!

Could be! Of course, he spends all day at work with them, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised if he wants a break when he is at home in his personal shop...

Jim mentioned a good point for his shop, clearly important to him and his workflow: All tables are the same height. The Mark is not suited to that approach. Still surprising to me that he doesn't have a M7 along the wall for non-TS applications.

- David

Finally finished watching this, it's over an hour long but it was easy to break up as they moved from tool to tool. Excellent video, loved looking at all the tools and work tables. His table saw has an Excalibur fence like the one on my Sawsmith, This is just a wonderful fence, solid, heavy, and still glides smoothly. I like his router table idea, I may make a table like that just to extend the tablesaw since more floating tables will be hard to find. He's got an old Delta bandsaw like mine too.

I've been forced into a small crowded space before and it's not the best mode for me. Luckily I have more space now, and henceforth everything will be on wheels so I can move about easily, keep work pieces out and available, and keep things clean.

Yeah, I just finished watching the entire video as well...had to break it up into chunks to watch over multiple days. First let me just say that I enjoyed watching the interaction between Jim and Nick; it was informative and entertaining. I wouldn't normally watch a YouTube video that is this long, but speeding up the playback helps. So what are my thoughts after watching the entire video? I was a little bit annoyed by Nick stating over and over again that Jim has a small shop and how could he possibly work in there? I didn't count, but this must have come up at least a dozen times. Why did this annoy me (besides the repetitive nature of it)? Because my shop is right around 200 sq. ft. and Jim's is 14'x24' or 336 sq. ft. which is cavernous compared to mine. I really have to wonder how big Nick's shop is since he finds Jim's 336 sq. ft. to be such a small, cozy shop. Given how big Jim's shop is, I can now see why he didn't have to center his shop around a Mark V to maximize the capability of a small space. Another reason? Well, I was very impressed with the music stand that Jim made and he claims to have needed accuracy in the thousandths to achieve it (too tight and the legs wouldn't slide, too loose and it might come apart, slide down, etc.). Possibly his fixed tablesaw affords him more accuracy to accomplish that project than a Mark V would due to 520 table flex. About the only thing I objected to that Jim said was he had high praise for those adjustable aluminum clamps (Clamp 'N Tool Guide), but I have never cared for those. Even crosscutting plywood didn't work well with mine and I just used a board straight edge instead before my tracksaw purchase. In the end, I enjoyed watching it because it is always interesting to see different techniques or solutions someone else comes up with in their shop. Also it gave me a greater appreciation for Shopsmith's engineer...based on some of the project photos shown during that video it is clear to me that Jim is a master woodworker so it is good to see that he is passionate about our craft.

My Dad worked for Gillette for almost 50 years, including several years as its chief engineer. During his career he was responsible for developing Gillette's Techmatic Razor and Trac II Razor. He wouldn't have been caught dead using anything other than a Gillette razor and if any of his bosses had ever caught him using a Bic or a Schick or any other brand razor other than a Gillette razor in his home, I'm sure he would have been fired on the spot.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating for Shopsmith to fire Jim McCann. But it's a huge disappointment to me that he doesn't seem to have any of the flagship tools he is most responsible for developing -- the Mark V 510, 520 or Mark 7 PowerPro headstock -- in his own small shop despite the fact that the small shop woodworker is the target market for the Mark V/7 machines.

It's terrible, terrible optics for Shopsmith.