Shopsmith Forums

Just joined the forum. Mechanical engineer.

I have owned my Shopsmith Mark V for over 30 years. Bought it around the same time I bought my house. I have used my Shopsmith almost entirely for home maintenence and renovation projects. Currently fabricating two rollup garage doors. Next project is floor-to-ceiling bookcases. The list is endless. Recently upgraded to 520.

I use CAD to design my projects. I "build" everything "on paper" FIRST, before I start cutting. Works every time.

My driveway is my shop. Roll the Shopsmith out of the garage and onto the tarmac. My dust collection system is the great outdoors. What noise?

Currently my headstock is in the basement for overhaul. Only the second time in 30 years. All new bearings and belts. THANK YOU Jacob Anderson for showing me how! Enjoy your retirement.

All the bearings (except for the idler shaft duplex bearing) for the Mark V can be bought from McMaster-Carr. Glad I can get them without going through $hopsmith. I don't think they will sell just the bearings, only the whole assembly (see Shopsmith manual reference numbers 56, 62 and 110).

I have found that many project problems start with geometrically crappy construction lumber. So I built a router sled which shaves down such lumber to produce dead flat and straight lumber of precise thickness. A router sled works better than a jointer or planer because it does not distort the wood during the cut. Highly recommended. Shopsmith might think about designing and selling a router sled for lumber; only a few manufacturers of them.

I built two big 2 x 8 foot folding leg tables for use alongside the Shopsmith. Invaluable. Heavy, strong, straight, steel reinforced. Roll them out on side mounted casters, unfold the legs then tip up for use.

I use a long piece of 1/2" dia ball bushing shafting to level my Shopsmith main table. This type of shafting is very hard and dead straight. Chuck it in the headstock, crank the table up against it and then lock the table. Much better than eyeballing the dial.

Welcome! Is Maryland your location? I'm near Gaithersburg.

SteveMaryland wrote: ↑Sat Nov 06, 2021 5:17 pm I use a long piece of 1/2" dia ball bushing shafting to level my Shopsmith main table. This type of shafting is very hard and dead straight. Chuck it in the headstock, crank the table up against it and then lock the table. Much better than eyeballing the dial.

Steve,

Welcome to the forum! Good to have you here. I'd be curious to hear more about the procedure you described here. If you could post a picture and/or some more details of the procedure it would be appreciated.

RFGuy wrote: ↑Sat Nov 06, 2021 8:07 pm

SteveMaryland wrote: ↑Sat Nov 06, 2021 5:17 pm I use a long piece of 1/2" dia ball bushing shafting to level my Shopsmith main table. This type of shafting is very hard and dead straight. Chuck it in the headstock, crank the table up against it and then lock the table. Much better than eyeballing the dial.

Steve,

Welcome to the forum! Good to have you here. I'd be curious to hear more about the procedure you described here. If you could post a picture and/or some more details of the procedure it would be appreciated.

Sounds like a good way to initially set the table but, once you do that and set the stop there is no need to eyeball the dial (?).

"Chuck it in the headstock" .....this is what confuses me. How does this work? What is needed at this point is a reference that is perpendicular to the face of the saw blade (perfectly aligned to the axis of rotation of the drive shaft).

dusty wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 6:33 am "Chuck it in the headstock" .....this is what confuses me. How does this work? What is needed at this point is a reference that is perpendicular to the face of the saw blade (perfectly aligned to the axis of rotation of the drive shaft).

Thanks Dusty. I agree. I was confused by the description as well. Hopefully Steve will post a picture or two and some more details.

The 'shaft' IS parallel to the axis of rotation which should be perpendicular to the blade in the two non vertical dimensional planes

The table is adjusted(tilt) to the horizontal plane.

"Sounds like a good way to initially set the table but, once you do that and set the stop there is no need to eyeball the dial (?)."
Ditto.

JPG wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 7:08 am The 'shaft' IS parallel to the axis of rotation which should be perpendicular to the blade in the two non vertical dimensional planes

The table is adjusted(tilt) to the horizontal plane.

"Sounds like a good way to initially set the table but, once you do that and set the stop there is no need to eyeball the dial (?)."
Ditto.

Thanks JPG. So is he just talking about leveling the main table in drill press mode, i.e. no other alignments? I was thrown by the phrasing he used.

No he is setting the tilt for sawing/whatever. (IIUC)

JPG wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 7:45 am No he is setting the tilt for sawing/whatever. (IIUC)

Ok, now I am really lost. Hopefully he will post a pic. I guess some of us need a visual representation because I can't understand the text descriptions on this thread. I had assumed he was aligning the table to the sawblade/arbor, etc. but I have no clue what is being represented here now.