Shopsmith Forums

Good afternoon all,
I’ve just recently purchased a third-hand Mark V 510 with “most” parts, with a bandsaw and strip sander, along with a power station. I’m a first-timer with a Shopsmith, although I’ve been doing woodworking in my spare time for the last 30 plus years. Now that I’m retired, I’m getting more into taking big pieces of wood and successfully making smaller ones.
In regards to the SS, it’s got a serial number indicating it first saw the light of day Feb 1989. The headstock runs, everything else needs mostly cleaning, and finding nuts,screws etc. First question, while the power plant lock works, whenever I unlock it, it has a definite snap. Is that simply that it needs lubricant, or is it a sign of worse? I remember reading somewhere (or was it on a YouTube vid) that it could be a problem.
I haven’t yet tried cutting anything with the SS, primarily because I need a new miter gauge, and fence, both on order through EBay. The strip sander and the bandsaw both work fine, just need cleaning and a bit of lube. I’ve tried out both on the power station, and both work great. First time I ever successfully re-sawed a board. Thanks, Scott from My Growth Rings for showing how to do it.
Second question, and maybe it’s a no-brainer, I keep hearing that aluminum tables, tubes, etc after cleaning should be waxed with Johnson’s Paste wax. I have Minwax. Will that do?
I’m sure I’ll have more questions as time goes by. Thanks for any feedback. Looking forward to years of enjoyment with my new toy.
Randy C
St Louis

Randy,

First off welcome to the Shopsmith Forum.

Below is the paragraph where you asked questions with answers as it goes along.

In regards to the SS, it’s got a serial number indicating it first saw the light of day Feb 1989.

If the serial number is on a sticker that is the date it was made. Shopsmith changed from actual serial numbers to date codes in December 1987.

The headstock runs, everything else needs mostly cleaning, and finding nuts, screws etc. First question, while the power plant lock works, whenever I unlock it, it has a definite snap. Is that simply that it needs lubricant, or is it a sign of worse? I remember reading somewhere (or was it on a YouTube vid) that it could be a problem.

It can become a problem and is likely a sign of wear.

I haven’t yet tried cutting anything with the SS, primarily because I need a new miter gauge, and fence, both on order through EBay. The strip sander and the bandsaw both work fine, just need cleaning and a bit of lube. I’ve tried out both on the power station, and both work great. First time I ever successfully re-sawed a board. Thanks, Scott from My Growth Rings for showing how to do it.
Second question, and maybe it’s a no-brainer, I keep hearing that aluminum tables, tubes, etc. after cleaning should be waxed with Johnson’s Paste wax. I have Minwax. Will that do?

Minwax will work too. In fact Shopsmith has supplied it instead of Johnson's Paste Wax. Waxing provides not only protection to bare metals but lubrication that makes things slide better like the headstock on the way tubes.

I do recommend you read the maintenance sections for all the tools to make sure they are properly cared for. That included waxing, lubricating and aligning the tools. Also read the operating instructions to become familiar with the tools and safe operation.

Randy,

I neglected to ask if you have the Owner's Manuals for the tools. If not I do highly recommend getting copies for each tool. There is a PDF available for the Bandsaw Owner's Manual at the first link below. It is the current one that has the aluminum table as opposed to the earlier cast iron table. The table is the main difference between the two for the majority of the operation and maintenance. The second link below is a PDF of the Bandsaw's exploded drawing and parts list. The third link below is for a PDF of a Summary Manual for the Mark V 510/505. It is not the full version of the manual but it will get you started. Both of these PDF manuals and the parts list are from here on the Shopsmith website.

https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/manuals/845539.pdf

https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/manuals/845541.pdf

https://www.shopsmith.com/getting_start ... Manual.pdf

PDF Manuals from Shopsmith are not available for the Strip Sander or Power Station but can be purchased along with the full Mark V Owner's Manual which can be found at the link below.

https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cat ... sindex.htm

Online PDF Manuals and printed Manuals for purchase can be found under the SUPPORT tab on the Shopsmith home page.

SASman wrote: Thu Nov 18, 2021 4:51 pmwhile the power plant lock works, whenever I unlock it, it has a definite snap. Is that simply that it needs lubricant, or is it a sign of worse? I remember reading somewhere (or was it on a YouTube vid) that it could be a problem.

You probably will need to replace the headstock lock wedges (they're about $12 apiece). Mine was doing the same thing, and it went away with the new wedges. If you replace the headstock wedges, you might want to do the carriage wedges while you have things apart. I didn't, and a few months later I was kicking myself because I developed the same problem with the carriage lock.

Mine were worn as well. I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to fix them so I filed the worn face flat. So far so good!

Thanks everyone for your replies.
To respond, the Owners Manual did come with it, and I’ve been doing a lot of of reading from it. As well as watching a lot of YouTube. I also found the PDF’s mentioned, including one for the Power Station and have downloaded them also.
So far I’ve gotten as far as cleaning the strip sander table, the end support table, and one floating extension table with wd-40, scotchbrite, elbow grease, paint thinner and the Minwax.
I’ll be pulling the headstock off in a couple of weeks (busy right now making things for a craft fair) and will see about the lock wedges then. As for the carriage locking wedges, I think you’re probably right. They felt tight when I tried them.
Ah well. I expected I’d have things to fix when I started looking at eBay ads.

Actually I found manuals for the strip sander and power station. The first at the SS web,
https://www.shopsmith.com/academy/stripsand/041502.pdf
Only 5 pages and nothing about maintenance but still…
And this website had the power station manual,
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=6081

The Strip Sander Manual is 14 pages and explains how to set up the functions shown in the 5 page flyer you provided the link to. It includes the drawings and parts lists. Maintenance is pretty simple for the strip sander. Wax the table when clean, brush and/or vacuum out dust and remove any pitch accumulation from the rollers with mineral spirits. That's really it, one paragraph. On page 5 of the flyer it talks about internal sanding. For that the belt follows a different path than normal.

I am glad to see you are learning about the Shopsmith tools. If you haven't seen it already there is a PDF version of the book Power Tool Woodworking for Everyone available here on the Shopsmith website at the link below.

https://www.shopsmith.com/academy/introduction.htm

Something you will come to know is there is more information available written about the Shopsmith tools than any other tool made so happy reading.