Shopsmith Forums

Hello, I just found the Shopsmith forum today. I have a very old Shopsmith that I got many, many years ago from a fellow who broke the belt inside and didn't want to fit it correctly so he set up a couple of pullys on the outside. I took it appart and got the correct belt on the inside and it is still working today. I must have had it now for over 30 myself.

A few years ago I went to a Shopsmith demonistration and decided it was time to update the machine so I did the retro fit and now have a table that is significantly better than then matchbox size table that came on my 1957 machine.

I am hoping to get to use the Shopsmith to makes some pen and to help me made a few acoustic guitars.

I am trying to figure out how I will be able to make a jig of some kind that I might be able to fit on to the Shopsmith so I can thinkness tops, sides, and back for the guitar bodies. I have looked at drum sanders/thickness sanders and I am not in the position that I can go out and spend close to a thousand dollars for that piece of equipment.

With my planer I can get the wood down to about an eigth to a quarter of an inch but I need to get the sides down to about 2mm and the back down to about 3mm.

So my first post to introduce myself also has a question which is does anyone know of a jig that I might be able to buy or make that would allow me to use my Shopsmith to help me reduce the thickness from what I can get with my planer.

I am looking forward to being a part of the group. Today, I took some time to read some of the posts and I was able to figure out there are some great woodworkers here.

Any thought you might have would be greatly appreciated.
Chuck

Midnightshadow, welcome to the SS forums. You are correct there are a lot of very clever woodworkers on here. I am sure one of them will see this post and give you some direction. I would offer help but as I am pretty new to most of this stuff also I better someone with real knowledge give you answers. Just wanted to welcome you aboard..

Bayside Bob, Calif.

THIS IS STRAIGHT OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD AND I HAVE NOT HAD TIME TO SANITY CHECK IT, BUT HERE IT GOES FOR WHAT IT MAY BE WORTH.

Get a CONICAL SANDING DISK. It can do thickness planing up to 4" in a single pass. 8" can be done by flipping board over for a second pass.

There is a saw dust session wherein NICK demonstrates a jig/sled for this task.

I am thinking you could use thin wedges of the 'pitch' needed to vary the thickness at the sides.

You would have to modify the original design to handle the size 'blanks' you are sanding. You may have to build one sled to sand center and another for sides.

Depending on the pitch required for tapering sides, you may be able to adjust the table angle in stead of wedges.

After posting this I will get the saw dust session number and update thei post'

SAW DUST SESSION 14

Hi,

Good ideas above. Some additional ideas...

(a.) putting your wood on top of another slab as you feed it through your planer.

(b.) getting a Wagner Safe-T-Planer which fits on your Shopsmith in drill-press mode. This is a favorite trick of luthiers for thicknessing small pieces of wood. You can search those names and find illustrated uses on several web-sites.

Good luck,

You're going to get MUCH better suggestions from the *real* wood workers around here

I am but an egg.

So I will simply welcome you to our little bit of World Wide Weird.

I think your best bet is what Chris (nuhobby) already posted: Make a sled for your planer!

I think Chris and Tim have given good advise here. The more experienced guys will be here shortly Not that Chris and Tim aren't good woodworkers also. I too look here for advise as I learn more. I have learned the hard way several times jigs and template need to have as much attention as you can give them to accuracy. I now understand the more time spent making the templates right the faster the actual work goes and the happier you are. I have done the sled thing on my planner and it works great. I also have put a piece of sandpaper on the sled to help keep the thinner pieces in place. Don't forget to allow for snipe.

Hi Chuck,

I too will will just add a word of welcome to the forum!

If you have not had a chance to go exploring around the Shopsmith site yet, check out the Sawdust Sessions. The link below is a short presentation by Drew on planing thin boards on the SS planer, but there are a lot of interesting things in the various sessions that you can check out.

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Arch ... des_2_.htm

Again welcome to the forum,

Dennis

Hi,

I posted another message for you on the MDF question, as did a few others so make sure you check there too.

I think you might want to go to:
http://www.stewmac.com/

My son has made a couple of solid body guitars and this seemed to be one of his favorite places to get things.

While I don't think this is an answer to your issue it was an interesting looking tool, something a shopsmith could drive and perhaps a homemade version wouldn't be too hard.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Sanding_Tools_and_Supplies/Luthiers_Friend_Sanding_Station.html

You can also see the The Wagner Safe-T-Planer at:http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Planes/Wagner_Safe-T-Planer.html
Shopsmith use to sell this item in the not to distant past. I know I and a few others have them. I keep forgetting about it until someone brings it up again. I was going to order some new cutters... have to get that on next years list.

Anyway it has lots of information so check where it says "pictures" and "instructions".

Ed

Welcome:

You might want to check out song of the Great Lakes, http://www.songofthegreatlakes.com/ , this gentleman uses his shopsmith to make musical instruments.

As for thicknessing down to very thin dimensions, shortly after geting my MKV back in '83, I followed R.J DeChristoforo's instructions and made a 15" thickness sanding drum that mounts between lathe centers on the Shopsmith. This will certainly thin stock, and throw out a lot of dust. (This was before the DC3300 dust collector was introduced.) If you obtain one of the older editions of "Power Tool Woodworking for Everyone", the plans for this drum sander are on page 271.