Shopsmith Forums

This may win the "dumb question of the week award" and if it does, it will not be my first trophy in the category. I have a used 520 and everything seems to function as it should, within my limited sphere of knowledge on the subject, except one thing that I find annoying. When I have the table at max height in the carriage (as if you were going to slide the table over any saw or sanding disk attached to the headstock), the height adjustment handle (wheel), spins to the sound of stripped gears and the table bumps up and down a 1/4 of an inch with each handle revolution. Is this normal? I would have expected a definite stop to the handle's revolution at the maximum table height rather than what I am experiencing. It seems badly engineered, given the rest of the machine, if this is normal. Thanks for your comments and I have a place cleared on the mantle for the new trophy.

It's normal. No stop engineered in otherwise you would not be able ro remove the table.

thank you. Wanted to be sure everything was adjusted as it should be

FWIW stopping just short of that point(bumping...) is adequate.

Also advise not to use table at or beyond the height where pinions are almost disengaged - unstable. Max safe working height is where both pinions are fully engaged with racks.

Have a look at the vertical bars with teeth on them under your table. You can see that you run out of teeth at some point as you drive the table higher. That is the max height position - at-least have that last tooth engaged.

When it is bumping up and down as you turn, you have gone too far unless you want to take the table off..in which case you've gone just far enough

b

I appreciate the input. Thank you.

80spiders,

The other posts have covered it pretty well. The Table Posts where engineered that way so the Table assembly could be easily removed for Lathe work.

Remember there are no "dumb" questions. We learn from asking about things we do not know.