Shopsmith Forums

I would be interested in hearing any feedback regarding the Model 500 rip fence upgrade. Is it an improvement over the old original model other than the T-slot? Thanks - Alec


Model 500 Rip Fence Upgrade part # 555646

Hi,

When I had my shopsmith as a 500 I got the fence as an upgrade. To be honest with the two of them hanging next to each other I tended to use the old one unless I had a reason to use the newer one... which tends to reflect my feelings towards it. Nice but not a replacement.

I'm guess you already know that the other thing different is the lever for clamping at the rear and the loss of the hole in the fence for mounting the hold down or for using the lathe center....

Since we are all different in how we do and use things you might well find this a major advancement and use it all the time... I did not but then I will say that it was nice to have the both of them, and from that prospective it is sort of a hey why not.

Ed

Just the sort of feedback I was looking for Ed - thanks! Alec

Hi,

If you happen to have a newer Shopsmith mortising gadget, then it's already set up to mount to the fence's T-slot. You can also use this drilled&T-nutted 5/8" hold-down rod to do similar tricks that you could do by putting a lathe-center inside the hole in the old-style 500 fence.
I had one job where I temporarily had a wooden workpiece on a 3" lathe faceplate, all on top the 5/8" mortising rod attached to my 510 fence. I was able to turn my workpiece for some specific rounding/sanding operations I needed to do. But like Ed says, I wouldn't have even thought of that had I not already seen what the 500 rip-fence was already capable of doing.

easterngray wrote:I would be interested in hearing any feedback regarding the Model 500 rip fence upgrade. Is it an improvement over the old original model other than the T-slot? Thanks - Alec


Model 500 Rip Fence Upgrade part # 555646

This looks to be functionally identical to the bandsaw fence (555645). The only difference being in the length of the fence. It works fine for me on the bandsaw so why not the table saw.

The bandsaw fence does not have the three thru holes for mounting jigs and sacrificial fences.

My use of my bandsaw increased three fold the day I replaced the bandsaw fence with the Kreg fence. fjimp

I upgraded the fence on my goldie soon after I got it a couple of years ago. The original fence was slightly warped in the middle so I purchased the upgrade. I was not impressed with the upgrade fence mostly due to poor fabrication and how thin the aluminum frame is. The biggest issue was the tendency for the (4) # 10-32 allen head screws that mount the frame to the base to strip the threads even with minimal tightening torque when I adjusted the alignment. I have two of the four screws that can't be tightened properly. The frame is too thin to use helicoils so for now I haven't gone any further to repair this. (I plan to epoxy some nuts onto the inside of the frame if I can.) Anyway I found a "like new" original 500 fence with the second goldie that I got and I use that most of the time for now. I will make the upgrade fence work better and I do like the features that it comes with. John McCrossen

John I am truly dissapointed to hear you received poor quality from Shopsmith. I am curious did you call them after you received it? I have had a couple of situations when I questioned quality of an item they shipped. Virtually every time they made it right immediately. No delay and no questions asked. fjimp

No I did not contact them at the time and of course I should have. I just figured that was the way the fence was designed. Anyway, yesterday I did disassemble the fence and found that the screws are #10-24 (not # 10-32 like I thought) so there are only a couple of threads in each hole in the aluminum extrusion. Now I have emailed SS to ask about any suggestions from them for repair and I recommended that they make a simple design change to reinforce the area where the screw holes are. Anything I hear from them will be shared in the maintenance and repair forum. Thanks, John McCrossen

John with all due respect. I would not count on a sufficient answer with email. Call the toll free number. The folks who answer the phone are great and solutions occur far quicker from a positive phone call than email. I will be shocked if you don't receive solid advise from them. fjimp