First post here. Heard about you from Scott's My Growth Rings YT channel.
I live overseas (Japan) which makes it hard for me to keep up with you all in the States. I bought my Shopsmith Mark 510 new in New York in 1986. When my boss transferred me to Japan a year later I took it with me rather than leave it to rust in storage. The company paid for the shipping so it was no loss to me. It wouldn't surprise me if it is now the only Shopsmith in Japan.
I don't use it often but when I do it's a great joy to use. I self-upgraded it to Power Pro some 10 years ago. Been running it on a 220 V transformer as Japanese house voltage, 100V 50Hz, was too low to run the original 120V 60Hz motor. It's been a powerful performer ever since so the upgrade was well worth the time and expense.
Lately, however, the headstock has been making a rattling noise, especially when running the disc sander. If I load the sander heavily with, say, a 2x4, the motor appears to lose synch with the ESC and trips on itself, but it will resume normal running after I lessen the load on the disc. The bearings are still tight and there's no runout or slippage in the spindle. Table saw and drill operations run normally. I don't use the lathe often (too tall for the thing, alas) but I'm sure it runs normally too.
The losing synch thing makes me think it is an ESC problem. It's actually had that rattle since the Power Pro upgrade, but I could find no mechanical problem at the time. Due to my distance I decided to live with the problem rather than send it to the States for service. However, the rattle has been getting louder so now I may not have a choice.
My questions:
- Is it possible to update the firmware in the Power Pro ESC?
- Does Shopsmith still service the Power Pro headstock?
- To what address should I send it for service?