Shopsmith Forums

It is time once again for the club members to do a little reading. The subject of this chapter has brought up a lot of discussion in the past on these forums, so let's see what comes up this time. Do knot forget, if you are interested, SS has the new Euro-Guard on e-mail sale through Tuesday night. This guard is advertised as making your bit changes easier.

BTW, no else has signed on for hosting any chapters after chapter 12. Please sign up to do your turn.

Thanks Tim,

Yes do sign up and take a turn... the offer is for anyone and everyone.

I had not read this chapter in the newer books until today. In the book I got with my shopsmith back in 1976 had the router section built into the drill press section of the book. They also show a way of pin routing... so if you have that book have a look see if that interests you.

I got the router chuck as one of the first additions to my system. I had just gotten my first hand held router only a short while before my shopsmith and had just started to get interest in all that a router could. I made my first "ultimate" router table and was interested in moving past edge routing... I figured the shopsmith would be a big help.

Sadly it did not live up to my expectations and quickly fell in to disfavor and into disuse. I briefly resurrected when I wanted to try pin routing... again it did not work as I had hoped. I resorted to attempting to mounting a router off the quill which... well, it worked but still lacked a way of easily locking the quill after plunge cutting....

However after reading a good number of posts here about how people were happy with how things were working and the fact that the bits you can get now are a whole lot different the the bits back then... I'd like to give it a try again. I'd decided this sometime back but with the warmer weather coming it is getting closer to becoming a reality.

I have a few other comments and such which I will post later.

Ed

reible wrote:
Sadly it did not live up to my expectations and quickly fell in to disfavor and into disuse. I briefly resurrected when I wanted to try pin routing... again it did not work as I had hoped. I resorted to attempting to mounting a router off the quill which... well, it worked but still lacked a way of easily locking the quill after plunge cutting....

Ed; Very interesting experiment you tried! I gave some brief thought to the same thing ('plunging' a regular router with it attached to the Mk. V quill system) before I went ahead and bought the new OPR system.

I do like having the stout Mark V Router chucks on hand for various jobs like miniature-sanding drums, the Wagner Safe-T-Planer, etc.

Otherwise I don't have much to add to the topic. I expect I'll continue to use the Mark V Shaper, but probably seldom use the headstock Router function, now that I've got the OPR. Which will be addressed toward the end of PTWFE, I suppose!

Other than a couple of edges with an ogee, all of my routing with the Mark V has been to make mortises. This was before I got the OPR.

Routing with a Mark V is a pretty good way to make mortises. To make them I always used the horizontal mode. Shown near the last of the chapter to make grooves.

I looked with interest at the figure 10-16.--
[ATTACH]3973[/ATTACH]

This jig is similar to the sliding table Nick showed us for use with the OPR. Besides cutting speed, the OPR table has the advantage of a movable fence. That said, the sliding table shown in this chapter is a reasonable thing to make cross dados on larger workpieces. Come to think of it, you could make a sliding fence on the table from 10-16. Just make a couple of slots on the outside edges and use the same carriage bolts as the OPR sliding table has. Plans for a sliding fence on the sliding table can be found in one of the Sawdust Sessions dealing with the OPR (#2 of Session #4) If this were made as shown, the sliding table could be clamped to the Shopsmith main table and used in Horizontal mode.


One advantage, I liked, of using the Mark V as a router is you can see what you are milling. Stop blocks will help, but unlike a standard router table, you don't have to lower the workpiece onto a spinning bit after lining up the piece with lines drawn on the fence.

Well - Yes! All of our picture and mirror frames and wall plaques I have made, are hung with un-reinforced 'T' slots. I have given thought to reinforcing them with key shaped brass covers, but haven't as yet. A couple of the plaque like things are actually wall quilt hangers.

As far as safety, I know why you asked he question. My first try was a disaster with a wandering slot. I soon learned to clamp the workpiece to the table, lower and lock the quill, and cut the slot, by moving the table.

Removing the 'T' bit is also a problem. I've found the easiest way is to turn off the machine when the slot is formed, than hand rotate the spindle while sliding the piece back to it's entry hole.

I used "Fast"!!!!!!!

I too have done some headstock routing, and the results weren't too bad. However, In his four Sawdust sessions on the OPR, Nick has me sold. I'm about to place an order.

I understand that the OPR system is on sale until midnight tonight. My question is that is seems on all the literature I have seen on the OPR it shows it being used, but I don't see the SS headstock in the picture. It is the OPR system complete, but do you have to remove headstock or how is it positioned in order to us the OPR. Maybe I am just overlooking something. I am thinking of ordering, but looking at options before hand. I know several of you use this system and all comments seem to be good, so I am sure I will get a good answer. THANKS TO ALL......