Shopsmith Forums

Several years ago I picked up an old 10ER that came with previous owner made parts that turned out to be an ingenious copy lathe. With the help of some other forum members the mystery was solved over several days and discussions.

Well, it’s happened again. ShopSmith owners are a clever bunch and these parts that came with my latest (Mark VII) are fascinating.
I’m asking for help to figure out their purpose. They seem very well made and clearly have an interesting function (or functions).

- the angled notch in the block with the thumb screws makes me think jointer knife sharpener but no idea how it might set up.
- the four holes in what looks like a tool post of some kind don’t match the bolt placement in the hinged clamp
- the hinged clamp doesn’t fit any ShopSmith tube I could find. It’s for 1 1/2” OD tube.
- the holes in the angle mount of the bearing/block/bearing almost but don’t quite match the bolt pattern in the hinged clamp.
- the slot on the little bearing on a bracket will fit on the hinge block screws but won’t slide far if it is on any two.

Please join me in the mystery.

The components remind me of the cutting tool holders on a metal cutting lathe. Does the piece of ground tool steel in picture 8 fit into the slot in the last picture? Can it be tightened in the slot using the thumb screws?

The bearing (with nylon ring) on the bracket with the long slotted hole reminds me of a work face alignment tool. On a metal lathe, you would snug your work piece in the chuck, then run the ball bearing (Nylon ring) into the face of the spinning work along the outside edge and it aligns the face perpendicular to the spindle axis using pressure. Not saying that is what you have, just looks similar.

Perhaps, just noodling things out here; the black post with the 4 mounting holes mounts to a spare SS carriage. Is the hole in that post also 1 1/2"? If so, maybe a short piece of pipe is missing that fits into that hole, then the aluminum split clamp in picture 1 could clamp to that pipe. The split clamp appears to have something on the back of it, will that fit up to the thing in the last picture? That clamp is some nice hobby machining work.

[Edit] that thing on the back of the split clamp looks to just be the clamp screw lug, so forget about that.

While the components look like a means to hold a cutting tool, the SS doesn't have a controllable carriage like on a metal lathe, so I am at a loss to explain it.

Mike -

Thanks for the input. I’ll look into your ideas and get back to you, hopefully sooner than this response.

Looking at all the pieces while thinking about a metal lathe, could it be a home made controllable carriage or a lathe duplicator for a SS? Does the hinged piece fit around a way tube? It could then be used to slide along the tube. The other pieces may be combined for different operations and material size.

No, it does not fit a way tube. So far I haven’t found any two pieces that fit to each other either.
….. but they were definitely made to do something…..

I do not think any of those thingies are shopsmith related. The former owner obviously like a couple others here had metal working skill. Only the thingie that resembles a lathe cutting tool is recognizable by me.

The hinged 1 1/2" 'clamp' was created with considerable time/effort/skill.

Are those bearings functional?

The are all functional …… if I only knew the function…..