Shopsmith's new website is up....

[chiroindixon]

I'm thinking I see another "pattern" here. Guys and gals who love the Swiss Army Knife...and the other technology which is similar.. i.e. ShopSmith.

As a career service guy, I was always intrigued by both, and longed for a ShopSmith while I always carrying a SAK. So after retirement, I bought my 520 and commenced to making saw dust. With little to no prior woodworking experience, 'cept for a required class in HS, I was truly a "noobie".

As a "noobie", I simply read the SS beginner manual and learned the "ins/outs" of the various features of the the 520. From the table saw to the horizonal boring and all the others, my thought processes went pure Nick Engler and Power Tools for Everyone.

The horizonal boring machine in IMHO is one of the most useful.... and is a lot easier on setup, rather than switching to the vertical mode.

I agree the toothpick is pretty useless on the Swiss Army knife and I've rarely used the corkscrew. Try swapping out/adding these.
https://www.amazon.com/Helix-Tinder-Fir ... y-Starters
https://www.amazon.com/Firefly-Regular- ... een-Yellow

Doc

[algale]

Doc, those links don't work for me but I looked and see it is the world's smallest ferro rod and the world's tiniest tinder. Cute. Probably not as useful as the useless toothpick, however.

[JPG]

Those links went to the dogs!

Apparently I am an outlier.

Swiss Army Knife: The toothpick is for me, the MOST used gadget. Apparently my gaping space between the first two molars on the lower left side is very capable of trapping food particles(especially stringy meat) which when dining out of the house, the tooth pick on my pen sized SSA becomes a savior for pushing the trapped thingie out of the gap. I concur with Al re the tweezers.

Horizontal Boring: How about us renaming that 1 of 5/7 to horizontal drill press. I rarely raise to vertical for drill press function. I prefer to tilt the table to drill press position(90°), mount the rip fence on the now bottom 'side' of the table, support the work piece on the fence and use the now horizontal quill as for typical drilling/boring/whatever etc. Work piece can easily be clamped to the table for stability. Exception is very large work pieces.

Sanding disk. I echo Algale's post regarding touching up the ends(for length) as well as cleaning up sawn surfaces . However I prefer the conical disc for long work pieces and sharpening planer/jointer knives. The flat disc is far too agreeable to over heat the knives. Since the conical disc onty grinds a small contact line, overheating becomes less likely.

Routing/Shaping: For decades I was quite satisfied with this function until high speed routers became prevalent. I still think it is adequate albeit requires slower feed rate. FWIW I prefer the molder over the shaper.(use with caution!!!)

Table Saw: Adequate most of the time. Has it's quirks, but not insurmountable.(use shoe lifts )

Lathe: Not much to say here.



Full Exposure: Almost ALL of my experience/habit development occurred with my Goldie.

[RFGuy]

Those fire starters are cool, so I can almost see the appeal of a Swiss Army knife. I used to be a knife collector. I got interested as a teenager and continued for a while as a young adult. Never quite had the funds to afford the knives I wanted so my collection is meager. I guess I either lost interest or it morphed into my kitchen knife obsession which cost a small fortune. I have knives similar to a Swiss Army knife but never owned one until my FIL passed away a few years ago. He was kind of abusive to all of his tools and his Swiss Army knife needs some serious work. I cleaned it up the best that I could for a first pass, but the main blade is so corroded that it needs replacement. I polished it, but the stainless is severely discolored. I looked into a replacement blade but by the time I bought the parts and replaced the rivets, it would be more economical to just buy a new knife. Of course this one has sentimental value though. Right now it's been given to my son to remember his grandfather but when he asks me to finish fixing it up, I will. The pluses for Swiss Army knives as I see it (besides their utility), is they are fairly economical and you can repair them which is great. The downside for me personally is they are kind of small for my rather large paws so they are a bit unwieldy for me. For reference I have no problem palming a basketball and holding it upside down...that's how broad my fingers reach.

Ed does bring up a good point in that you basically get a spinning arbor that can either be vertical or horizontal oriented which is definitely nice to have. For flapping discs and etc., I guess I prefer a portable tool like a cordless angle grinder, Dremel, etc. However, I can certainly see the utility in using the Mark V in this manner; it is just that I haven't used it that way. Certainly having a fixed table and fence available to secure the workpiece is an advantage in many circumstances. Okay, horizontal boring, not to beat a dead horse, but perhaps you will point out the error in my ways here. We have discussed this before regarding horizontal boring, so I will try to keep this brief. I dislike having to get down at table height to try to see what I am doing. I am 6' tall and even at the elevated height of the main table, it is awkward to lean down to align vertical orientation on a mark. Shopsmith's adjustable stop collars make vertical alignment easier, of course. However, I find it even more awkward with parallax to try to figure out if the horizontal alignment is on target, not unless I climb up on top of the headstock. Yes, I know you can use dowel centers to score the drill hole, etc. as an aid, but I prefer to have my alignment as close as possible before I start to drill and I like to see this alignment visually with my own two eyes. Another challenge for me has been fence slippage in the past and this has been covered on a couple of threads so I am not going to rehash that one and will simply say I know what to do different now to mitigate this issue. Thank you! However, what I have personally observed in the past when I do horizontal boring is vertical deflection of the drill bit during quill extension. I can't say for certain that it is the quill moving up or the table flexing down or both, but I have seen this, even with the main table anchored to the aux table. This alone gives me limited confidence in the results I might achieve if I go back to horizontal boring. For most joinery I am too attached to the Festool Domino now, but if I need a larger mortise for a project, I might choose to attempt horizontal boring again. I would like to know why I have this vertical deflection, even with large diameter, high quality Brad Point bits in horizontal boring. I almost wish I could try this operation on someone's 500, 10ER, etc., etc. for comparison to my 520. We've talked about table flex and similar issues in the past, but it seems like some owners have zero problems with their Shopsmith equipment and some report things like I am here. I still wonder if some of us got our equipment in an era where there were some quality issues or manufacturing changes that are affecting us, while others are not seeing these issues. IF not this, then what could be wrong with my 520 to cause such an issue?

Thanks again for all of the feedback...it is helpful.

[RFGuy]

Apparently I am an outlier.

Swiss Army Knife: The toothpick is for me, the MOST used gadget. Apparently my gaping space between the first two molars on the lower left side is very capable of trapping food particles(especially stringy meat) which when dining out of the house, the tooth pick on my pen sized SSA becomes a savior for pushing the trapped thingie out of the gap. I concur with Al re the tweezers.

Full Exposure: Almost ALL of my experience/habit development occurred with my Goldie.

JPG,

Don't shoot the messenger...also don't take it as definitive. Those Swiss Army knife least used components were just something I found on the internet so take with a grain of salt.

I definitely like my grey 520 color scheme, but I wish it had more red trim to complement it. Of stock colors though, I have to say I think the Goldie and the other past variant color are better looking than this gray. Maybe that Goldie is better performing than my 520???

[JPG]

" Maybe that Goldie is better performing than my 520???"

Not likely. After all it is over 6 decades old. Only thing replaced to date is the quill bearing and the control sheave(some other things worked on however).

It is overdue for some love. Maybe one of these days when I stop using it to restore other models.

[dusty]

Found my long lost Leatherman but the Swiss Army Knife remains in hiding.

My wife might be right. She says I should bring all the tool boxes and other closed containers together in one place, dump them all out and then put the contents back each where they belong. She doesn't understand.

If I did that I'd never be able to find anything.

[adrianpglover]

I definitely like my grey 520 color scheme, but I wish it had more red trim to complement it. Of stock colors though, I have to say I think the Goldie and the other past variant color are better looking than this gray.

Maybe do some pin striping on your 520? Obviously not on the ways, but on the headstock and legs?

[RFGuy]

" Maybe that Goldie is better performing than my 520???"

Not likely. After all it is over 6 decades old. Only thing replaced to date is the quill bearing and the control sheave(some other things worked on however).

It is overdue for some love. Maybe one of these days when I stop using it to restore other models.

JPG,

Wait, aren't you better performing after 6 decades? Why wouldn't the Goldie be the same as you? I gotta believe you only improve with age.

[RFGuy]

Maybe do some pin striping on your 520? Obviously not on the ways, but on the headstock and legs?

Adrian,

Tempting, but it is functional. I have a large red Craftsman tool cabinet in my shop, the red Shopsmith tool cabinets underneath my Mark V and I re-purposed old kitchen cabinets that former house owner left in my garage. Both are now red cabinets with gray trim, one is my MFT workbench with an 80/20 torsion box top and the other is my router table, also with 80/20 torsion box top. Let's just say I have enough red in my shop. My Mark V paint job is functional and that is all I need right now. IF it was worn or rusting or etc. I would definitely think about redoing it. I do really admire those who restore Shopsmith equipment and post glamour shots on the forum. I have seen some really beautiful work showcased here. Some of the custom color paint jobs are truly inspiring, not that the Goldie paint scheme isn't gorgeous as well.