Shopsmith Forums

New to the board, and thought I would share a story.
I guess this is how a lot of people arrive at a SS or TS these days - my dad passed away and it came to me. I let it sit for some years and collect dust, but recently moved to a new place with a nice shop room where I can try it out.
So the first problem was that the lathe drive spur was stuck on the shaft. Tried brute force, liquid wrench, and heating with a torch, but no luck. Finally I put a carbide blade on my saber saw and cut thru the damned thing. That allowed me to attach a gear puller and remaining piece came right off. Finally! Sort of looks like a robot circumcision. ;-)
Anyway, when cleaned up it is a nice machine and everything seems to work. The label says it was built in 1990. I'm learning how to use it bit by bit. Dad had the attachments scattered around in different boxes, but everything is there.
So that's it, I'm thinking about projects to get started. I might be back with ?? for y'all.

Great!

Now what does the quill shaft look like?

It's lost a bit, I would guess less than 1/4". Still works fine.

GASP! You sawed off the taper stop!

GrampaDan,

Welcome to the Shopsmith Forum.

Even though some of the end of the Spindle is now missing you can likely still use it. Bad news is the Quill and it's Spindle would be hard to replace since it is a Total Shop. Not as many of those around. An eBay search I just did for Total Shop only showed two items for sale, a Way Tube Tie Bar and a set of Lathe Chisels. To my knowledge some parts are interchangeable with a Shopsmith Mark V but others are not. I have never had a Total Shop so I can't tell you which Shopsmith parts can or cannot be used on a Total Shop.

Since you did cut off the end of the Spindle, I would suggest slightly beveling the end, at the cut, down carefully with a file. That will remove any burr left and make mounting or removing items from the Spindle easier. Do know that with the shorter Spindle end the set screw of any attachment will be closer to the Spindle end and therefore more susceptible to coming off if the set screw is not tightened enough.

Get to know your Total Shops tool and if you enjoy using it for woodworking you can consider what's next. If you have problems with it and it need parts or repair, you may want to consider finding a good used Shopsmith. There are a lot more of them around and really good buys can be found from time to time. Replacing the Total Shop with a Mark V may save you money in the long run. Another plus is the Mark V is still made so new OEM parts are still available plus a lot of used parts too. The Mark V Original Table System AKA 500, like the one on the Total Shop you have, has been discontinued along with the 510/505 Table System so new OEM parts specific to those Table Systems are becoming less available from Shopsmith but there is still a large used market for those parts. Something to know, it is the Table/Fence system a Mark V has that determines which model it is.

Thanks for the replies and advice. Please educate me, what should the spindle look like? @Russ yes I will file a bit of taper on the end. Appreciate it.

Below is a Quill's Spindle end from a 1982 Mark V. Notice that the taper finishes before the end of the Spindle.

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