Shopsmith Forums

Hi all! I'm starting this new topic to keep all elements of my own journey into becoming familiar with a Shopsmith, specifically my very first one, and what I'm doing to bring it back to life and make it a usable tool again. I'm a retired (somewhat anyway) machinist, manufacturing engineer/manager, home inspector, and now part-time home handyman/work estimator.
I'm new to Shopsmiths, so I'm obviously also new to this forum. My first post was to this section's Serial Number Lookup thread, and I'm copying that post here to give you this preliminary information about my machine:

"Hello! I just joined the forum, and this is my first post. We bought a property in Franklin County, Missouri several years ago, and I made sure that the old Shopsmith machine in the garage was included in the deal. I've had a need to use it a couple of times, but was afraid to do much with it until I really knew just what condition it is in. I would like to restore it enough to make it more usable, and am now in the process of trying to learn more about this particular machine and what its condition is in.
It is a 10-ER, and its serial number is R59677. It appears to be on a homemade base that is fairly well made, but does flex just a little bit as I'm trying to pry it up into the drill press position. That function appears to be frozen, and may never have been utilized. I've sprayed the pivots with Liquid Wrench a few times, and am waiting to see if that frees it up. The motor drive belt tension adjustment was the same way, but I've got it loose at one end so far the same way.
The spindle seems to run fine now since I've installed a new motor drive belt, and it sounds like the spindle bearing (probably just one) should be permanently lubricated, but could this be true after 70+/- years? I'm concerned about running it at anything more than the lowest speed until I've gotten some reassurance that it can take it. This will probably entail checking the headstock temperature frequently after I can adjust the drive belt tension a little better.
I'm posting this to this thread in the hope that someone can give me a pretty good idea of when this particular machine was made. A couple of posts back it looked like mine was pre-1951, but I found a list on one of these forum threads listing a bunch of user's machines that indicated that mine might be a 1952 model. There apparently used to be a link on the Shopsmith website where you could find out when your machine was built, but that link is no longer working, and I couldn't find much about the old machines on their website. Can somebody please give me a pretty good idea of when my machine was built? Thank you very much for your help with this!"

I uploaded these two photos with this posting.

One of your members, chapmanruss, almost immediately came back with his estimation that my machine was probably built in the western factory in about mid-1951. I'm thinking that it may have even been built on my 4th birthday! Great information, and thank you very much, chapmanruss!

The Liquid Wrench did its job and today the motor easily slid up and down, I was able to adjust the belt tension to where I wanted it, and I'm happy to report that the machine ran at all three speeds with no signs or sounds of distress. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that continues!

I was also able to lift the machine into the drill-press position, clean it up a bit, and take a series of photos to give you a better idea of its condition and what tooling is present with it. All in all, I'm quite pleased so far with what I've found, and I'm looking forward to your assessments, opinions, and recommendations on this machine.

Here is my machine, cleaned up a tad and moved to the drill-press position. It is pretty obvious right away that I will have to clear some stuff and reposition the machine away from the garage wall to make full use of it.

Here is the original motor, still working fine. It has some rust and chipped paint on the underside, and it looks like the motor pulley has sustained a bit of damage in the past, but so far this doesn't seem to affect its operation.

When I let the machine back down into the lathe position, the tubular-ways tie-bar hit the left-end headrest that is supposed to cradle it, and I had to use a screwdriver to gently pry the headrest to the right enough for the tie-bar to clear. It didn't take much to move it over, so I'll have to check how solidly that headrest is anchored to the wood base. It might be loose. I also found that the locking screw in the headrest that is supposed to lock the tie-bar into it doesn't appear to be long enough to do that. It may be the wrong screw for this location and is something else that I'll need to investigate further.

Michael - very much enjoying reading about (and seeing!) your journey with the 10ER. That was the model that introduced me to Shopsmith. It was a fun project to break it down, clean up all the pieces, then reassemble.

Based on the effort you’re putting into this one, I’d suggest a thorough cleanup of the way tubes. You may even wish to break it down enough to remove the tubes and polish them up. That would allow you the chance to make adjustments in reassembly that will avoid the interferences you showed.

And a smooth sliding headstock and carriage make for a much improved usage experience! Good luck…

MichaelCfffg,

Glad to see you started your own thread. Looks like you are getting to know your Shopsmith. The pulley on the motor has a chipped off piece in the 2" edge. That is something easily replaced along with the belt since they are still made. The Headstock pulley fits the larger diameter shaft of the Drive Sleeve Assembly so not something generally found new. Use care with it as should be done with other parts of the Model 10's.

Do you have a copy of the Owner's Guide (manual) for it? It is something that you will find very helpful.

More information to come.

I am thinking the way tube tie rod is too far inward on the way tubes. Moving that out will eliminate that lowering interference.

jpdalton wrote: Sun Sep 29, 2024 7:07 am Michael - very much enjoying reading about (and seeing!) your journey with the 10ER. That was the model that introduced me to Shopsmith. It was a fun project to break it down, clean up all the pieces, then reassemble.

Based on the effort you’re putting into this one, I’d suggest a thorough cleanup of the way tubes. You may even wish to break it down enough to remove the tubes and polish them up. That would allow you the chance to make adjustments in reassembly that will avoid the interferences you showed.

And a smooth sliding headstock and carriage make for a much improved usage experience! Good luck…

Thanks, John! The way tubes definitely are in need of a thorough cleanup. I got a pretty good look at them yesterday and it looks like just surface dirt with no pitting, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that. It seems like I read somewhere that they might be stainless steel. That would greatly help in preventing rust. I need to clean out a lot of stuff in my shop before I tackle anything like totally dismantling this thing. I also have an old drill press that needs to be rebuilt and restored.

chapmanruss wrote: Sun Sep 29, 2024 12:36 pm MichaelCfffg,

Glad to see you started your own thread. Looks like you are getting to know your Shopsmith. The pulley on the motor has a chipped off piece in the 2" edge. That is something easily replaced along with the belt since they are still made. The Headstock pulley fits the larger diameter shaft of the Drive Sleeve Assembly so not something generally found new. Use care with it as should be done with other parts of the Model 10's.

Do you have a copy of the Owner's Guide (manual) for it? It is something that you will find very helpful.

More information to come.

Thanks a lot, Russ! You've been a great help. That chipped pulley isn't currently causing any problems, and it adds a little character to the machine, so I'm not going to worry about it, at least for now. The old belt on the machine was coming apart so I got a direct replacement from an auto-parts store, and it seems to be working fine. The only question there is whether or not the belt I replaced was the correct belt for the machine. It is working, so I'll again live with it, at least for now.

I did find and download a PDF copy of the Owner's Guide online, and it has a date of Sept. 1952 at the bottom of the last page, so it should be perfect for my machine. And yes, it is VERY helpful!

Thanks again!