Shopsmith Forums

Most of us I assume became ShopSmith owners because of their greatest feature: the ability to have a 5 tool machine that takes up very little space. With that in mind, what if your storage/work area diminished in size even more? Thinking outside the box, is it possible/feasible to shorten the way/bench tubes, thereby reducing the length? I assume I would be giving up some ability to deal with longer pieces and I dont think that would be a problem. Seeing the Mark 4 is what gave me the idea and instead of buying new tubes, I could just cut mine

It sounds like a great idea so I think I must be missing something. I confirm that I was totally sober at the time

Thank you in advance

Jeff

You can, and luckily you have lots of examples for inspiration.

While I wouldn't personally, go to Google Images and search "Shopsmith Shorty" and you'll see lots of examples. The upper and lower tubes are long the same length (something like 3/4 of a inch difference), but as long as you cut the same offset on each it's fine.

Some people also only need it as a drill press, in which case they wall mount it which takes up even less space. You can google image search "wall mounted shopsmith" to see those as well.

Being the Mark 4 is the inspiration for your though about shorting your Mark V here is some information. The Way Tubes of the Mark 4 are 36" long and the Bench Tubes are 36-3/4" long. That is 16" shorter than the standard Mark V Bench and Way Tubes. You would still have the 5 original functions, but your Lathe capacity would be reduced by that 16" and in Drill Press position you would lose some capacity. I say "some capacity" since I rarely, if ever, have the Headstock at the top of the Way Tubes with the Table at its lowest available point. If you are doing this on a Mark V 510 or 520 you can still have the extra Table space with the use of the Floating Tables. If you are doing this on a Mark V 500 or earlier Mark 5 both with the original Table System, you would be giving up that 16" for sawing width too. I used the Mark 4 lengths but whatever length you shorten the Bench and Way Tubes to that is the amount you will lose in different functions. Just remember that the Bench Tubes are 3/4" longer than the Way Tubes.