Shopsmith Forums

I know you can find out the age of your SS by th Serial #, Can you also find the age of your accessories? If so, Where? Thanks for the help.
Devo

How's this? http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/faq/bandsaw.htm
Found it under "frequently asked questions" web site of SS.

Click on "How old is my Shopsmith" after touching customer service in the main site. Then click on the words customer service (in little print near the top of the page) Then go to Frequently asked questions web site. You can find a list for all the SS stuff.

I went to the FAQ to look up the mfg. date for my new to me jointer, and it seems that it was either made in 1957 or 1986. The chart shows serial numbers being duplicated!

OOps! Make that 1983. The serial number 56685 would seem to have been first used in 1957, although the chart dosen't show anything in that year. The jointer had green paint on it so I doubt that it was made in '83! The cool thing is that the castings are pretty much identical with new ones, so I added the available upgrades and it is the same as a new one, but with a copper paint job to match my Goldie.

Spike - Here is what I get from the serial number chart for jointers;
56683 was manufactured between March and April of 1983.

Well, Chuck, the only problem with that is that my jointer was made by Magna! My understanding is that Magna was no longer making the jointers by that time.

rcartmetal wrote:Well, Chuck, the only problem with that is that my jointer was made by Magna! My understanding is that Magna was no longer making the jointers by that time.

O.K.! I'm probably about to learn something new! Did Magna make Shopsmith tools? How can one look up the serial number for a Magna tool on the SS serial number listing?

P.S. Just went back and viewed the history of the Mark V. Noticed that Magna Co. relocated, but wasn't able to tie in it's relation to Shopsmith, Inc.

All of the SS stuff was made by Magna prior to 1964. It was after 1972 that production was resumed by Shopsmith, Inc. The dating chart for the MkV shows a prodution gap from Dec 1961 to Jan 1978!
I suppose the fact that the early machines were made by Magna and the later ones by Shopsmith Inc. explains the duplication of serial numbers, but they could have come up with a slightly different system to reduce confusion, it seems to me.

Take a look here:
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showpos ... stcount=13
for a little bit of history.

If someone has more to add please start another thread with the history theme.

Ed

Thanks Spike! Thanks Ed!