Shopsmith Forums

Several months ago, in order to work on some projects I had in mind, I realized I would need at a minimum, a table saw, a drill press, a sander of some sort, and a small lathe. Shopsmith came immediately to mind. I then did what people do these days, and read everything I could find on the web about the Shopsmith. Unfortunately, much of it was negative.

You know the standard complaints: changeover is too time consuming, multi-tools are always an unacceptable compromise, the table saw is under powered, the table saw table tilts, not the blade.

My woodworking interests lie more in the realm of small and nice than big and impressive. I'm more likely to make a keepsake box than a boat, more likely to make a wooden puzzle than a barn. I needed accuracy over power.

I window-shopped table saws for months. Every saw I encountered got the "wobble test." Very simply I grabbed the (unplugged) table saw blade and attempted to wiggle it side to side. It was not until I hit around the $500 price mark that any passed this rudimentary test. So my budget was _at least_ $500 for a table saw.

Next was a drill press. Again the wobble-test put me in the $200+ range, and to get more than 10" capacity (horizontal) kicked that up considerably.

Lathes -- I'd already learned from my table saw and drill press forrays that quality (read: accuracy) is not a cheap commodity, and never made it to this phase of shopping. I had to figure at least another $500, and I'd not yet thought about a sander. The cost of the tools had already far exceeded the cost of a quality used Shopsmith, and was nearing 50% of a new.

On top of all this I was trying to picture the nightmare of "changeover" with stand-alone tools. I don't have a big shop. I've got about 12' of garage wall, and as much garage floor as I can borrow when the cars are in the driveway.

Stand-alone tools would have to be dragged out one-by-one as needed, each one taking up a huge amount of space even when not in use. I doubted my car would ever be able to seek shelter again with a drill press, table saw, and lathe in the garage.

I watched a few Sawdust Sessions addressing alignment, and based on the numbers Nick was shooting for, made the (correct) assumption that the Shopsmith had the accuracy I needed.

Though I've only started down the road of fine woodworking (I have a year of carpentry shop woodwork under my belt from long ago) my Shopsmith is meeting and exceeding all my expectations. It isn't everything for everyone, but it was the right answer for me.

EDIT: Changed the length of my garage wall from 12" to 12' :-)

I totally agree with your evaluation. Expensive tools were never in my crafters budget. Therefore my low end table saw was portable but less than precise, my belt operated drill press had it's own time consuming set-up problems, and a bit of wiggle. The table mounted bandsaw was worth every penny, and it was really cheap.
One year, at State Fair, as I drooled over the SS, which I had eyed over the years, my loving wife said, go for it...I deserve it...and I do...and I did.
I have never regretted the purchase. The change of configurations, especially with the lift assist, is not a problem. It makes me work more productively as I think out my next move. Besides, in a small shop, with fixed tools, changing tools means moving semi-portable systems out of the way to carry in the next semi-portable system.
Again, you make a good point. Enjoy making sawdust.

There are many of us here that have either had that opinion from the getgo or have come to that opinion over time. The Shopsmith does what most of us really need and the negatives that come with the Shopsmith are few.

It is not all things to all woodworkers but it has proven to be a darn nice tool for me.

Now, if I had a 40' x 40' shop there would be a lot of thinking/debating going on. I would love to have a big table surrounding my Delta Unisaw.

Paul:

I admire you for "hanging in there" in spite of the naysayers. One of the reasons I participate in the Lumberjocks forum is to give those who are just coming into woodworking an opportunity to see a Shopsmith system.

Often I have to explain the difference between "changeover" and "set-up". We here know that changeovers on the Shopsmith seldom take over two minutes, using the 5/32" allen wrench as the only tool.

Last year Sandor Nagyszalanczy wrote an article in Woodworker's Journal on equipping a small shop. He filled what appeared to be 1/2 of a garage with small entry level Asian tools, powered with universal motors, and described each tool's features. I wrote to the magazine and asked why they had not at least mentioned the Shopsmith option. Eventually, Nagyszalanczy answered, saying that he and his peers feel that the Shopsmith changeovers take too much time. I'm absolutely certain that he has never done a Shopsmith changeover. I then went head to head with each tool featured in his article, describing how the Shopsmith and Shopsmith accessories have more features and capacity than any of the tools in his article. I closed by telling him that in a recent poll on the Shopsmith forum, 11% of Shopsmith users work in 100 sq ft or less. I challenged him to get together with his "peers", mark off a 10' x 10' space on the floor, and "put a shop" in there. I've had no response.

A discussion on small shops should make for a long thread on its own. I call my work area The Made in USA (Mostly) Shop and my ShopSmith Mini is the central work tool. My shop area is under a hundred square feet and I find a certain logic in having everything close at hand rather than wandering around looking for it. I'll post some pix soon ...

I have several books on small woodworking shops published by Taunton Press. In one of them Nagyszalanczy recommended a 5 HP two stage cyclone dust collector - for the small shop mind you! He and many of his peers are obviously clueless as to small shop needs.

8iowa wrote:I have several books on small woodworking shops published by Taunton Press. In one of them Nagyszalanczy recommended a 5 HP two stage cyclone dust collector - for the small shop mind you! He and many of his peers are obviously clueless as to small shop needs.

I rather think that their vision of "small" is different than ours. When they close their eyes and think "big", they are probably seeing an empty warehouse.

I have come to the conclusion that most 'detractors' of the shopsmith are parroting someone else and have zero experience with one!

I have at times been disappointed with some attribute/design detail, but I am one of those fanatical shopsmith groupies that are sometimes disparagingly referred to by those same parrots.

The need to 'changeover' is both a burden and a blessing for reasons we all know too well.

Like the old 'saying' says re walking in anothers shoes......

I went with Shopsmiths in my shop "because of" the ability to make special set-ups, not in spite of the change-overs.
I have never changed the blade on my Rigid TS3680 yet but on several of my old table saws changing blades was as much work as changing over to another mode on the Shopsmith. I have no qualms about switching blades on a SS and would be much quicker to switch for example a cross-cut blade for a rip or to a plywood blade etc.. I don't change blades that often but like the ability and I have enough SS arbors that I can leave a variety mounted on their own arbor and change them quite quickly.
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I'll buy the parrot factor... "I don't know but I heard..."
"My wife's uncle's brother's cousin's barber said that he heard somewhere..."
A guy who called himself an "expert" woodworker was teaching a wood class for adults and told my BIL that he could not use a Shopsmith for his work because they were not accurate enough and that he would not recommend that they buy one. Yep... when pressed he had never used one "but had heard"...