Shopsmith Forums

When I was looking for a Shopsmith to buy on Kijiji I noticed that this guy had one for sale that clearly had been modified. This unit had Pulleys and a belt on both accessory outputs on the left side of the headstock. The bottom pulley obviously driving the top one. The internal belt that drives the quill (serpentine belt) must have been removed. I was thinking that this would be a good way of slowing down the speed for wood turning. Perhaps this is old news, but I thought that it was interesting because I read a lot of complaints that the Shopsmith is too fast for turning some items. I am going to try to attach a photo to make this more clear.

owenbrent wrote:When I was looking for a Shopsmith to buy on Kijiji I noticed that this guy had one for sale that clearly had been modified. This unit had Pulleys and a belt on both accessory outputs on the left side of the headstock. The bottom pulley obviously driving the top one. The internal belt that drives the quill (serpentine belt) must have been removed. I was thinking that this would be a good way of slowing down the speed for wood turning. Perhaps this is old news, but I thought that it was interesting because I read a lot of complaints that the Shopsmith is too fast for turning some items. I am going to try to attach a photo to make this more clear.

I find that interesting because I have been thinking of doing exactly that but going the other way to make a unit that would run faster for shaper / router work. Maybe even cone pulleys. Possibly a spring loaded idler to make belt changes easier. This would be a dedicated unit using some of my "stash" of extra units. Lots of possibilities. For my purpose I might mount it permanently vertical on a wall instead of on a base.

This is what I called the "Poor Man's Speed Reducer" that I used for many years. I could get the quill speed down to around 200 RPM with this setup. I removed the upper Gilmer belt on the headstock that I used. I added a very short stub shaft with a 4 slot hub to the upper pulley hub. My upper pulley (9or10" I believe) was much larger than the one on this Shopsmith. I used a link belt on this setup. I used this to drive the bandsaw when cutting metal. I never made a belt cover which is needed for this setup.

owenbrent wrote:When I was looking for a Shopsmith to buy on Kijiji I noticed that this guy had one for sale that clearly had been modified. This unit had Pulleys and a belt on both accessory outputs on the left side of the headstock. The bottom pulley obviously driving the top one. The internal belt that drives the quill (serpentine belt) must have been removed. I was thinking that this would be a good way of slowing down the speed for wood turning. Perhaps this is old news, but I thought that it was interesting because I read a lot of complaints that the Shopsmith is too fast for turning some items. I am going to try to attach a photo to make this more clear.

I may have found a use for the extra greene headstock that I have. Many possibilities.