Shopsmith Forums

I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting to read a detailed user's report on the PowerPro. I have read a few comments here and there (most all of them favorable) but I am yet to see a detailed review.

I guess that I will just have to make this decision based on my own gut feelings even though I have good reason to believe that this forum is made up of at least twenty three new PowerPro owners. I've been keeping track as best I could!

Oh well.

I had not given it much thought lately but you are right, information has been quite skimpy... I hope that does not indicate any level of disappointment.
A half dozen reviews just might do SS a lot of good (I hope).

Dusty:

Here in Gainesville, my son, son-in-law, and I, now have Power Pro's. This upgrade has been getting good use on Christmas projects. I have used the saw with jointer attached for curly maple, and white pine. The combination, crosscut, and rip blades have been used with excellent results - no burn marks at 3450 rpm. I have also cut a lot of 3/4" plywood with an 80T plywood blade giving some of the cleanest cuts I've ever seen in plywood. I've also used the disk sander, and the Shopsmith has seen a fair amount of vertical drilling with up to 3/4" brad point bits.

With the headstock now 17 lbs heavier, I'm "setting up" the table and drill chuck while horzontal. With the old headstock I used to "put my shoulder" in to it to adjust the height of the headstock. I'm now using Nick's old tip of putting a small bottle jack on the carriage to adjust the height. I'm finding the old lift assist is satisfactory for my use, so I have not purchased the new and stronger lift tube. Others who have back and shoulder problems might want to consider the new lift.

My son-in-law has also been cutting plywood and has used his Shopsmith in lathe mode. He reported some "rotational noise" when using his bandsaw, and may have to call Wes to adjust the settings. We have PowerPros from the first shipment, and I believe that Wes has assisted most of these owners in changing the settings in the controller. I have a power station for my bandsaw so I do not have experience with it on the Power Pro.

I'm impressed with how quiet and smooth the DVR motor performs. I'm also surprised at how quickly I have "adapted" to the new control panel. It is very easy to use. Initally, I used the Power Pro on 120V, but have now installed a 240V line with a 15 amp recepticle. The plug configuration is different, eliminating the possibility of accidently plugging in a 120V tool.

I'm still a happy PowerPro owner.

I generally don't fill out Owner Reviews attached to catalog pages (Amazon, Shopsmith, etc.). Call me a hypocrite since I've had a lot of forum dialogues nonetheless.

Having used the PowerPro for over 3 months, I don't foresee ever returning to the classic Reeves-drive powerplant as my main machine. The PowerPro is a very refined machine. Particularly I like the self-correcting high power for table-sawing, and the very relaxed lathe-turning environment. (The old machine even at low-speed light tasks always has the clatter of the sheaves, etc.)

As an electrical engineer I do speculate that the overall speed control feedback loop system could be optimized slightly better in the algorithms. It seems they have chosen one set of (best-compromised) feedback coefficients to serve from 250 to 10000 rpm, regardless of the rotational inertia of the load. As was reported on the forum many times, if the coefficients were mis-programmed any different from this, then the disk-sander was an unstable load. I am only guessing but I could see in the future they might add another setting or something to better deal with such divergent load extremes.

I really like my PowerPro but I'm not on any campaign to convince others to do the same. It was expensive, but it suits me fine. From what I gather, the various sentiments vented on this forum are only seen by a small percentage of Shopsmith's customer base.

Dusty,

Sorry a detailed review really needs a side by side comparison, something my laundry room won't support, and a lot of time, which my schedule won't support. I think most people are still adapting and enjoying the new machine, likely you will have to get this information in bits and pieces as people report on their projects. In this case "no news is good news", as I'm sure you would hear about it if people were unhappy with the upgrade.

I have put the bulk of my time on the machine only in these past couple weeks. (See my new avatar) Like oithers I am pleased with the quiet, smooth power. My dust collector drowns out the motor noise. Something I think my wife appreciates. I really like being able to reverse the rotation for sharpening on the strip sander and like the way the control panel works. A built in speed chart may seem a little silly but has been quite handy.

I'm not sure how much benefit there is in the table saw or when using the jointer but suspect the smooth power may be significant contributor to my improved bandsaw results. (I have made other upgrades to the bandsaw as well though.) I expect the upgrade to be an enhancement when turning but have to wait for better weather before putting this to the test. I tried turning in the laundry room once, that was enough.

Troy

dusty wrote:I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting to read a detailed user's report on the PowerPro. I have read a few comments here and there (most all of them favorable) but I am yet to see a detailed review.

I guess that I will just have to make this decision based on my own gut feelings even though I have good reason to believe that this forum is made up of at least twenty three new PowerPro owners. I've been keeping track as best I could!

Oh well.

Dusty
I don't think there is much they can say. They now have adjustable speed control. However they had that before. I guess if you turn huge stock or drill huge holes with a forsner bit and didn't have a speed reducer then you gained that option. Or if you routed on SS and didn't have the patience to feed the stock slow enough then you have that option but other than that what did is left to say. You can adjust the speed which is what you could do before.

If my headstock was coming apart and if SS or Bill Mayo didn't have the repair parts and the prices was something less than outrageous I would consider the Power Pro. But as it stands now. I can turn the speed control dial and use $1500+ on other toys (tools), stock or if the cost keeps going up prescription drugs.

Dusty:

I neglected to mention that we, (son, son-in-law, and I) all chose the DIY upgrade option. The DVD made by Jim McCann and the instruction manual made this a straight forward task, which took about 4 hours or so, just as advertised. Everything is included with the pkg, the templates, drilling guide, drills, the countersink for the motor mount holes, new labels, and a new switch.

Everything is removed from the old headstock except the quill feed assembly. The headlock rod and wedges are removed, and then re-installed later in the process. These are the only original internal parts used. While I had the chance, I carefully filed the flats on the wedges to remove the slight indentation that accumulates over time.

I carefully removed the old labels with a blade from a Stanley knife, and then cleaned up the headstock and repainted it while the opportunity presented itself. The factory doesn't do this if you send your old headstock to them for the upgrade.

Ed:

I love the old headstock, and will still have one that will remain "as is". The Power Pro however, removes most of the old arguments that the Shopsmith is a weak saw. (tilting table not-with-standing) With the Power Pro the Shopsmith is now squarely in the class of cabinet saws as regards to power and cutting capacity. One would have to go to a 5HP 12" cabinet saw in order to beat it. I'm looking at 8" dado sets as I now have the the necessary torque.

The increased power and torque will also translate well to routing and shaping, and once Shopsmith releases the "double tilting" frame upgrade, R & S will be further enhanced. I don't do a whole lot of lathe work, but I do like the reversing ability for sanding. This helps to direct the sanding dust directly into the dust collector scoop, instead of in the opposite direction. You know, I can't say exactly why, but vertical drilling is improved. Smoothness is certainly a part of it, but perhaps because the headstock is so near to your ears in vertical mode, the quietness is really nice.

I can certainly understand the economic considerations. We can be glad however that Shopsmith has done something to grab a little attention in the industry.

8iowa wrote:Ed:

I love the old headstock, and will still have one that will remain "as is". The Power Pro however, removes most of the old arguments that the Shopsmith is a weak saw. (tilting table not-with-standing) With the Power Pro the Shopsmith is now squarely in the class of cabinet saws as regards to power and cutting capacity. One would have to go to a 5HP 12" cabinet saw in order to beat it. I'm looking at 8" dado sets as I now have the the necessary torque.

The increased power and torque will also translate well to routing and shaping, and once Shopsmith releases the "double tilting" frame upgrade, R & S will be further enhanced. I don't do a whole lot of lathe work, but I do like the reversing ability for sanding. This helps to direct the sanding dust directly into the dust collector scoop, instead of in the opposite direction. You know, I can't say exactly why, but vertical drilling is improved. Smoothness is certainly a part of it, but perhaps because the headstock is so near to your ears in vertical mode, the quietness is really nice.

I can certainly understand the economic considerations. We can be glad however that Shopsmith has done something to grab a little attention in the industry.

8Iowa
I never had a problem with power or speed. I often use a 5 hp unisaw and go right back to my SS with no problem and any notice of power difference. I feed my saw by sound and I guess I just slow down and don't even realize it.

As far as router speed, I do plenty of routing on my SS. In fact my Avatar was made on the SS I had to rout parallel dovetail grooves in both Walnut and Hickory. My SS was more than up to it, again I feed by sound and I never notice a difference in feed rate.

Every need to turn something backwards was easily accomplished by moving to the aux spindles.

To me $1500+ is a tremendous amount of money to accomplish what a stock SS already does.

I guess the real benefit for me is a reliability while I never have had a failure the standard SS speed control looks to me as something waiting to break.

I can't tell you how many times I have had the something catch and jam the quill to a stop. Each time I quickly turn off the machine, release the quill and sheepishly turn the machine back on thinking this is the time I messed it up. Only to find the SS came through the disaster unharmed.

As far as SS doing something to put it in the news I wonder how the average guy on the street views a Shopsmith with a $4000 price tag. Especially when he can buy a really nice table saw for less than $800. My guess if they have managed to price out the complete Mark 5 Pro for $2000 +or- a few hundred you would have heard some real rumblings. As it is priced now I suspect is all we will hear is a yawn or two.

My goodness Ed. Are we actually disagreeing on something.............again?

Nah................we're such old buddies that could never happen.

Hey All,

Got my PPro upgrade today and unboxed it. I am watching the included video and they talk about refinishing the headstock before putting back together. My grey paint on the headstock is original w/almost no scratches. Is there a togh satin clearcoat I could put on the headstock rather than repaint with grey? Don't want to wait for grey paint from Shopsmith.

Thanks
Jack