Shopsmith Forums

I have one of these old OPRs I want to bring back to life. I was able to find every piece I need & with Linda's help except for a piece called the Brass Gib, p/n 513197. Can anyone out there tell the purpose of that piece. Mine falls out which I think is normal. But I was having problems raising and lowering the overhead assembly and thought it might be the brass part. Any one have one they don't need?

Today I ordered the missing pins, inserts and some feather boards. Back 2009, Shopsmith had a special on the table for $75 or so to get rid of them. I bought one as I noticed the one that came with my OPR had many tiny cracks. I'm not sure how it was treated before coming "home." <smile>

I'll keep my open for a Pro Fence & table upgrade & fence as it would look good on the end of my 520- soon to be MArk VII. So would the Incra system. I saw one of those went on Ebay a while back & missed it. Oh well. There is still time, but I honestly need to get to seriously using the system and will have my chance next week I hope when I make extension jams for all our new windows.

Unfortunately I don't have a spare gib. Once I got mine adjusted up in my OPR, it stayed in place and I avoid taking it out. I can't recall if it has holes or dimples, or if it's just a flat piece of brass with a parallelogram cross-section. Anyway, I've seen the term "gib" also applied to metalworking machines. The gibs allow sliding-dovetail members to be adjusted for very little play and low friction.

I have and use one of the older models.

It seems strange as I believe the new OPR uses/reuses most of the head portion so they should have parts for that, that will fit.

The gib is used to adjust the up/down control and you need to follow the directions for adjustment to have it working right. About the only thing that can go bad is excessive wear and what is called galling.

You need to adjust the gibs if the motor does NOT hold position after the control depth handle is released. You at the least should clean it up and inspect for galling, repair as needed then re-lubricate (light machine oil and graphite).

One issue I was never able to solve was what guide bushings were to be use with this. I have tried several but none fit??? I went ahead and modified one of the pin inserts plastic parts to take one of the more standard ones.

I keep a Hitachi M12V permanently mounted in the over arm and have a base attached to the table for another M12V, which is mostly left in place.

I have a collection of photos at:

http://s589.photobucket.com/albums/ss335/reible1/Shopsmith%20Over%20Arm%20Router/

If I recall there are 30+ pictures there.

You might also search this forum for post on OPR, overarm, router tables, or any other relevant subject. I must have 20-30 posts along and by the time you add it what others have contributed it must be in the 100's

Ed

backhertz wrote:I have one of these old OPRs I want to bring back to life. I was able to find every piece I need & with Linda's help except for a piece called the Brass Gib, p/n 513197. Can anyone out there tell the purpose of that piece. Mine falls out which I think is normal. But I was having problems raising and lowering the overhead assembly and thought it might be the brass part. Any one have one they don't need?

Today I ordered the missing pins, inserts and some feather boards. Back 2009, Shopsmith had a special on the table for $75 or so to get rid of them. I bought one as I noticed the one that came with my OPR had many tiny cracks. I'm not sure how it was treated before coming "home." <smile>

I'll keep my open for a Pro Fence & table upgrade & fence as it would look good on the end of my 520- soon to be MArk VII. So would the Incra system. I saw one of those went on Ebay a while back & missed it. Oh well. There is still time, but I honestly need to get to seriously using the system and will have my chance next week I hope when I make extension jams for all our new windows.

Some years ago, I bought a bunch of Shopsmith stuff from a guy in Nevada, Bob Fulwider who used to be a Shopsmith rebuilder and perhaps more. I believe he passed away as I never heard back from him. Some of you old timers out there in Shopsmith land might have known him as I think he told me he worked for Magna on the original Shopsmiths.

He had a lot of stuff he was selling off. He kept trying to sell me a Mark VII with all the accessories and extra parts, but it would cost a fortune to ship. One of the things I did buy from him was an OPR Shopsmith video. I just watched it and I can see the OPR I have with the laminate top is nothing like the original which was simply an overhead pin router with no option for under table router mounting.

This video is dated 1987 and Casey Chaffin was the Shopsmith instructor. It is a about 30-45 minutes long and quite informative.

Back then the OPR table simply had one or two pins as far as I could see. There was a dado for the miter gauge to slide in which was he used in one operation.

It looks like this OPR has gone through a number of modifications since it was first introduced. It looks like I could use two routers in my modified table OPR which will also take an under table router. But I now can see why Bob told me the OPR was one of Shopsmith's best creations.

Tony

backhertz wrote:Some years ago, I bought a bunch of Shopsmith stuff from a guy in Nevada, Bob Fulwider who used to be a Shopsmith rebuilder and perhaps more. I believe he passed away as I never heard back from him. Some of you old timers out there in Shopsmith land might have known him as I think he told me he worked for Magna on the original Shopsmiths.

He had a lot of stuff he was selling off. He kept trying to sell me a Mark VII with all the accessories and extra parts, but it would cost a fortune to ship. One of the things I did buy from him was an OPR Shopsmith video. I just watched it and I can see the OPR I have with the laminate top is nothing like the original which was simply an overhead pin router with no option for under table router mounting.

This video is dated 1987 and Casey Chaffin was the Shopsmith instructor. It is a about 30-45 minutes long and quite informative.

Back then the OPR table simply had one or two pins as far as I could see. There was a dado for the miter gauge to slide in which was he used in one operation.

It looks like this OPR has gone through a number of modifications since it was first introduced. It looks like I could use two routers in my modified table OPR which will also take an under table router. But I now can see why Bob told me the OPR was one of Shopsmith's best creations.

Tony

There are three 'versions' of the OPR that I have seen manuals for:

The first two versions had a single post mounting system. The idea was that you could mount it to your drill press (non-shopsmith) post and use it there. If you used it standalone then you could buy a basic mounting base where you just added pins to your own top.

The later version of the same one was updated to use a fancy router table top that allowed you to have a router plate insert in it. That way you could do over and under table routing.

The third version is the current one which mounts on shopsmith way tubes.

Damagi, I tried sending you an email & got back a invalid email address error message. Is it working?

Tony

backhertz wrote:Damagi, I tried sending you an email & got back a invalid email address error message. Is it working?

Tony

try again - double check your spelling, should work fine.