Shopsmith Forums

I recently got a 3/8" mortising chisel for the SS but found that I am missing a crucial part of the equation. That would be the metal tube that sits inside the mortising jig for lack of a better term that mounts to the headstock. Does anybody possibly have one of these hanging around that they wouldn't mind donating? I have a bunch of doubles of things and would be glad to make a trade for this little gem so that i can try out the mortising abilities of my little Mark V. I have read some not too encouraging things on another woodworking site about the Mark V not being very adept at mortising. They mentioned something about the quill not having a sufficient amount of oomph to pressure the mortising chisel through the material. They did not reference the wood they were speaking of but I would think that this is just someone poopoo-ing our little machine but maybe there is some truth don't now as i cannot try it BOOHOO!

The square chisel needs to be sharp. You can hone the outside on a fine stone and Shopsmith sells stones for sharpening the inside of the chisel, but I've used a small conical stone in a Dremel and that works well.

There is too much flexing in the table generally for using the mortising attachment, but if you put a piece of 4x4 (or 2x4) from the floor to the bottom of the table/insert it will be solid enough to mortise.

Can't help on the missing sleeve.