Shopsmith Forums

I inherited a Mark V 500 from the late 50's from a friend. After a week of setup, oiling and learning I was almost ready to rumble but then tried to adjust the poly-v belt tension and everything went totally downhill.

After turning the eccentric bushing clockwise a bit it accidently slipped into the headstock...and in fixing it I somehow screwed up alignment of things and when I tried to turn the machine on later it was tripping the breaker...I opened the machine again and noticed the poly-v belt crushed against the inner wall of the headstock case and the idler shaft wasn't really horizontal anymore. So, I took everything apart in a panic and spent the rest of the weekend learning about the headstock by deduction and reading online in an attempt to put it back together.

My question is, does anyone have a PDF set of reassembly instructions for the Mark V 500 that can be e-mailed so that I know how to align the idler shaft, control sheaves, eccentric bushing and belts as I re-install the speed control assembly, and how exactly the speed control assembly is installed again? I did call the factory today and instructions are being mailed by snail mail, but I have all day tomorrow to work on it and won't have the instructions in time.

I thought I had it, but the only way I can get the speed control assembly hooked onto the floating control sheave is to pin the poly-v belt against the inner wall of the headstock, put the floating sheave on all the way and set the speed control dial to "full fast". But that doesn't make sense to me...is the idler shaft supposed to float in and out of the eccentric bushing or am I supposed to tighten the hex bolt so that the idler shaft is fixed in place? I can't see how it all works together because I just didn't study enough while running because I had just got it.

Thanks if anyone can quickly tell me how to align everything for reassembly. I will also wait for the factory manual and fix it when I can if I need to...

By the way, I haven't used it yet but this machine seems VERY well-designed. I'm having problems but already see that this will be my favorite tool for a long, long time.

Glynn Bebee
glynnbebee@tdarchitects.com

here is a link to a shopmith video on replacing and tensioning a poly v-belt. hope this will help. bob

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/Sawdust ... cing_belts

This site gets you to 25 PDF maintenance procedures which covers almost any Shopsmith repair:

http://www.allinonewood.com/?page=shop/serviceadvisor

This is Canada's Shopsmith site. I have copied all 25 procedures to disk as I do not know how long these procedures will remain available. I would recommend the same.

Bill Mayo http://www.billstoolz.com

bettyt44720 wrote:here is a link to a shopmith video on replacing and tensioning a poly v-belt. hope this will help. bob

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/Sawdust ... cing_belts

Thank you Bill,

I just copied all 25 myself.

Glynnbebee,

I would suggest that video Nick and I did on the belt replacement. However, I do understand the value of having a piece of paper with a plan in hand. I will try to dig one up when i get into Shopsmith this morning.

Be good,

Drew

Everyone,

Thank you very much. I have the headstock back together and have started cutting. Though my mishap set me back a few days I at least have now rebuilt my shopsmith and understand it much better than before.

Thanks again for the information. I had a "snow day" here in Western NY and it was the perfect chance for me to spend the day fixing the machine.

Congratulations on your recent accomplishment. You should be proud.

I have mixed emotions. I have had my Shopsmith for twenty two years and I have yet to rebuild my headstock. That says a lot for the quality and reliability of the Shopsmith but it leaves me wondering how well I will recover when/if I have a headstock crash.

I am breaking-in SHMBO to the idea that I need to purchase a spare headstock to rebuild. It would be a learning experience, a spare and an asset.

Welcome to the forum. I believe you will find this to be a great bunch of folks who are always available to offer assistance and to share their knowledge and opinions. Some of the opinions you may take for your own while others you will quickly discard.