Official Luthiers Forum!

Since I do not keep track of how many new folks come on board, I have annually offered the suggestion of a Shopsmith-even for those who are not space challenged.(Remember Hesh's bathroom? It would not have accomodated a Shopsmith, though.)

Shopsmiths get a bad rap as an unwieldy combination tool with frustrating change- overs. Having 2 of them does reduce changes and my second one is referred to as a "Shorty" in Shopsmith parlance-a bit over one foot shortened tubes and it is the one that stays in vertical configuration(low basement ceiling was the only reason I purchased extra shorty tubes-saved the original full length ones).

A properly setup SS is a very precise machine. Extended quill runout on my two is less than .002 net runout. This precision is not at all unusual. The table saw IS limited by a small surface-there are tricks to make it longer. I leave an Incra Miter Express on my full size unit and as many know, Incra "spells" precision. The Miter Express offers a great sled and safety functions with its generous "T" tracks. I can cut simply dead-on angles all day-changing angles at my whim without error. Blade to table angles are awkward because the table tilts-I acknowledge this is an irritation-in my garage I have a conventional Ridgid 3650 tablesaw with, again, Incra Miter Gauge, and that Ridgid product is often described as closest to cabinetsaw utility in a contractor style saw. Garage is neither cooled nor heated, so one is either dripping from Iowa Summer humidity, or freezing from Iowa Winter.


Because of the unique Shopsmith characteristics, they are often sold locally at crazy cheap prices-usually by heirs who thought Grandpa was nuts anyway.


Find someone local who has one and check it out-think about this-how much would you enjoy having a belt sander whose speed can be controlled infinitely along with hi-torque 1 1/8thHP powerhead to run all of those add-ons.Short of cutting down sheet goods, it does wonders and even today, it has old-fashioned heavyduty construction-commonly called "old arn"(iron)-though in the case of the SS, it is heavyweight aluminum castings and minimal pot metal.Mike T.PS I sneaked in a picture of a Shopsmith Overarm Pin Router-amazing for the money.

I would agree that if someone is looking for an occasional table saw, great drill press, and even lathe that the shopsmith might be the way to go- especially if all you do is guitar work.

I have had one for years - actually bought a new one from a friend who didn't know how to take it out of the box and set it up. $1500 15 years ago which was a steal. Since then I have sold the bandsaw attachment and picked up a separate one, and also purchased a bench mounted drill press.

The jointer is adequate - in fact for work on small objects, it is great. The table saw has enough power to go through any wood. Unfortunately for me, the price has plummeted and I can't even sell it for less than $500. It is a shame, because for a small workshop it can be a great tool - set up time is minimal, and I work slowly anyways.

I do larger things - I am on my second guitar, and will continue to build more as a hobby. I have interests in cabinetry and other areas also, and have found it to be an adequate, but not great tool for that - I run over to the school shop from where I retired if I need a larger jointer. Thus, I would love to sell it and have listed it several times on Craigslist. Until then, I will continue to use it - it is too good of a machine to throw out. I'd say if you were looking for a great tool that could be tucked away in the corner when not needed, now is the time to pick one up - they are a steal.

_________________
Ken Bremer
Madison, Wisconsin
http://www.bremerguitar.blogspot.com

I use mine for drilling and tapping endpin jack holes as it's fairly handy to clamp a body to the table for that purpose.
My primary bandsaw is the one on the Shopsmith. It's surprisingly accurate and the variable speed capability is handy. Does nice job of resawing up to 6" height.
The headstock/power unit alone is quite handy for even little jobs like buffing small parts where again RPM control is nice.
I used the headstock with tailstock and saw table as a thickness sander prior to buying a Delta 18-36. Made a simple drum and wrapped with sandpaper.
The unit can be tilted to the vertical position and used as a pin router with the speeder attachment. I also made a bracket to mount a router motor to the headstock quill for this purpose.
Used to use it for buffing bodies by chucking a long shaft in the Jacobs chuck with an outboard bearing mounted in the tailstock. Again variable speed is great.
Belt sander attachment is great for sharpening scrapers as the speed can be very slow to prevent burning.
The tool is only limited by ones imagination.
Nelson

Edit: Can you build guitars without a Shopsmith. Yup.

I would not say that anything about a Shopsmith is ideal. I bought one many years ago and it was good for two things.... 1) providing the initial push needed to get me into woodworking in the first place and 2) making me truly appreciate hand tools. This is truly a jack-of-all-trades, and master of none. It is a truly awful tablesaw since only a little side-to-side variation in feed can move the table about 1/32 inch in relation to the blade. Everything else it is OK at, but not good.

The only thing I've used it for in the last 2 years is to use the table as a horizontal surface for storing guitar parts. I would list it on the local Craig's list, but there are over 10 of them available locally for under $500. This economy has opened the flood of people wanting to unload their old Shopsmiths. I'm trying to time the local supply of these on Craigs list so that when I put mine on there I might possibly get a bit more.

Fair comment and widely held opinion. Handtools, hmmmmm.

My Shopsmith was build in 57. I got it from the first owner. It has the Gilmer belt and when I bought the first owner has broke the belt and had it rigged with a pully on the outside. I took it apart and put a new belt on it. When the retro kit came out I upgraded my Mark V to a 520.

I would guess I have had it for 30 years and it is still going strong. It has the smaller motor but seems to do OK except for trying to cut something like a 4 inch thick piece of walnut.

The only thing I don't like about it is having to set it up for an operation and then set it up again when I need to do the same operation again later in a project.
Chuck

I wish I had not used the word "ideal." Maybe, "adequate" would have been better. I do have many alternatives as I noted, a few anyway; some are in an inhospitable garage. Having two Shopsmiths makes for much less change-over frustration.

If Todd recalls me well at all, he knows that I go to those handtools for fine work, using power to get to just above "roughed stock." I really use those handplanes-for instance, I shoot tops and backs with a #9 and a shooting board. I use a rabbet/dado plane, vintage Stanley for right hand and Lee Valley/Veritas for my "southpaw disability." The dado plane is my trussrod slot cutter, for example, or I can use my large router plane(Veritas). I hand plane my fretboards-doing the taper and facets for radiusing. I slot on the Shopsmith-the Miter Express is an ideal sled for the StewMac steel fret scale templates-just add the pin(this would be true for any tablesaw). One unique jig I have for my SS-I faced the fence with a sacrificial facing of hardwood. I set it over the saw blade and raised it and then used the quill to bury my blade exactly flush with the face. It gives me a very accurate "jointer" for small stock-e.g.;fine tuning width of brace material; to .001 if I desired.

The major inconvenience of the moving table instead of the saw blade does allow for plunge saw /dado blade use-one has to remember, "down" instead of "up." Maybe as I head downstairs to use mine, I do a "mantra" The darned table adjusts, you idiot"--over and over, once for each step down<G>.

The sad but true selling prices are bad for those looking to dump their SS. I blame no one who ends up disliking the unit. They are affordable ;often a good one for $300. I press frets on mine, but I use a turnbuckle adjusted support leg to prevent downward flex.


One and one eighth HP is nice and torque is present even at low speeds. The Shopsmith is worth a look for space reasons and many tools for the same dollar. It is NOT IDEAL And, Shopsmith's efforts at adding dust control have been hopeless. Enough said on my foolish topic. MT

Not foolish at all, Mike.

Hi Mike,

I'm glad your getting good usage out of your shopsmithees (what is the plural of that one?)

I am quite surprised about this statement though:
"I slot on the Shopsmith-the Miter Express is an ideal sled for the StewMac steel fret scale templates-just add the pin(this would be true for any tablesaw)."

I wonder if I just have a wobbly shopsmith and yours is more stable than mine? Do you maintain a very light touch on the miter sled? I've found that only a little side-to-side pressure variation on the table (via the miter slot) can wobble the table in relationship to the blade by about 1/32". I've never tried slotting on the shopsmith as I don't really trust it to maintain accuracy. I'm using the LMI Manual slotting system to do this by hand as I don't have a real tablesaw.

Comparing the low prices I can get for my used shopsmith against some of the usages you mention, maybe I should put this thing back to work. I never thought of using this with a buffing wheel until you posted this. I see lots of shopsmith parts on ebay, so maybe I'll part out everything I don't use and keep the base unit for buffing and possibly the sanding disc. I have a dedicated bandsaw, drill press, and thickness planer, so that covers most of my machining needs. I could also cut the way tubes down so it occupies less precious floor space.

One funny story... I did try to make a thickness sander for the shopsmith. I used the lathe setup to turn a long block of wood into a 2" round cylinder held between the chuck and the live center and wrapped this with sandpaper. I then leveled the table to the dowel as carefully as I could and lowered the table. First attempt I had the feed direction wrong and fed from the front of the shopsmith turning the object into a missle. Feeding from the backside of the unit worked better, but I found that the very course gearing on the table raise/lower feed, along with the way the table wants to slam down towards earth when you release the lock made fine adjustments for thickness rather hit and miss. I gave up on this and went back to handplanes for small amounts of thicknessing.

Maybe older Shop Smiths are better,but I was NOT impressed to see a table saw blade's arbor held onto the main shaft with one small setscrew. I also do not like the tilting table. I had an old 1930's 8" tilting table saw in 1959. It was not very handy. I also think dangerous. I am in the group that prefers individual machines. Obviously they take more space!

There is no empirical history of the setscrew failing to hold the arbor onto the quill stub. It has a reverse taper cut in the flat so that if a setscrew should be loose, the arbor setscrew would have an uphill climb. But, from my vast stock of hardware left from racing days, I use nylok setscrews in many places on many tools-safety first.

I have not had the sideways table flex-just looking at the SS, I agree, the leverage seems to invite it. Some have successfully made drum sanders, but SS now offers a version of the Sand-Flee. SS also offers twopiece threaded collars that raise a table .008(from memory) per turn-I just marked off a 4 place quadrant on the collar.

The real gripe about SS that is not related to the compromises is that SS has insisted on maintaining an undersized miterslot and, thus 3/4" x 3/8" ("T" or not) industry standard accessories won't work without precision shaving of a miter bar. Incra now makes a SS dedicated miterbar. I had purchased a generic Miter Express for mine and had carefully drawfiled the bar(first I removed the slop take-up discs). I bought 3 SS compliant bars from Incra(Taylor Designs) after they started making SS fit pieces.

The units have their weaknesses but for comfortable inside the house work, they have just happened to work out for me. One was given to me and the other I bought locally for $300-each in pristine condition. I use a Freud Glue Line Rip for everything and get beautiful cuts, rip or crosscut. My dado is a Forrest Dado King and it seems to be happy.


The SS has a cult following, as do Beanie Babies; I am not that smitten. They just work out for my situation-but anyone would be impressed with a quill that extends about 5.5 inches and still maintains nearly zero runout. Let us say that I own everything in a SS freestanding(except horizontal boring on a largish scale) but not all in the comfort of my basement. MT

On the Sawmill Creek Forum,in the classified section,there is a brand new jointer for a Shop Smith for $115.00.

I just think it's easier having individual tools then having to set up the different modes on the shopsmith.