Official Luthiers Forum!

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/index.htm
Wondering if any of you guys have tried this?

I have two working SS, in fine condition and I have many of the accessories. As much as I like SS, the price is just too high for this update. It makes great sense-of course it also abandons the mechanism that made SS special in the first place, next to reasonable (not perfect, but acceptable) change-overs. The unit costs twice as much as the 1994 4WD S-10 I drive(fair market value). So, I'm out -probably even if I hit the Powerball.

Yeah, I was afraid to look at the price and, sure enough, it's more that I paid for the entire Shopsmith 15 or 20 years ago.
I do like the idea of variable speed (200 to 10K RPM) and reversing and also the soft start feature.
Wish there was a way to accomplish this at much less expense.
I'm not a diehard Shopsmith user, but do use it for some specialized operations.

edit: http://www.anaconsystems.com/data/opti_e2.pdf
http://www.anaconsystems.com/text/opti_e2.html

Looks like this drive would run about 1/3 the cost of the Shopsmith upgrade. I'm not sure, however, whether the Shopsmith MarkV motor fits this category: "Designed to be cost effective and easy to use, the Optidrive E2 Single Phase is for use with PSC (Permanent Split Capacitor) or Shaded-Pole Single-Phase induction motors."

Does anyone know what type of motor the SS MarkV uses?

Thanks
Nelson

I only use my Shopsmith as a drill press - vertical & horizontal.

Not sure what you use yours for, but any piece of machinery with a 3-phase motor can be made variable speed/reversible by adding a VFD (variable frequency drive). VFD's are also nice because some will generate 3-phase output from single phase input. Besides adding reversible, variable speed control, they also offer soft start & electronic breaking. 3-Phase motors are usually cheap on the used market & they are much simpler & last longer than single phase motors.

If you're interested, go to factorymation.com and look at AC drives. They offer technical support before & after the sale. Can't say enough good things about them. I've bought 3 VFD's from them so far.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Kevin, I'm a fan of VFD's also as well as DC (VSR) drives and use several in my shop.
I do horizontal drilling and tapping on the Shopsmith where it would be usefull to have variable-speed/reversing capability.

The VFD's for single phase motors are about double the price of those for three phase motors and I don't believe they have reversing capability.
That could probably be overcome, however, with a seperate reversing switch.

Shopsmiths single phase motor would be difficult to replace due to the confines of the headstock.
Mr. Shopsmith is no dummy when it comes to keeping things proprietary.

I won't be upgrading the SS to their VSR any time soon due to the $1500 or so but thought it was interesting that SS saw fit to offer it.

Nelson