Menards Shopsmith Clone

Has anyone heard of a Shopsmith clone bearing the name "Menards P. H. D."? My Dad jus bought one at an auction and it needs a top belt. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks, John Hartmus II E-Mail snipped-for-privacy@bright.net

Reply to
John Hartmus II
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I have one. Menards is a Home Depot type place with generally lower prices. There's a chain of them in the upper midwest including Wausa WI where my parents live, but they have an even better home supply store there called Fleet Farm - generally outstanding prices, best I have seen anywhere. You find the Fleet Farm stores in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Wish we had them here in Colorado. I keep a shopping list for whenever I visit up there.

But I digress. As you said, the Menards tool is a shopsmith clone made in Taiwan. Shopsmith parts are interchangeable in my experience. I haven't noticed them in the Menards stores for a while, don't know if they are available anymore. I haven't had the cover off mine for a long time but I think the belt is a standard v-belt and you can get one anywhere.

As a multi-purpose tool, the Menards clone isn't as high quality as a geniune Shopsmith, as you might expect, but it was only 1/3 the price when I bought mine. The saw table is small enough to be awkward for a lot of things, I replaced the poor rip fence with one from Shopsmith, it makes a good variable speed drill press and horizontal boring machine, I love the big sanding disk and 6x48 belt sander attachment I got for mine. As a wood lathe, it is AWFUL. Don't even bother trying it, you'll just be frustrated. Even the small Jet and Delta lathes are light years ahead of it.

If I can be of any help, send me an email: snipped-for-privacy@nyx.net

-mike paulson, fort collins, co

Reply to
Mike Paulson

If it's a faithful clone, which it might not be, the upper belt is either a Gilmer toothed belt (older) or poly-V (like newer car belts - many small Vs in parallel).

On my genuine older model Shopsmith, I eventually bit the bullet and upgraded the other components to the newer style upper belt. I'm still considering getting rid of the Reeves drive on the lower end and putting in a VS DC motor, which would answer my main answerable complaint about it as a lathe - too darn fast on the slow setting. That might also make it a lot quieter. The non-answerable complaint about it as a lathe is the teeny tiny 5/8" spindle. Despite both of these complaints, I've done a lot of work with the old thing, and it was a whole lot better than no lathe at all, which is what I had before Granddad gave it to me circa

1976 (he bought it new in 1954 or 55).
Reply to
Ecnerwal

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