shop smiths

My first lathe was a 1953 greenie.

They are light, and the low speed is too fast for a lathe (OK if only working with small spindles or very well balanced bowl blanks, but generally it's too fast) the 5/8 plain spindle size is also a little wimpy. The newer replacement spindles have better bearings. The odd-sized Gilmer belt likes to spew teeth - if you spend a good bit of money you can upgrade the whole drive system to newer quill, and poly-V belt (unless they are out of business again, in which case sourcing the parts will be a pain - I have not kept track of the status, and they go in and out of business semi-regularly.) That money might be better put into a better lathe, if it's lathe you are after.

Still a good drill press, horizontal boring machine, 12" disk sander, 6 x 48 belt sander (accessory).

Rather scary as a table saw, shaper or router. Jointer (accessory) is no gem, either.

I would not suggest getting one as a lathe, particularly - there are better options; still, it beat no lathe at all and got me started. I'd rate it above a Sears monotube, for instance, or the godawful things with stamped sheet metal ways.

just for these above it could be a great buy for a beginner or a small shop for doing little stuff

i have looked at them and felt that i would not use the table saw unless i was just doing small stuff like doll houses or trains maybe

i just take a walk around craigslist once in a while but cannot help noticing that in every locale there is always at least one shopsmith listed

they sold a lot of those

I'm on my 2nd one, this one since 1980... Great when I was living in an apartment and didn't have room for a shop... Learned to turn on it, as well as other woodworking skills...

It's set up now as a drill press and is the best I've ever used...

did you ever have it setup as mentioned by the other poster for sanding

i have my drill press setup like a spindle sander but a combo sander that has a belt and disc would be good and shopsmith usually are priced low

i will have to keep my eyes open for one with the sanding extras

I used to have it set up as a horizontal drill press, with the 12" sanding disk on the rear spindle... Changed to vertical for better centering of my pen blank vise, later...

I also use it for heavy routing...

Hey Mac. Are you still living in the southern state?

i know of a guy that had to do a lot of horizontal boring and he ended up buying a smallish metal lathe to get better results in the wood

forget what he was working but it was not pens

another use case is always good

what is max rpm on these

The 12" disc is standard (if not lost). The optional 6x48 belt has an accessory shaft that you could probably hang a 6" disc off of. The 12" disc in combination with the tablesaw table and being (therefore) mounted on the quill-feed end is very useful.

Max RPM is 5000 stock (10000 on the jointer driveshaft) Min is either

In the later years they made (at times, not always) both a speed doubler and a speed reducer accessory, but they were overpriced and looked flimsy as heck to me - I never tried one.

You are a braver man than I am, Gunga Din.

SI! I guess you could call Baja "Southern"... I think of your neighborhood as Southern, though

How ya been, amigo?