Sleepy musings about scroll chucks and ShopSmiths. (long)

...and the low speed is too high for anything remotely large. The comparison also fails for single-purpose lathes of a vintage equal to or predating the SS. Ruth's Sears monotube came later.

None-the-less, I have two, and am doing some turning on one of them. I taught myself to turn on the thing, albeit with the help of 100lb bags of chicken feed at times (firewood is not in balance to start with, and the low speed is 700 rpm). At the moment, the advantage of being single-man-portable (due to the fluffy weight) makes it more usable for what I'm doing than my more monstrous lathes. When the tediously slow "real shop" is done, the real lathes will win every time, though they be from the 1880's (which at least one is).

I am bastardizing one of the Shopsmiths. Both are 1953 Mark V greenies - the un-bastardized and now slightly upgraded (poly-V, dual bearing quill) one was bought new by my late grandfather.

The other came with a severe hack job done to replace the Gilmer belt with an external V belt - but only set me back $165. I got a used poly-V quill set for it and am going to run that from a DC treadmill motor, so as to get rid of the quaint (and loud) but much beloved by some Reeves drive, and get a low speed below 700 without a wobbly kludged "speed reducer) that would cost more than I paid for the whole machine. Of course, I could restore it to factory (or upgraded) specs, but the cost is prohibitive and a foolish expense, given what one can find used.

I don't have a chuck for the SS. I use various wooden mounts. I might eventually (metal lathe) make a stub with 1"-8 threads on the outside and 5/8 plain on the inside to permit using the lever scroll chuck I have for two other lathes, but can't see spending money on an adapter to fit the SS.

They do make an excellent variable speed place to mount a Beall Buff. And much though I despise it, I've actually used the tablesaw function recently (again, "real" one parked while shop slowly progresses.)

"Ecnerwal" wrote: (clip) And much though I despise it, I've actually used the tablesaw function

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ One of the table saw "features" to be despised is that it's a tilting table--not a tilting arbor. This means that if you are cutting a bevel, the outboard support surfaces are no available. Blech. The sanding disk can be mounted on the quill feed. so you can dress pieces to exact length and squareness (or angle.) This is the one wonderful feature. A cabinet shop guy told me he keeps a SS so it can act as a backup to each of the other tools. If he has another tool set up for a particular job, he doesn't have to disturb the settings, or wait until the job is done--he goes to the Shopsmith.

From my experience (never had any with the Shopsmith), most tools that are multi-functional usually sacrifice something in order to provide you the ability to do other things (Leo's example of the tilting table rather than tilting arbor). Personally, I've looked at and considered purchasing a Shopsmith on several occassions. To the trained user (usually the guy selling the piece) that look amazing and work wonderfully, but too often they fall short of what others expect because they've been accustomed to using a tool that is built for one soul purpose (drilling, sawing, sanding, etc). I've decided my money is better spent purchasing a tool that serves the purpose of performing one task and performing it well. Sure, if I find a shopsmith at an unbelievable price, I might be persuaded to make the purchase, but as long as the shop has space (and the wife permits) I'll purchase dedicated tools. Next on the list would be a better dust collector (or at least the components to build my own) and a better drill press (better than the $89 special that I picked up at the local big store).

JD (Kentucky)

Arch... I turned on a SS for almost 20 years, and it did the job... Since it came with lathe chisels when I bought it, I learned to turn and did several projects on it.. Also, it was all I had or knew about... It was noisy, low speed was WAY too fast, and it does a great job of spinning the electric meter..

About 5 years ago my wife got me a Jet Mini, and my turning life changed.. Who knew that something so small, quiet and inexpensive could possibly be such a great lathe?

mac

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Using the quill for the sanding disk can be useful, but since most of my sanding of that type isn't precision, I prefer to have the disk on the rear shaft, available all the time.. The SS is in the carport, pretty much permanently set up as a horizontal drill press with the table at a 90 degree angle to the rails and my pen drilling vise attached to the table.. I've never used a better drill press and seldom used a worse saw.. lol

Oh.. It's also a kick-ass router when I have a project that needs 1/2" shaft bits and a fence..

mac

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"JD snipped-for-privacy@wku.edu" wrote: (clip) To the trained user (usually the guy

The guy selling the piece is not only trained, he is scripted. You don't imagine he would look so smooth and efficient doing a random job that requires frequent changes in the setup.

Years ago, when Garrett Wade was a great catalog, they were pushing the Inca tabalesaw that also had this feature. The claim was that it was "more accurate". Well, this saw is no longer being made, and just googling today on this topic - I now see the tilting tabletop design is illegal in Europe.

Perhaps this conincided with the decline in Garrett Wade - where I purchased my "Bob Stockdale" signature bowl gouge.

Which is where the cheap, used Shopsmith will fit right into your plans. They make a good drillpress (horizontal or vertical as you please) if and only if bought for sane amounts of money, used. If you keep an eye on the classifieds, sanely priced (and insanely priced) used ones show up on a regular basis in most areas. Disc sanding also good, 6x48 belt sander (if included) good, and a good buffer platform, as I said. I don't like it as a router, personally. I never found a router I did like until I got a PC690, but YMMV.

The multi-function aspect is only of value when space is tight - They will fit into a space about 2x5x4, depending on accessories. The accessory tools are good if they come with your reasonably priced used machine, too expensive new. The tilting table is only one of the evils of the tablesaw setup - but it works very nicely with that disc sander. And it beats no tablesaw at all, albeit just barely.

Changing over can be fast or slow, depending on how well you keep things organized, but is certainly inferior to walking to a pre-set machine - which at least partially explains the purchase of my second one, where the price was low partly because it was kludged, but I'm familiar with the inner workings and felt I could get past the kludge at a reasonable outcome - and only use it in the end for the things it's good at. The basic machine holds up very well, and parts availability for the Mark V is excellent (10ER is a very different ball of wax). The fundamental parts are the same from 1953-present, with some minor variations, but parts to fit can be obtained, and new-type groups of parts can be substituted in functional groups, if desired. They also hold up quite well, so parts are rarely needed.

As for the "demonstrators", they are better classed as performing artists than as trained users. They are working with a very carefully organized layout, and a just as carefully organized and scripted project, which they build every week (or however often) - the bugs have all been worked out and the scripted steps arranged by a marketing staff that's trying to impress you. Even in a well-organized home shop, there will be a step you didn't think of that requires changing over yet again

- in the demos, that would happen during rehearsals with no audience, and the script would be changed so it fit in at the appropriate stage so that everything went smoothly.