Apr-12-2015: After building my military shadow box with a friend of mine and using his Shopsmith for a few parts of the project, I decided that I wanted one for myself so I picked up a 1958 Shopsmith Mark V and am in the middle of restoring it. The motor when I got it would barely turn and now it runs like a champ (amazing what blowing out 57 years of sawdust can do!). I replaced the original v-belt and three of the four bearings; as soon as the gilmer belt arrives I can start putting the headstock back together. I have about a third of the parts painted and I will soon start removing the rust from the lower tubes. As soon as I get some pictures downloaded from my phone I will upload them.
Apr-30-2015: It's been a little over two weeks since I posted anything about my Shopsmith restoration and I can honestly say I am nearing the home stretch. While reassembling the headstock I found a crack in the control sheave so once that arrives I can finally get the headstock back together. I happened to come across a Magna Bandsaw which is in pretty good condition for a 1956 but it still needs some TLC. I just ordered some blue urethane tires for it today which ought to quite things down since it is only running on one tire right now. I also started tearing down the Magna Jointer; lots of surface rust and I'm sure the bearings are shot since they are covered in sawdust that looks like its wicked all of the lubricant out of the bearings.
Jake,
I applaud your work to bring this venerable SS back to life.
I've been using my own SS for many years and have kept it up with new parts when they were needed. The one thing I found about the motor was the centrifugal start switch on the end of the motor. If dust gets caked between the points the motor won't start up right. Knowing this has helped me to keep the original going all these years.
I replaced the bandsaw with a stand-alone Grizzly because I didn't care for the lack of adjustments on the SS accessory bandsaw.
Hardly a day in the shop goes by without using the SS at least once and usually several times because I keep it set up as a sanding center. I have the 12" disc and the 6Ă—48 belt sander.
Don
May 3, 2015 - What a roller coaster weekend of emotions; I walked out to the garage Saturday morning to continue the restoration of the Magna Jointer when I decided that my bench needed to be cleaned off in order to continue. While I was cleaning up my wife came out to the garage with a package that came in the mail; my rebuilt control sheave! I stopped what I was doing and started putting the headstock back together. A couple of youtube videos later I plugged it in, flipped the switch, and nothing happened. The motor just kind of stuttered but never fully turned on… I rechecked my wiring, made sure I hadn't over-tightened anything, and flipped the switch again…nothing. So I took the motor back out of the headstock and started troubleshooting it. I opened up the relay, cleaned the contacts, ops checked it and the relay worked like a champ. The next thing I checked was the capacitor and it zeroed out with the ohmmeter so I knew it was good to go. That left the motor, the one I had said before "ran like a champ"...I took it apart and blew even more dust out of it and found out that I have a couple of bearings that should probably be replaced since I'm in it this far (I'll take care of that Monday). I put the motor back together and wired everything up again only to flip the switch and hear the motor hum (not in a good way). Now the motor just sits there, it doesn't even turn! Needless to say I am going to stop by the local electric motor repair shop and have the experts take a look; hopefully the motor does not need to be rewound but after this weekend that will probably be the case. Hopefully there will be some good news tomorrow that won't reach too deep into my wallet!
If it looks like a (fill in the blank), smells like a and sounds like a it probably is a _.
That last post looks to me like an unabashed commercial.
It certainly has nothing to do with refurbishing a ShopSmith.
Just to put a fine point on it, the poster seems to have left no profile for us to see.
May 3, 2015 - What a roller coaster weekend of emotions; I walked out to the garage Saturday morning to continue the restoration of the Magna Jointer when I decided that my bench needed to be cleaned off in order to continue. While I was cleaning up my wife came out to the garage with a package that came in the mail; my rebuilt control sheave! I stopped what I was doing and started putting the headstock back together. A couple of youtube videos later I plugged it in, flipped the switch, and nothing happened. The motor just kind of stuttered but never fully turned on… I rechecked my wiring, made sure I hadn't over-tightened anything, and flipped the switch again…nothing. So I took the motor back out of the headstock and started troubleshooting it. I opened up the relay, cleaned the contacts, ops checked it and the relay worked like a champ. The next thing I checked was the capacitor and it zeroed out with the ohmmeter so I knew it was good to go. That left the motor, the one I had said before "ran like a champ"…I took it apart and blew even more dust out of it and found out that I have a couple of bearings that should probably be replaced since I'm in it this far (I'll take care of that Monday). I put the motor back together and wired everything up again only to flip the switch and hear the motor hum (not in a good way). Now the motor just sits there, it doesn't even turn! Needless to say I am going to stop by the local electric motor repair shop and have the experts take a look; hopefully the motor does not need to be rewound but after this weekend that will probably be the case. Hopefully there will be some good news tomorrow that won't reach too deep into my wallet!
Monday May 4th I took my 1958 Shopsmith 3/4 horsepower motor down to the electrical motor shop and found out that I had a bad capacitor. However, after replacing the capacitor the motor still wouldn't run and the guy at the repair shop recommended replacing the start-up relay. Being the mechanic that I am and having rebuilt starters before I figured there shouldn't be too much of a difference between the contacts in this relay and the ones for the starter solenoid, except the size of course, I opened it up and started cleaning up the contacts. Once I had finished I noticed that the contacts were not completely touching so with a little "encouragement" from the needle nose pliers the contacts were once again touching each other. The importance of these contacts cannot be overstated since they are the contacts that disconnect the capacitor from the motor once it reaches enough voltage to turn. Since I still needed to replace the motor bearings I decided to tear apart the bandsaw and see how if I needed any bearings for it and while I was at it I installed the new urethane tires on the wheels and started polishing up the tarnished stainless steel hardware that was on it.
Yesterday, Tuesday morning, I went down to the bearing house and picked up some new bearings, two for the motor, two for the jointer, and 6 for the bandsaw. While I was there I returned the belt that was the wrong size, it turns out that the belts are made specifically for Shopsmith and measure out to 9/16" wide by 25.5" long. It turns out that if you install a 1/2" belt you change the RPM's and other issues start to arise. Once I got home I installed the new motor bearings and re-inspected the original belt. I decided that it was actually in good condition even though it was 57 years old, there wasn't any chaffing or cuts and the rubber was still pliable. After re-assembling the upper and lower half of the headstock I noticed that there was still some binding with the speed control arm. I took everything back apart, getting to be an expert at this by now, and noticed that the speed control arm had more than a little side-to-side play in it. Using my Google-foo I came across a guy that had experienced the same problem and using his remedy, "replace the roll pin with a 10-24Ă—2 1/2" bolt and a lock nut", I was back in business.
After dinner I just had to get it back together since it's never really run correctly since I bought it and lo and behold I heard that most glorious sound…it ran and it ran like it had just come off the showroom floor of the tool store! I don't know how long this old girl has been out of service but after some TLC, patience, and tenacity, I can honestly say that "she's a runner"! Now all I have to do is get the jointer back together and replace the guide bearings on the bandsaw and I should be good-to-go.
Today should be an exciting day for the restoration since I will finally put the headstock back onto the way tubes!
Great to hear about your success with your new-to-you vintage Shopsmith. It's a great machine, especially with the bandsaw and the jointer. You will realize quickly that the tablesaw is the weak link in the Shopsmith system. The tablesaw does work, but the limitation is, in my opinion, the small table size.
I'm a little late catching up with my blog but as of May 6th the headstock is back on my Shopsmith and operating like a well-oiled machine. Pun intended…especially since it was in dire need of lubrication. Below is an updated photo of my "new" Shopsmith. Last night I finished removing all of the rust off of the bandsaw table and hopefully this weekend I will get it mounted back onto the bandsaw. I had to call in a little machine work from my dad since one of the upgrades I saw online didn't work out exactly as advertised. I am converting the old single blade guide rollers over to dual ball bearings however after purchasing all of the components locally I quickly realized why they were using so many lock washers. The outside diameter of the upgrade bolts and the inside diameter if the bearings do not match. I could drill out the holes and re-tap them but that would only reduce the support area around where the bolt goes through thus weakening the mount. So after a quick phone call down to Arizona and throwing some parts in the mail, my dad is going to machine some bushings that will make everything work! I suppose that I could have just bought the upgrade from Shopsmith but I figure I can do it for less. I still have the jointer tore apart and am about 33% through its restoration. Yesterday I was able to get the old bearings pressed off the shaft so now I can start cleaning it up; once that's done I can press on the new bearings and put the knives back on.
I'm a little late catching up with my blog but as of May 6th the headstock is back on my Shopsmith and operating like a well-oiled machine. Pun intended…especially since it was in dire need of lubrication. Below is an updated photo of my "new" Shopsmith. Last night I finished removing all of the rust off of the bandsaw table and hopefully this weekend I will get it mounted back onto the bandsaw. I had to call in a little machine work from my dad since one of the upgrades I saw online didn't work out exactly as advertised. I am converting the old single blade guide rollers over to dual ball bearings however after purchasing all of the components locally I quickly realized why they were using so many lock washers. The outside diameter of the upgrade bolts and the inside diameter if the bearings do not match. I could drill out the holes and re-tap them but that would only reduce the support area around where the bolt goes through thus weakening the mount. So after a quick phone call down to Arizona and throwing some parts in the mail, my dad is going to machine some bushings that will make everything work! I suppose that I could have just bought the upgrade from Shopsmith but I figure I can do it for less. I still have the jointer tore apart and am about 33% through its restoration. Yesterday I was able to get the old bearings pressed off the shaft so now I can start cleaning it up; once that's done I can press on the new bearings and put the knives back on.
I'm a little late catching up with my blog but as of May 6th the headstock is back on my Shopsmith and operating like a well-oiled machine. Pun intended…especially since it was in dire need of lubrication. Below is an updated photo of my "new" Shopsmith. Last night I finished removing all of the rust off of the bandsaw table and hopefully this weekend I will get it mounted back onto the bandsaw. I had to call in a little machine work from my dad since one of the upgrades I saw online didn't work out exactly as advertised. I am converting the old single blade guide rollers over to dual ball bearings however after purchasing all of the components locally I quickly realized why they were using so many lock washers. The outside diameter of the upgrade bolts and the inside diameter if the bearings do not match. I could drill out the holes and re-tap them but that would only reduce the support area around where the bolt goes through thus weakening the mount. So after a quick phone call down to Arizona and throwing some parts in the mail, my dad is going to machine some bushings that will make everything work! I suppose that I could have just bought the upgrade from Shopsmith but I figure I can do it for less. I still have the jointer tore apart and am about 33% through its restoration. Yesterday I was able to get the old bearings pressed off the shaft so now I can start cleaning it up; once that's done I can press on the new bearings and put the knives back on.
Thanks guys, it has been very cool restoring this old machine. I actually got to use it for the first time today and it worked just as great as I thought it would.
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