- Joined
- Feb 13, 2017
- Messages
- 2,138
Just to put my founding in perspective, I bought a Shop Smith as a Christmas present for my wife a few years back. When she has something in the works, I don't even go in the same room with it. When the machine is idle, I have occasional projects in wood where I don't want wood dust on my Craftsman 12" metal lathe. In any case, my comments were based on her machine for which I have made a few "attachments" to use older/other woodworking machine parts.
The two parts in question are not Shop Smith parts. The spindle on the machine is a 5/8" "nub", for lack of a more descriptive term. With a flat to hold a set screw as a retainer. There are few (very few) after market devices made for the Shop Smith interface. Most of the stuff comes from Shop Smith.
It is to this nub that the parts I have made attach. Actually, mostly adapters of one type or another. The other end of the head stock runs reverse, left hand. It has a splined shaft for a drive coupling for attachments, such as a band saw and jointer mechanism. There is no threaded male attachment point on the machine.
At best, the two questionable parts were (retro)fitted to an adapter on the spindle. Or for another machine and got thrown in with the Shop Smith stuff at some point. They are, at worst, jury rigs. And at best, tooling for that different machine. In either case, I personally wouldn't try to use them on the Shop Smith. To me, they are fodder for the "stuff" bin, to someday be used to make something. Basically one step above the scrap box. If you do metal working to any extent, they do look like a useful something that may one day be used. But not really as tooling, just parts.
Just remember, that is my opinion, not necessarily concerned about safety, just paranoid..
The two parts in question are not Shop Smith parts. The spindle on the machine is a 5/8" "nub", for lack of a more descriptive term. With a flat to hold a set screw as a retainer. There are few (very few) after market devices made for the Shop Smith interface. Most of the stuff comes from Shop Smith.
It is to this nub that the parts I have made attach. Actually, mostly adapters of one type or another. The other end of the head stock runs reverse, left hand. It has a splined shaft for a drive coupling for attachments, such as a band saw and jointer mechanism. There is no threaded male attachment point on the machine.
At best, the two questionable parts were (retro)fitted to an adapter on the spindle. Or for another machine and got thrown in with the Shop Smith stuff at some point. They are, at worst, jury rigs. And at best, tooling for that different machine. In either case, I personally wouldn't try to use them on the Shop Smith. To me, they are fodder for the "stuff" bin, to someday be used to make something. Basically one step above the scrap box. If you do metal working to any extent, they do look like a useful something that may one day be used. But not really as tooling, just parts.
Just remember, that is my opinion, not necessarily concerned about safety, just paranoid..
Bill Hudson
