My ancient Mark VII Shopsmith bit the dust today. I had been noticing a squealing sound for some time. Today one of the bearings on the quill assembly disintegrated. Fixing it is beyond my pay grade. I purchased that marvelous tool in 1967, assembled it in one end of my garage and over the years made many wonderful things using its multi-purpose capability. I later purchased all of the “add-ons”, jointer, scroll saw, belt sander and band saw.
In later years I built a freestanding shop and added all the individual woodworking machines. I hung on the the Shopsmith and continued to use it in its lathe mode only. It performed well at that task. I dread the thought of taking it to the landfill. I might just roll it to the corner of my shop, hang a wreath on it, and say thank you once in a while.
Now I’m beginning search through the catalogues and internet for lathes. Any suggestions?
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
See if you can find a general 260 on the used market.
At least you could take it apart and take the scrap metal to recycle.
I just saw an episode of Leave it to Beaver, and notice that dad Cleaver had a Shopsmith in the garage.
Almost any lathe will do the job.
Seriously.
A nova DVR is obviously the top choice, but you can almost certainly do whatever you want on most lathes.
If I were looking, the following are nice to have:
1. At least 500W (2/3HP) with 750 preferred.
2. Variable speed
3. Hollow headstock with 2MT
4. Tailstock with 2MT
5. Threaded to take a readily available faceplate.
Nice to haves:
Reversible.
Head which swings out to allow larger turnings (if motor big enough)
Extendable beds.
The Nova Saturn DVR meets all of these requirements but is of course top of the line in price.
My turning club has a bunch of cheap Chinese lathes - they work fine too.
Regarding the Shopsmith, a bearing replacement shouldn't be that hard, unless it damaged other castings/parts on the way out.
Getting back to your question:
In this day and age, I would avoid a Reeves drive, unless you could try it under power to insure it operated smoothly.
I recently bought a record Herald as a second to my larger 1640 Oneway. It is a bit more expensive than the typical midi but has a number of advantages. I have been quite happy with it.
They are hard to find, The Woodturning Store in NY is where I finally found mine in stock.
Here is a video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG6bPN8H5PE
Sorry you lost a friend.
Thanks to all for your advice and sympathy. Replacing the bearing in the SS is not realistic. The bearing housing itself was eroded away. There were metal shards all inside the cover. I'm ready to move on. I probably wanted an excuse to get a lathe.
I bought a Nova 1624, thinking that the base model would be all I needed. I soon realized that changing the belt was too much of a hassle and the lathe wasn't heavy enough to keep it from walking whenever I tried turning anything other than a table leg. I wound up spending more money on the retrofit DVR motor and built a 'coffin' around the legs and filled it with rocks for added weight. I also bought the extension because 24" just isn't long enough for what I was wanting to do. I really like the lathe now after all the modifications (plus, I bolted it to the floor), but in the end I spent more money and time trying to fit a cheaper lathe to my needs.
While I was shopping (last year) for a lathe, there was a consistent comment that rang true: "you can turn really small items on a big lathe, but the reverse is not possible".
What do you want to turn? Spindles for furniture? Small bowls? Large bowls? Hollow forms? What you'd like to do, or think you might, will exclude a lot of options, or not.
I would definitely want electronic variable speed, no matter what lathe you get.
I remember watching the old infomercials on Saturday morning. I thought that machine was the best thing since sliced bread.
To answer your lathe question, I am a relatively new owner (<1year) of a Powermatic 3520C.
I have been supremely happy with my purchase. It has met/exceeded everything I expected from it, which is saying something since most everyone who has rated it, speaks very highly of it.
I've done everything from spindle turning (turning my own tool handles), to a large bowl that took all of the 20" inboard swing capacity, and everything in-between. The machine doesn't break a sweat.
I'd highly recommend the Powermatic 3520C !
Good luck,
Erick
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled