Shop Smith

[tow653]

Thinking of getting a Mark V,anyone have experience with them? Thanks,Tim

 

[jlawso21]

I have experience with them. They are good tools with a bad name. As long as you don't expect too much they are great. Best use is 1. drill press, excellent. 2. Lathe, very good to excellent. 3. Horizontal boring, excellent. It works ok as a tablesaw, but for a machine that gets used a lot in this function, this is it's weakest part.

The best shopsmith is the older one, the 10ER, it has more cast iron and its a little more precise, but it does not have variable speed unless you find one with this option. For someone starting woodworking these are great machines.

Last, and most important, don't pay more than $300-500 for one with all the pieces. With a bandsaw pay a little more

 

[ultrarunner]

My elderly neighbor built his entire shop plus many other things around the house with his...

He passed a few years ago and I was recently over visiting and asked his son what happened to all of his father's tools... said they hauled it all off for scrap.

I can see my neighbor rolling in his grave... he loved that Shopsmith and did a lot of work with it... also wasn't exactly cheap to buy new.

 

[turnkey4099]

My elderly neighbor built his entire shop plus many other things around the house with his...

He passed a few years ago and I was recently over visiting and asked his son what happened to all of his father's tools... said they hauled it all off for scrap.

I can see my neighbor rolling in his grave... he loved that Shopsmith and did a lot of work with it... also wasn't exactly cheap to buy new.

I have one in my shed. One of the very original ones but I don't know the number and the shed is snowed in now. Do have a few of the tools for it, mostly the lathe and saw head/table. Just in the way and is free to anyone who wants to haul it off.
Harry K

 

[randy41]

i have one. a good choice if you need all those tools and have little space. the tilting table saw is not as good as a tilting arbor saw.

 

[4570Man]

The table saw sucks and is down right dangerous. The bandsaw is awful ( how good can a 12" bandsaw be ? ). The lathe is alright, but not even close to up to snuff with my Powermatic 3520. The belt sander is decent. The drill press is pretty good.

 

[C4Ranch]

I have experience with them. They are good tools with a bad name. As long as you don't expect too much they are great. Best use is 1. drill press, excellent. 2. Lathe, very good to excellent. 3. Horizontal boring, excellent. It works ok as a tablesaw, but for a machine that gets used a lot in this function, this is it's weakest part.

The best shopsmith is the older one, the 10ER, it has more cast iron and its a little more precise, but it does not have variable speed unless you find one with this option. For someone starting woodworking these are great machines.

Last, and most important, don't pay more than $300-500 for one with all the pieces. With a bandsaw pay a little more

This.... My dad has one and ive used it growing up. The great thing for drill press is you can adjust speed with turn of a dial... No belts.

 

[PHPaul]

I bought one new in 1982 when I was in the Navy and had NO room. It was perfect in that respect. Everything I needed to do respectable, if not professional, woodworking in a very small footprint.

Bear in mind that no tool designed to do everything does any one thing especially well.

I still have mine and use the bandsaw and disc sander pretty regularly. Also use the lathe, but I don't often have need to turn things.

Now that I have a permanent shop, I have a dedicated table saw, chop saw and drill press so I never use those functions on the ol' Mark V, but for as little room as it takes up, I'll keep it just for the bandsaw, lathe and disc sander functions.

As someone else stated, they're all over Craigslist for around $500, no need to pay more for one.

 

[sseelhoff]

I have never heard of these before. Now I want one. This would be perfect for building jumps for the riding arena.

 

[teejk]

I bought one new in 1982 when I was in the Navy and had NO room. It was perfect in that respect. Everything I needed to do respectable, if not professional, woodworking in a very small footprint.

Bear in mind that no tool designed to do everything does any one thing especially well.

I still have mine and use the bandsaw and disc sander pretty regularly. Also use the lathe, but I don't often have need to turn things.

Now that I have a permanent shop, I have a dedicated table saw, chop saw and drill press so I never use those functions on the ol' Mark V, but for as little room as it takes up, I'll keep it just for the bandsaw, lathe and disc sander functions.

As someone else stated, they're all over Craigslist for around $500, no need to pay more for one.

As a kid I thought it would be neat to own (I think they used to run ads in the Sunday "Parade" newspaper supplement next to that "zosia grass guy). But as you said the "do it all" functionality comes with drawbacks...switching between functions takes some time and I'm sure repeated switching affects the alignment (not unlike the old Craftsman radial arm saws...constant "tuning"). I worked with a guy that owned one and he loved it but he was never in a rush to finish anything and liked the "tuning" part.