shop smith?

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
Saw this on craigslist, not mine. I never owned one. Never thought they were a good idea. Thought
they were very expensive too. Never thought one tool could do everything well. Thought you would
spend too much time setting it up only to do it each time you wanted to do something different.

Did you have one? Did you like it?
shop smith
 
They work well for the hobbist. It takes time to change from one configuration to another. I tried to sell one couldn't get much for it.
 
There was one in my house when I bought it. I traded it for a tool post grinder. The guy wanted to make birdhouses. Seems good for woodwork .
 
I had one, it takes to long to change over the tools. I can't remember what I paid for it, but it was expensive. I ended up just giving it to a friend. He still is my friend. My advice, save your money for better stuff.
 
Couldn't get hurt for $150, or less, or trade for something you don't want. They make a good horizontal boring machine and a decent lathe. Good quality equipment, just slows you down if you have to take apart your table saw to run your jointer.
 
My Father in law has one and built a lot of neat stuff with it. As the others said you can preform good work with one but you need to have patience because switching them takes time and operations can be a lot less handy than on purpose built machines. There are scads of them around for sale, some for $$$ but shop prudently, the last couple I seen sell at auction didnt bring $100. There are several variations over the the years and I think that changing operations was improved on the later ones?
 
The shopsmith machine is a good dependable tool however it's just the motor source for power. You still have to have each individual machine as an accessory to put on it as you need it. I would never be able to get used to having to mounting a table saw or jointer or bandsaw onto the machine every time you needed to make a cut. What if you were going back and forth jointing and ripping wood, you would be all day changing tools. Shopsmith does make bases for their accessories where you can use the machines individually. I bought a bandsaw and a base for it 30 years ago and have never had to repair it, not even the tires.
 
My dad had a "newer version" when I was growing up (55 years ago). We had it set up as a table saw all the time and changed to other tools when needed. It was a great (high quality) machine for a small hobby workshop. When my mom sold the house in 2003, she asked me if I wanted it. I declined because I already had a shop with a radial arm saw, drill press, grinders and sanders. I some times wish I would have kept it for the wood lathe. Changing from a saw to a drill press only took a few minutes, but I wouldn't want to go back and forth all day long. My 02, for a limited budget and a small work area, you can't go wrong.
 

Very nice, well built machines. Yeah, it takes time to change them over. But if you are limited on space they are great.
 
That one is a 10ER I think, and that is a bit of a high price in my area. The newer Mark V can be had used in the ~$500 range. I bought a Mark V from the early 80s for $400 with a lot of accessories which I sold off individually on eBay for $550+. I use it only for lathe turning, disc sanding and line boring. The 12" sanding disc stays on all of the time and it takes less than a minute to convert from lathe to line boring. I have a tablesaw, three bandsaws, routers, jointer, planer, drill press and such so I don't need to use it for any of those things. I build banjos in my free time and sell banjos and parts, and the shopsmith has been a big help with that. I can turn up to 16" which is why I bought it, but the disc sander is handy for a lot of things and the line boring is useful for drilling shoe bolt holes in rims and things like that.
Zach
 
They usually ask $500 for a stripped one in my area, so thats a good price for one with tooling. Dad has one, i learned a lot and he built a lot with that machine.
 
I bought mine many years ago, 1959 to be exact. I built a sailboat with it using the tablesaw, the disc sander, and the drill press. The saw was lousy, but was all I had. Over the years I've used the lathe quite a lot and also the scroll saw. I long since acquired a decent tablesaw, bandsaw I and many other tools, so the SS only gets used as a drill press, for which it works great. Since it's value is limited, I'll keep it for now. I only paid a hundred bucks for it used, so a good investment.
 

I've seen a number of Shopsmiths with asking prices in the $150-250 range. Usually with the band saw, lathe tools, sander and saw parts. I'd grab one if it was close enough and I had the extra $$$. It just hasn't happened yet.
 

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