# Shopsmith Drill Press



## Fibonacci (Apr 10, 2011)

I finally got a drill press so I don't have to run across town to drill a difficult blank.

The local paper here had an ad for a shopsmith for $50.  I ran over to look at it and it is an older model with the drill press and table saw attachments.  Needless to say, I snapped it right up.

The chuck runs true, but I need to adjust the table to square it up.  Ugly beast, but really nice to have with 4.5" of quill travel.  On the one I have been borrowing, I only have 1.75" of quill travel, so I was having to reposition the blank several times to drill all the way through.


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## KenV (Apr 11, 2011)

The shopsmith at that price is great.   I suggest you use it as a horizontal boring and sanding tool.   The 12 inch disk sander with a sanding jig will do an awsome job of squaring your blanks.    Horizontal boring is easier than raising and lowering the shopsmith and I never liked leaving mine up for extended periods as the lock is not as secure as I would like.


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## navycop (Apr 11, 2011)

I bought my Shopsmith about 5yrs ago. I finally got around toit for pen making. As mentioned the horizontal boring and sanding cannot be beat. I even got a separate drill chuck for the tailstock. I mount a .308 in it and bore the end for the transmission.


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## nava1uni (Apr 11, 2011)

Congratulations for your new tool.


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## Dave_M (Apr 11, 2011)

Cool tool for a great price IMO. Nice find @ $50.00.


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## ldubia (Apr 12, 2011)

I have one of those in my garage as a secondary lathe.  I haven't used it much since I got the little one.  I also have a bench top drill press with short travel.  as you said, it is a lot of extra work to have to reposition the blanks to drill them.  I use the lathe to drill now.  I just recently bought a 12" sanding plate so I hope I can adapt it to make a decent disk sander.  The Shopsmith is going to be repositioned to use as a larger lathe just as soon as I can can unbury it.


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## RichB (Apr 12, 2011)

I use my Shopsmith for Buffing.  I bought the Beall individual buffer for it.  A great variable speed power head for a lot of things.  It also used to be my drill press.  It is used for a lot of things, to much to print here.  Have fun with your new toy.  RichB


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## mranum (Apr 19, 2011)

I'm thinking for that money its most likely the 10er version like mine.  Nice machines and very well built and worth spending some tlc on them to get them back in tip top shape.  I actually have 2, one used as my lathe and the other as a drill press and sanding station.  I did a super cheap treadmill motor & controller conversion to get variable speed power, works awesome.:biggrin:


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## Fibonacci (Apr 20, 2011)

Yep, thats the one.


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## 76winger (Apr 20, 2011)

Congrats on a great buy. I've got an old circa 1954 Mark V that I rebuilt and use for all my turning right now. 



Over the years I've gone dedicated equipment for just about everything but turning, the latest in my woodworking adventure.  As the others stated it's awesome as 12" disc sander, and horizontal boring functionality is useful as well.


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## PenMan1 (Apr 20, 2011)

KenV said:


> The shopsmith at that price is great. I suggest you use it as a horizontal boring and sanding tool. The 12 inch disk sander with a sanding jig will do an awsome job of squaring your blanks. Horizontal boring is easier than raising and lowering the shopsmith and I never liked leaving mine up for extended periods as the lock is not as secure as I would like.


 
Ditto!
Since you saved so much on the ShopSmith (I should say, STOLE A SHOPSMITH), you could take the savings and buy the tools to drill on the lathe and use the ShopSmith as a sanding jig and perhaps a bandsaw, depending on which model it is.


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## mranum (Apr 20, 2011)

Remember too that most attachments that mount to the spindle or tail stock of the newer units will also work with our old ones.  There is a Yahoo group that specializes in the 10er's and is a wealth of knowledge on them.  There are some guys too that make adapters to use all the new attachments on the old ones., I wouldn't personally go that far but can be done if a person wants.


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