What do you think of Shop Smith

[Dave Bagwill]

The new ones are well over $3k, leading me to ask if a used one is a good investment. How useful would one be? Is there a source for used/reconditioned shop smiths?

[Ray Ussery]

I owned one. Bought it for $100 with all the attachments. I loved it. My Son-in-Law was really interested in wood working in general and I gave it to him to use while he was in the military. He had to sell it because he couldn't move it, so somebody in Germany has it now.
I see many guys and gals buying them over at the Reranch forum and they rarely pay more than $200 for GOOD ones on Craigslist And the like, and EVERYBODY thinks they are great for the electric guitar building process.
I've looked, but in the meantime I've set up my shop with other tools to replace all but the lathe. I really don't have room for it now.
I think they are a good investment if they are in good shape, they do many things, if you have the patience to change to the different modes each time you need this or that. Sometimes it takes a half hour to go from a set up lathe to a drill press configuration as an example.
Hope that helps Dave. :)

[Dave Bagwill]

It does help, Ray. I'm actually pretty well tooled up now, just have always wondered what the advantages, if any, are to the SS.
Thanks

[Ray Ussery]

The advantage I think is it's small. The man I got mine from had a shop that measured 10X10. PERFECT! So many choices in such a compact space. The quality was top notch. This was about 1980 and he had it 10 years and paid over $3k for it THEN. So at least the earlier models were really well made and
worth many times the $100 I paid and so it is today I think with the used ones out there...for some reason there just doesn't seem to be a market for them...maybe because there are so many out there.

Ray :)

[Dan Pennington]

I love Shopsmiths. I've owned at least a dozen of them. Over about 4 years, I bought and sold them on eBay and Craigs List until I wound up with the two I have now - a 510 and an old 10er - the original cast iron belt drive model.
They do lathe work very nicely. They are great as a drill press. My 10er is in dedicated drill press mode. Horizontal boring is anything but boring. Drum sanding and disk sanding - very good. They are just OK for occasional routing.

BUT, as a table saw they are miserable and dangerous!! The table tilts rather than the blade. Plus a whole bunch of other problems in saw mode.
I have a contractor table saw which I use a lot for chopping up little pieces of wood to make block banjo rims. If I had to, I could do it on a SS. But I wouldn't like it. And I'd probably have fewer fingers than I have now.

[Dave Bagwill]

Thanks for the post, penndan - I've grown rather attached to my fingers over the years, so I will heed your warning.

If you find a little time, a pic or two of what a block banjo rim is? Always interesting to see what someone else does.

Dave