Peter Halle said:
Well, this will be an odd one. Today I purchased a Shopsmith Mark V model 510. Circa 1992. Never used. If fact the previous owner didn't even finish assembling it. Probably never plugged it in. Most things are still in sealed bags and packages. The original owner purchased it well in advance of his anticipated retirement and stored it away in his shop after installing the casters and putting the tables on it. It was well hidden and time passed by. After he retired unfortunately his health declined and he passed away. It passed on to a family member who had a friend store it for the last 3 years until the decision was madero sell it. It includes a bandsaw. Not bad for $900. Now I will have to go thru the excellent manuals page by page and pretend that I am assembling it from scratch to make sure everything was done correctly. Glad to be saving a true relic.
Peter
The newer ones, like yours, have a lot of advancements over the one I have. Mine is a true relic, a 1947 model E-10. Many of the accessories that were designed for the later models won't even work on it.
As with most "multi-tools" it's not great at any of them, with the possible exception of the lathe, especially on the newer ones with the variable speed.
The sketchy part (strangely enough) is the table saw. The design is downright ridiculous. The blade arbor is at a fixed height as part of the main body. That means that you have to adjust the table height to "raise/lower" the blade. This doesn't sound too bad, until you realize that it's a problem for outfeed support, which will be needed, since the table is small.
The really bad part is when you need to make a bevel cut. As before, the blade cannot move, so you have to tilt the table! Tell me that's not sketchy!?! I would
love to hear an engineer from that company try to justify that one.
Good news is that it has pretty decent quill travel. This makes it decent as a horizontal boring machine or drill press.
Order of operations is of maximum importance! Once you change the set-up to something else, it's a pain to have to switch it back.
Mine sits (covered) in a corner. I don't use it, but my great uncle bought it new. It has passed around the family a few times, landing with me about 30 years ago.