Sunday, June 1, 2014

A New Home for an Old Tool

I've long had a love/hate relationship with Shopmmith. I've had two different early Mark V machines. The first one went to Indonesia with us and stayed there when we returned to the U.S. many years ago.

About 10 years ago, I drove to Dallas to purchase this one from its original owner. I didn't use it much any more and our nephew has space constraints but wants to do some woodworking, so we delivered it to its new home. It was a bit of a challenge to fit it in the truck for the trip north since we were towing the Scamp.

The power head and a lot of the bits and pieces fit in the crate while the rest was wrapped in plastic to fit around the Scamp's hitch or in the back seat.

It took us almost as long to unpack and unwrap everything

as it did to put it together. It's just the right size for his smaller than one modern car garage. The serial number, original invoice, and the color says it's older than these two combined, but they should have lots of fun making stuff for the house and Ellen's first grandchild.

We're slowly headed to Glory Farm in Ellensburg via the loneliest roads we can find.


8 comments:

  1. Well I have no idea what a Shopsmith is or does but those 2 sure look mighty happy to have it.

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    1. Hi, Al! The Shopsmith Mark V can be configured as a table saw, wood lathe, horizontal drill press, vertical drill press, or disc sander. This one also has the optional jig saw, jointer, and mortise attachments. All sorts of options but it takes time to switch between configurations.Saves lots of space as compared to individual tools, but takes time to switch configurations. Did I mention it takes time to switch between configurations?

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  2. Hmmm.....we have one of those in the basement. David says he broke it but it can be fixed. Maybe one of the youngsters will want it.
    Doesn't it feel good to put the unused into hands of those who will use it?
    We are doing a lot of that right now.

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    Replies
    1. Parts are still available for them. I think you can still buy them new as well. There's a pretty active eBay market for them.

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  3. Replies
    1. You're welcome! Enjoy it and keep your fingers out of the way!

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