Shopsmith Forums

Thanks to both cadman57 and JPG for their detailed, thorough, and large amount of information! You have given me new hope. I contacted Shopsmith CS at the same time of my original post and heard back from them yesterday, with not nearly so encouraging news, but I can understand that they probably don't want liability issues if I make some parts myself. I may take you up on your offer for help in making/modifying a crank. One difference I was told by CS was that the gear cover to convert from power feed to manual feed had a larger hole and a bushing, both of which were no longer available (thru them). Glad to hear the pinion is the same in both versions, as that was what I had hoped. I will contact the seller today to see if planer is still available, try to learn more of its history, condition, etc., and I may be a proud owner with some work ahead of me soon! Will keep you posted, and thanks again!

I got it, and at an incredible price of $100! Appears to be in excellent condition except for missing the gear cover and feed motor. Also missing the clamping brackets to secure it to the Shopsmith way tubes, but I'm sure I can either buy them or make something to work. My intent is still to convert it to manual feed, unless I happen to find a feed motor on eBay for a reasonable price. I could use some help with the following from anyone with a manual feed version:

1. The only gear cover available from Shopsmith is for a motor feed model. Can someone take some pictures of their manual feed gear cover and give me the dimension of hole diameter (in cover), how the handle attaches, any bushing sizes/dimensions, etc. Below is a picture of my drive end cover, which is probably very similar to the gear cover. The drive hub side cover has a 1.625" dia. hole.

2. The height adjustment handle may very well be able to double as a crank for manual feed. Below are pictures of my height adjustment handle. Can someone with a manual feed model send me pictures of their feed crank so I can see how the two compare?

The seller also had the variable speed control which I got, only it is missing the "key" to lock or unlock the switch. The seller took it apart and removed (and kept and included) the small plastic part and spring which will enable the switch to be used without the key, but I would prefer to put the part and spring back in, and either get or make a "key", so it will be usable as intended in case I do find a feed motor, or sellable. Does anyone know if the key is available from Shopsmith, have an extra, or could take pictures of theirs so I can maybe make my own?

Currently my planer is pretty much inaccessible. I will attempt to access it and take some pix. BTW, your pix are excellent!!!

Thanks, whenever you get a chance to take some pictures would be appreciated. No big hurry ... I've done without planer up until now and have plenty of other things to keep me busy. And I looked more closely at the exploded parts diagram and see that the safety key is still listed available, so I'll be ordering one of those along with a few other things like the gear cover, pinion, owner's manual - things I'm going to need to get anyway to try to make it operational.

I did not get into the shop today. Don't give up!

Got to it today. I changed the topic so it may be more easily found later(?).

Took lots of pix. After reviewing your pix I realized I did not show the crank length. Mine has the round height handle, so I cannot compare them. If mine is longer than your pix shows I will post it.

Well I 'found' the max number of attachments = 10.

More is here.
The crank appears to be the same length, but the knob is longer.(an easy thing to make for a woodworker!). Ya need that shoulder screw though.

Wow, just saying "thanks" seems like an understatement! Excellent pictures and descriptions (graphically and verbally) show more than I had hoped for. At least the pinion gear is still available so I won't have to re-create that. I may need a little time to fully digest all of this information and warm up my ingenuity, but the biggest challenge at the moment seems to be the fact that the cover has that boss as part of the casting for the bushing. From the exploded parts diagram I see on SS's website, it doesn't look like the currently available gear cover for a motor feed has that boss. Perhaps once I get the actual cover I can figure out a way to bolt some material to the cover to give me sufficient thickness for a bushing, similar to how the motor apparently bolts to the cover from the inside. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone with a unneeded manual feed setup will put it on eBay. Hope you were able to reassemble everything OK and didn't have to shovel too much snow to get to the shop!

Since you will likely have to 'improvise' the shaft, the bushing could be mounted to an appendage external to the cover. The shaft could be continuous 3/8" with a 3/8 x 1/2 bushing added to interface with the crank. 3/8" all thread might work. Internal clearance might be a problem.

Just 'brain' storming.

Kudos to JPG for taking apart his planer, measuring, photographing, and posting! I bet that took quite a while (and now to put it back together).