Shopsmith Forums

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i recently bought a used upgrade set of tables(500 to 510) that came with a shopsmith wobble dado that was mounted on a shopsmith arbor among other things. when i removed the arbor which was very tight(it took two of the large arbor wrenches) the tongue was missing on the washer but there was no damage to the arbor. that kinda puzzled me. figured it happened before i got it. was going to put it on my list for my next order from shopsmith if it is even available by itself.seems cost prohibitive to order it by itself. could not find it online or in any catalog that i have. maybe if someone has any paperwork from the molder/dado arbor it might have a part number.

Hi Bob,
Sometimes you can order a part like that through customer service, even without a part number.

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I'm sure that Shopsmith will replace your parts as they are so new, but to prevent this happening in the future you should know that problems like this typically arise from stacking the trimmers and the chippers improperly. There are two ways to get yourself in trouble.

1. The teeth of the chippers must nest in the gullets of the trimmers. Furthermore no teeth anywhere in your stack should contact another tooth or the body of another blade. It is absurdly easy to overlook this, particularly with the 6" and 8" Amana sets that I use. More than once I have found the tooth of a chipper overlapping the blade body of a trimmer after I had tightened the nut on the arbor. If you make a cut with dado like this, the stack will shift, parts will start to move, and damage may result.

2. You should build your stack from the end of the arbor in. Use your spacers so the nut is as close to the end of the arbor as possible, but still safely engaged with the threads. If you don't do this, the arbor, the nut, and the washer will rub on the tiebar -- and damage may result. This particular problem will also booger the threads and/or strip the tongue off the washer just as you describe.

...I wonder how crucial the tongue in the washer really is...
Pretty dag-gone. Unless you don't mind being chased all over your shop by whirling trimmers and chippers. The tongue in the washer and the groove in the arbor prevent the nut from turning off the arbor when in use.

With all good wishes,

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I simply tighten the nut normally; no need to get out the torsion wrench or the breaker bar. I make it a point never to strong-arm anything -- too easy to damage something with too much pressure. If the dado assembly won't hold together with normal, every-day, run-of-the-mill tightening, then you have problems that overtightening will not fix.

As for the jig, it's my opinion that you're over-thinking the problem because you've had one bad experience. Careful stacking and a preflight check is all that should be needed. Once again, if you have to build a jig to maintain the orientation of the parts, then you probably have other problems that a jig won't fix.

With all good wishes,

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Yes! I've lost almost a full tongue from one of those washers. My guess is I turned the washer on the shaft by over tightening.

Yes, I bought two replacements. One to use, and one to store.

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