Shopsmith Forums

Hi guys

I am in the market for a planer and see this on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shopsmith-plan ... Sw1LJd0Bgb

The seller says it has no DC drive motor - so I assume this means the headstock will couple to the planer and spin the knives but I'll have to feed the work in manually right? This doesn't sound too bad to me but I suspect it's not as good as it seems - what am I missing?

thx
ash

Another thought - in lieu of the missing feed motor, can I build a hand-crank and turn the rollers manually?

Seems much safer than pushing in with a featherboard or something.

The Planer uses two motors. The first drives the Planer Cutter Head and can be accomplished in one of two ways. A separate motor with the Planer mounted on a stand which is the Pro Planer or uses the Shopsmith Mark series headstock for power which is the Mark Mounted Planer. The second motor feeds the stock through the Planer and is a variable speed motor. There is a manual crank that was available in the past to provide this function, but are now hard to find.

The Planer in the ad could mount to the Mark V or other Mark series tools but the pictures do not show the mounting bracket clamps so that hardware would have to be purchased. The other option would be to find a used stand and motor for it. Unless you are near the seller the shipping will add cost to the purchase. I found my Pro Planer over 4 years ago on craigslist for $200. I had waited for some time to find one but patience paid off. It was in great shape and after a little cleaning and blade sharpening it work excellent.

As for making a hand crank anything is possible but in this case not that easy. Parts would have to be fabricated for the cover, gear and crank.

Thank you for that detailed response! The seller confirmed it's a stand-alone planer so I was wrong. I'll wait - nothing urgent for now.

I bought my Mark V Mounted planer that was missing the feed motor for $100. Mine had the speed control, but it looks like the one you looked at may be missing. While not needed for manual feed, some sort of safety switch should be used so that planer and Shopsmith can be turned off quickly and in one action if necessary. Speed control boxes rarely come up for sale used and are very expensive if new from Shopsmith, as are the feed motors. My seller included a wood stand that had been made as shown in the Owner's Manual just for storing the planer. I bought some parts, including Owner's Manual, knife setting gauge and a coupler from Shopsmith and converted it to a manual crank feed for another $100. I too had to wait a while to find this one. Check the "Heads Up - Bargain Available" in the Community section for good buys that some of us find but don't need. If possible, expand your Craigslist search area. On Craigslist, search for both "Shopsmith" and "Shop Smith" (as 2 words) to get more results.
Here's my story:
https://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/main ... 16009.html

I bought my manual feed mounted planer about 4 years ago for 200 dollars. After using it many many times I really don't think I would want a powered feed. I have used them (in other peoples shops) and I just don't like the lack of feed speed control. With the crank you can feed the stock at a very slow rates and have a piece that is virtually already finished on exit.

JMHO

rjent wrote:I bought my manual feed mounted planer about 4 years ago for 200 dollars. After using it many many times I really don't think I would want a powered feed. I have used them (in other peoples shops) and I just don't like the lack of feed speed control. With the crank you can feed the stock at a very slow rates and have a piece that is virtually already finished on exit.

JMHO

The feed motors on Shopsmith planers are indeed continuously-variable speed, Dick. That's one of the things that makes them stand out from lunchbox planers.

From the Pro Planer manual:
IIRC, the feed rate range on the Mark V mounted planer is somewhat lower, to compensate for a slower cutterhead speed.

Absolutely Dennis, but they still feed to fast for some work IMO. With the crank, you can just creep it through getting 1000's of cuts per inch which give amazing results.

Nothing wrong with them, I just prefer to have more feed control (control freak?( LOL)

BuckeyeDennis wrote:

rjent wrote:I bought my manual feed mounted planer about 4 years ago for 200 dollars. After using it many many times I really don't think I would want a powered feed. I have used them (in other peoples shops) and I just don't like the lack of feed speed control. With the crank you can feed the stock at a very slow rates and have a piece that is virtually already finished on exit.

JMHO

The feed motors on Shopsmith planers are indeed continuously-variable speed, Dick. That's one of the things that makes them stand out from lunchbox planers.

From the Pro Planer manual:

Capture.JPG
IIRC, the feed rate range on the Mark V mounted planer is somewhat lower, to compensate for a slower cutterhead speed.