BigSky wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 10:38 am
If I had that huge workshop and could afford all the equipment he has in it, I would not have a Shopsmith either. I would have a shop full of large, standalone power tools starting with a Delta Table saw from the eighties.
+1.
Wish I had a woodworking shop that large and all standalone tools. I love my Shopsmith, but got started on it learning it with my Dad so it has more sentimentality for me as a result. Without that bias, I would prefer a large shop with standalone tools...as many vintage ones as possible, or at least the highest quality ones from whatever decade that is.
Ed in Tampa wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 10:59 am
I agree the
Mark V is not for beginner woodworkers! I do not believe any beginner woodworker should start using machines. T
hey should begin with hand tools most of which can still injure them but not likely to the extent a powered machine can. I shudder watching YouTube “experts” operate most powered machines.
People have absolutely no concept of how dangerous a powered tool can be. Is the Shopsmith more dangerous than most? Yes I think it is, unless you have the five point safety check as a part of muscle memory rather than something you are trying to remember you are in serious danger. Not many other wood working machines requires that much caution before you even turn it on.
Ed,
I guess my experience is outside of the norm again. I started on a Mark V as a teenager and learned it as my Dad learned it. He bought it from the Shopsmith store an hour away and I only think he got a walkthrough of it from the salesman at the time. It was just that and the manual/VHS tape to guide us. Before this, my Dad used a Craftsman TS for a bit, but
my starting point was the Mark V with some oversight from my Dad. However
it was new to him so I would say we really learned together on it. I have always been mechanically inclined, i.e. taking things apart and putting them back together as a kid. Perhaps I can't fully understand/appreciate what the newbie experience is for woodworking then. With what is required for woodworking hand tool maintenance and proper body position, etc., unless you have an expert looking over your shoulder and teaching you, I can't comprehend how a beginner (on their own) is better off with hand tools (block plane, chisels, handsaw, etc.). Yes, power tools are more inherently dangerous, but I don't see a Mark V as any more dangerous than a standalone bandsaw not properly setup (blade walking off wheels), a yahoo using a standalone drill press for the first time and having a workpiece get caught and hitting them, any standalone lathe (enough said), etc., etc. I will concede though that perhaps standalone TS is considerably safer than the adjustable table and open format of the Mark V. JMO.