Shopsmith Forums

I have inherited this router table and I'm a little confused at the table and no fence and what to do next. I am getting the manual from Shopsmith. The routers work. What could I do, should I do for a fence? The top sitting to the right seems more like a drill press table. If I made one, what suggestions are there? Is there one to purchase? I've worked with an extensively with a router but not a table. Thanks for your thoughts and direction.

The Router System combines an Over Arm Router (OAR) with a more traditional Table Router (under table). Both were available separately or together. The OAR is sometimes called a Pin Router. There are some 'Sawdust Sessions' videos that feature another version of the OAR, I suggest you start with these. The newer version (also out of production) mounts on a Shopsmith Mark 5/V/7 (etc.) but most functions are unchanged from the stand-alone that you have.
(https://shopsmith.com/videos/sawdust-sessions/) Unfortunately these videos have low resolution and/or other compression artifacts. The first with an OAR segment is #3, and I believe those segments run through session #8.

This thread has a lot of information on upgrading and using the OAR: viewtopic.php?t=18323

Your unit would have come with a pair of aluminum angles that make up the original fence. (Not recommended.) You can make or buy a fence. I use a Jessem fence that is excellent for under table routing, but not so good for OAR. Fences are discussed in two or three of those videos.

I like this system and use one regularly. I'm rebuilding mine around a new table and lift, my laminate was having issues and while they were repairable my SS table was not as compatible with a router lift as I would have liked.

- David

Sawdust sessions have been broken down into individual segment videos posted on the Shopsmith YouTube channel now. You will need to search the videos to find the segments that you want but at least they are all labeled really well.

thanks for these thoughts. Investigating and moving though slowly.