SawSmith 2000 Tablesaw Information, Review and History

The SawSmith 2000 was a unique table saw that Shopsmith Inc. introduced around 1992. This tool came on the heals of the introduction of a couple successful stand-alone tools, including the DC3300 dust collector, the 12" Pro Planer and the Scroll Saw, but unlike these tools, the engineer who was put in charge of the development was charged to create something different. The inspiration for this saw came from a visit by Shopsmith Inc.'s founder, John Folkerth, to the Henniker table saw factory in Henniker New Hampshire.  Henniker had been producing the "Versatile Saw" since 1947. Coincidentally that was the same year that Hans Goldschmidt invented the original Shopsmith model 10ER. 

So what made the Versatile Saw so unique? When cross cutting the user would lock the miter gauge into the miter slot, reach up to a handle which was mounted on the saw guard and pull the blade forward like an upside-down radial arm saw (RAS). At the time this was believed to be much safer than a RAS, and once Shopsmith hit upon the idea of moving the blade-sliding action from the guard to a rod and knob mounted below the table, they thought for sure that they had a real winner on their hands. After a slow start following a mini-recall to correct an oversight (the blade would move left and right in the table by as much as a 1/4" when the blade was pulled forward with any side load on the pull-lever) the saw began a slow march to its inevitable death. 

Besides the flex in the blade carriage, the basic design had two obvious flaws: 

• The cabinet was very light weight and had a tendency to flex and even twist a bit when applying strong forces agains the fence when cutting sheet goods.

• The sides of table top is flush with the cabinet, making it difficult to clamp commonly used auxiliary fences, such as those used for cutting coves.

• The motor is direct drive, so unless you are using a thin kerf blade it will struggle cutting hardwoods over 5/4.

• Speaking of the motor... because it is direct drive, it is so free-wheeling that it was equipped with a blade brake, but a very light-weight centrifugal brake, so it takes 15-20 seconds to come to a complete stop.  

• Shopsmith's time-proven molder head not only proved to be too heavy for it, but because of the short hight adjustment of the motor arbor, you didn't get the proper depth with many of the popular cutters. So, Shopsmith designed slightly larger diameter, aluminum molder head. The problem there was that they changed the pitch of the blades in order to improve the performance of the motor, but that new angle changed the profile of most of the cuts made by the cutters.  Matching cutters like those used for drop-leaf rule joints no longer worked together.  A big fail in my book, but fortunately for most of us, carbide router bits were beginning to drop in price around this same time, so many users never learn these issues first-hand. 

The SawSmith 2000 was sold in four versions: The lowest cost version of the saw came in two different widths, equipped with a simple Mark V 510-style fence mounted on a tubular fence rail. (Seen in photo above) Up the food chain the saw could be purchased in two widths equipped with an excellent and super-beefy Excalibur fence. If you end-up with this version you'll want to make sure that you add a solid table between the main table and the support tables, because otherwise the fence will slide under pressure whenever the fence is clamped over the gap. 

Unless you are an avid Shopsmith collector I would suggest that you avoid this saw. 

BTW, the name "SawSmith" was taken from an AWESOME radial arm saw which was sold by Magna Engineering, Yuba and Magna American in the 1950's and 60's.

Click here for Sawsmith 2000 Tablesaws For Sale (Very light activity)
Here's Vintage Machinery's page on Henniker Machine and Fabrication, Inc.