Several AWESOME Sites for Shopsmith Woodworking Enthusiasts

For some time now I've been watching a couple great sites that if you are a Shopsmith power tool fan, you should save these to you favorites folder immediately.

• The first site is www.woodworkinghistory.com and as I think about it now I'm a little surprised I'm just now getting around to mentioning it. Raymond McInnis is a professional librarian, avid historian and woodworker who has toiled for years building a site documenting the early years of the classic DIY tools that tool America by storm in the 1940's-1960's. You'll find MASSIVE amounts of Shopsmith information in the Appendices section, so I've actually linked to this page with the hyperlink above. Mr. McInnis has covered Shopsmith, Delta/Rockwell, the history of the tilting arbor table saw, and lots of history on one of my favorite movements in the history of woorworking design; the Mission/Arts and Crafts movement. I'm telling you, this is a treasure trove of information, so make sure you take time to look around, and for goodness sake make sure you bookmark this site!
  

• If you are the owner of the original Shopsmith 10ER tool, then you own it to yourself to get to know Mr. Skip Cambell. Skip has forgotten more about the 10ER than you and I can ever hope to learn. (Not that he's forgotten much!) With the help of two dear friends, Burl Barnes and Dale Booher (both now passed on), who were the Shopsmith dealer/repair men in Ft. Worth and Dallas, in 1995 Skip started his business of repair and restoration of Shopsmith machines. Burl Barnes worked a the Montgomery Ward headquarters on 7th St. in Ft. Worth in 1947. He remembered when the Magna team came and demonstrated the Shopsmith and they started selling them. He has repaired and/or restored over a hundred Mark Vs but have specialized in the 10ER and has offered help with some of the facts here on my own blog. Skip is the owner and moderator of the 10ER Yahoo group Shopsmith10ERusers@yahoogroups.com and his own site offers some great insight to his tool restoration skills www.mkctools.com.

• Song of the Great Lakes is a neat site run by an avid woodworker and Shopsmith user. Dan, the site owner, is passionate about musical instruments, and his site even covers the making of a banjo. This site is different from most "tool sites" in that Dan focuses on USING the tools. I think you'll enjoy this one.

• A couple more forums you should frequent are: www.shopsmith.net/forums www.ssug.org and the Shopsmith Yahoo Group