The Shopsmith Mark I Owners Manual

OK, for those of you who thought that I was insane when I posted the photo of the Mark I that's mounted on the wall of my friend's shop; thinking that I was making it up: Here's final proof. This is the cover of the Shopsmith Mark 1 (555260) owner's manual from 1987. As I mentioned before, the funny thing about this manual is the warning on page 4 that states: "Use only hand tools or other power tools to make the stand. Do NOT use the Mark I".


The second pic is the Nomenclature of the Mark I from the manual. The only difference between this and the Mark V is part #3. One very interesting thing to me about this is it shows the "C" headstock, which has a removable plastic key-switch a bit left of the center of the Speed-Dial. Why is this odd? Because the "C" Headstock wasn't introduced until 1991. I remember seeing prototypes of this headstock around the Quality lab years before it's introduction, but it's weird that Shopsmith Inc. showed it here.


I may have said this before, but to my knowledge there were only two of these tools sold, and one of those two was returned in exchange for a Mark V. I wonder were the remaining Mark I is.