Shopsmith 6" Beltsanders Information, Review and History

Don't get so excited with eBay prices that you pay more than the price of a new tool! The current MSRP of the Shopsmith 6" Belt Sander is $587.00. (As of March 2021)

FYI, The Shopsmith Beltsander is one of the best on the market! You can power it on your Shopsmith 10er, Mark I, Mark II, Mark V, Mark VII, and even with the Sawsmith Radial Arm Saw. It can also be powered by what Shopsmith calls an SPT Stand (Single Purpose Tool), the Power Station, or the Crafters Station.

I'm impressed at the genius of this design, which not only utilizes the same water-pump bearing Assembly that is used on the Mark V and Bandsaw, but it actually features two short sections of the same tube that we used for the waytube and bench tube on the Mark V! Because these two sections of the tube are hidden from view and are only 7" or so long they allowed Magna to make use of bent or scratched waytubes. Clever.

It has a thumbwheel for making quick adjustments in tracking and an auto-tension using that works like a charm. Watch out that you don't allow this to spring when the belt is off for changing, but even if you do this is easy to reset by following the instruction in the owner's manual.

There have been a few changes over the years to the SS Belt Sander:

• Originally the Belt Sander featured a 1 1/4" dust port, but in 1987 ShopSmith changed this to accommodate 2 1/2" hoses used by ShopVac and others, including the Shopsmith DC3300. This dust port is available as an upgrade retro kit for around $20, so don't let the small port discourage you from purchasing an older unit.

• For many, many years following the formation of Shopsmith Inc. in 1972 they continued to make the SS Belt Sander with the old Magna castings. You can see the "M" logo cast into the side of these units up until the tooling finally wore-out in the late 1980's and was replaced by the Shopsmith logo. Over the years SS stopped sanding the paint off the Magna "M" and added a Shopsmith sticker to the side of the unit.

• For a period of time, Shopsmith had a batch of Beltsanders that just wouldn't track properly. I don't know the serial # range, but the problem was someone decided that it would save money if they used the same aluminum drum for both the drive drum and the idler drum. Now, the drive drum is perfectly cylindrical with a rubber sleeve glued to it, while the idler drum is bare aluminum with a slight crown. The genius who made the call to use a single drum had the crowned drum covered with rubber for the drive, so just like a Delta bandsaw, the belt was supposed to track in the center of the two crowned drums. The problem with this plan is that bandsaws have bearings that help to keep the blade on, but belt sanders don't. So, if by some chance you have one of these bastard sanders be aware that the drive drum can be easily replaced.

Click here for Shopsmith 6" Belt Sanders For Sale on eBay

Fitting Drawers with a Shopsmith Belt Sander with Nick Engler and Jim McCann

Shopsmith Strip Sander Information, Review and History and a CRITICAL TiP!

Don't get so excited with eBay prices that you pay more than the price of a new tool! At the time of this post, the current MSRP of the Shopsmith Strip Sander is $389.00. (As of March 2021)

FYI, The Shopsmith Stripsander is one of the best on the market! You can power it on your Shopsmith 10er, Mark I, Mark II, Mark V, Mark VII, and even with the Sawsmith Radial Arm Saw! It can also be powered by what Shopsmith calls an SPT Stand (Single Purpose Tool), the Power Station, or the Crafters Station. It can be used for sanding in tight spaces, and is AWESOME for sharpening your lathe tools and knives!

The strip sander does have one accessory which is for sharpening. It allows you to guide lathe tools through the sharpening and honing steps. It's a bit hard to see in the second photo, but note that when this accessory is mounted on the strip sander that it then must run in reverse. That means that on a Mark V you are driving it with the quill side of the Mark V not the SPT hub on the backside. Imagine yourself in the middle of some spindle turning when you realize that you need to sharpen your skew. Now you must remove your work, your spur drive center, and your tailstock. Mount your new drive hub, your strip sander (which hopefully has the sharpening jig in place), and sharpen your skew. Now, reverse that and you're ready to go again. Oops! You dropped your skew! Do you get my drift? On the current Mark V and Mark VII with a PowerPro headstock or on a Crafter's Station, you can run the motor in reverse, so this isn't an issue.

One final critical tip: There have been a couple versions of the 2" idler wheel; one made from aluminum, the other from plastic. If your sander has the plastic version, make sure they are greased. They will run forever with a thin coat of bearing grease on the axle and re-greasing every once-and-a-while. They will melt in about 20-minutes without the grease! If you get a strip sander with wobbly, plastic idler wheels, replacement wheels are available from Shopsmith.

Click here for Shopsmith Stripsanders For Sale

Here's a video showing the Shopsmith Strip Sander being used for sharpening Plane Irons

Here are a couple pics from the 1988 or '89 annual Manager's Meeting when the Strip Sander at the new aluminum bandsaw table were introduced. The gentleman in the green and white striped shirt conducting the demo is Tim Silvers, the product manager for the sander. The meeting was conducted that year at the Carolina Hotel in historic Pinehurst, NC.  I think I tell the story elsewhere on this blog about what happened during this demo when they demonstrated the bandsaw table... that's a funny story.