The veneered "Curio Cabinet" is a good example of the precision that can be achieved with even the oldest models of Shopsmith. The most critical fits in this piece are the matched grain miters on the corners. With no framing inside the miter must be a perfect fit to glue properly. If the miter is open on the outside the corner is ruined. If the miter is open on the inside, there is no glue joint. To top it off, you can't keep re-cutting a joint because not only will it ruin the grain match, but all the other corners will have to be altered to size and they are all grain matches. You only get one chance to get it right. This was accomplished easily on my 10 ER, a tool that many would dismiss as a poor choice for this because it has a tilting table and limited mitering width. I constructed a very simple miter sled for the job and because the table and alignment of the 10ER were accurate and rigid the sled worked perfectly. This is only the most obvious example but it relates to one of the biggest "negatives" blamed on the Shopsmith. My 10 ER will not produce "production efficiency" because of the changeovers required between functions but it was never meant to. What it will produce is precision results.
The full build was documented with pictures that can be seen in this photo album.
Beauty shots of the final product are in this photo album.
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| Table Saw |
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| Disc Sander |
2 comments:
September 16, 2010 at 4:11 PM
The word 'stunning' doesn't even come close to adequately describing the quality, workmanship, and beauty of this piece. This is proof that it ain't the equipment, it's the craftsman. We need to all remember that.
October 6, 2010 at 10:24 PM
Those glowing words of praise regarding the accuracy of the over half century old Shopsmith come from a professional woodworker with a shop full of high end production equipment. His degree of competence is indicated by the stunning quality of the finished project. Kudos Paul M!
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