Shopsmith Forums

Considering an older Total Shop as someone told me about one for sale.

Curious if someone knows if Shopsmith cast the main parts and where done. US or asian sourced? If the Total Shop was nearly identical, did they use the same company as Shopsmith to make the parts? Are the headstock internal parts interchangeable?

Total Shop tools were made in Taiwan, while the Shopsmith is made here in the U.S. So, the answer to your question is that they didn't use the foundry to make the parts. Since Total Shop copied the Shopsmith, the parts are similar but not identical, but I'm not sure what can be swapped between the two machines.

Everything inside the headstock is different between the two. The tables etc from the total shop do fit the shopsmith. The total shop tables are cast iron and nice and heavy. The miter gauge does not fit the total shop miter gauge slots. This is easily fixed with a milling bit in a dremel and a quick jig to enlarge these slots. I did this upgrade and posted a pic or two in an old thread.

Thanks for the answers and I'll steer clear from the Total Shop.

The Total Shop used 1.675" Way tubes. Since no repair parts exist for the total shop, I have sold Shopsmith headstocks that will fit on the total shop tubes and tighten down with no lost of accurancy. I have several spare total shop main tables with a side extension table and the front miter gauge extension. The miter gauge slot need a light milling to accept the Shopsmith miter gauge. It would be just as easy to mill the miter slots to accept the 510/520 Shopsmith miter gauge. The total shop main table trunnion legs will fit the Shopsmith 500 carriage. My headstock repair jig uses the smaller total shop tubes, base and base arm to allows much easlier access to mount the Shopsmith headstocks. My horizontal Shopsmith drilling, tapping and milling machine uses a cut down steel total shop table.

No Shopsmith internal headstock parts will fit the total shop