Shopsmith Forums

Thin shims under the circlip that holds the control disc on will tighten the detents. In my case I need to centre the cam as well so thin shims where the arrow is in the picture will adjust the position of the cam in the follower while adjusting the detents at the same time. When you get the balance...

I have shimmed carefully to be tight enough not to run away at the high end while keeping my cam centered in the follower. It works well.

That's about what I thought. I'm very pleased with what I've got now. It's no great hardship but it is stiff. The mechanical advantage can't be what the worm and quadrant produces.
I'm going to try some lubrication.

I glued part of the offcut from the cam back on and recut it 1/16” bigger at the slow end. Now I get 680 rpm to 5249. Most numbers on the dial are within 100 of the actual speed. The dial is quite hard to turn to get to the very lowest. Can anyone tell me if that is normal even with the factory cam?...

Interesting. I just replaced the tinnermans on my Mark VII headstock as some were missing. I Helicoiled the holes in the casting and installed 10-24 bolts. I did the three on the speed control at the same time. My casters just needed cleaning and lubricating so I don’t remember but there likely isn’...

Okay, moving along then…. I replaced the bearing and used the lathe for another hour. Nothing got even warm! There was a little runout when working at the end of my piece beyond the chuck but fine between centres. I was able to produce a chevalet part so I guess the Mark VII is officially a worker. ...

So, I got the speed control working perfectly but ....... when I tried a little turning the spur quickly got hot. ...too hot to touch. There also appears to be runout on the quill. My thoughts are: 1) I have the wrong bearing. (same as single bearing Mark V?) It was a very hard press but it went on....

Thanks.
I used the Purpleheart because it was what I had that was strong enough. I’ll let it go a while to prove the fix and then likely make one out of 1/2” aluminium plate. I really see no need for the roll pins is the follower. They just make the cam 10X harder to make.

I finally got the Mark V control sheave assembly from my eBay order. Pressing the sleeve through the sheave, cutting 1/4” off, and pressing it back went quite easily in my veneer press. Unfortunately the process damaged the button bearing so I didn’t get to prove it would work. I punched it out and ...

I would have Al, but I didn’t have any. It was down to Purpleheart and Tubi aka Queen Ebony. I had more Purpleheart.
When I had my shipyard my big 36” bandsaw had Lignum Vitae bearings.