Shopsmith Forums

Hello, all. I recently acquired a 1955 Mark V. I knew the drive belt was broken when I bought it but otherwise the whole setup looked to be in pretty good shape. For $300 I got the Mark V, a jointer, a belt sander, bandsaw with the table and miter gauge attachments. I think I got a pretty good deal but feel free to share your opinion.

I figured since I have to install a drive belt, I'd go ahead and completely disassembly the headstock to inspect everything, which brings me to this post. There were two items, I had some concerns about that I wanted to ask the forum.

Firstly, the Gilmer belt has worn into the drive clutch some. Not sure if it should be replaced or not. I put the photos in a youtube slide show since the photos were too big.
https://youtu.be/4dFy6zy1_9Y

If It needs to be replaced, are replacement Gilmer drives still available somewhere? I'm sure some will tell me just to upgrade to the Poly-v but that's more money than I want to spend right now with having to get a new quill, drive shaft, and idler sheave.

Secondly, the quill pinon shaft showed some wear also. See the youtube link. https://youtu.be/__VPR03YBXY

The material appears to be aluminum. I had thought about taking a small file and just cleaning up the rough spots? But any help/advise would be very much appreciated.

Thank You
---Ryan L

Gilmer belts are still available from ss.

Yes there is wear. Not bad for 60+ year old aluminum drive parts.

Pix added.

JPG, thanks for adding the pictures. Pictures can be added to your posts they just cannot be to large. Most digital cameras even phone ones take pictures that have to be reduced in file size before posting. Check the link below for instructions.

https://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/comm ... 19246.html

As JPG said not bad wear for 60+ years. The belts are available and the bearings in the Drive Sleeve, Quill and Idler shaft can all be replaced if needed. The Gilmer Drive Sleeve for your Mark 5 may have a clutch in it which allows slippage to help prevent the Gilmer belt from breaking. I cannot tell for sure from your pictures. This is not an easy thing to work on so if it ain't broke don't fix it. Do NOT loosen the set screw indicated by the arrow in your picture below if it is the clutched Gilmer Drive.
If it does not have the clutch the set screw only holds the gear casting on the shaft. Either way you do not need to remove the the Gilmer Gear or Gilmer Clutch from the Drive Sleeve to replace the bearings.

Thank you both for the advise. I ordered new bearings for the quill and the drive shaft. I should be getting those this week and hopefully get it put back together this weekend. Thanks again.