Shopsmith Accessory Shelf - Make your own

[@uncledan001]

To the person who asked about dealing with the compound angle of the legs when making the 10 degree wedges. I accidentally removed the question while editing my answer. I have a greeny and 2 grey leg Shopsmiths. I don't worry too much about the leg flare which prevents the 2 leg screw-holes from being perfectly parallel to the rail. The greeny seems to have less leg flare then the greys, but still not completely parallel. I may have planed a bit off one side of the wedges to account for this. Nothing scientific. The main purpose of the wedges is to be a spacer. The strength comes from the connection of the metal leg to the rail.

[@bobware1087]

Great looking shelf. I found the "ancient" plans for the "Under the Mark V" cabinet but the shelf seems to be a better fit for me. My Shopsmith is in my 2-1/2 car garage but the 1/2 part is raised about 6" from the 2 car side. The Under the Mark V would drag the bottom when ever I would roll it to work...if that makes sense. I'll probably be building the shelf this week and I will post a video and plans also. Remember: measure twice and cut once.

[@uncledan001]

Thanks Bob; looking forward to seeing it.

[@HandMeat]

Useful video

[@larryjacobs5713]

In purchasing the older models what have you found to clean and remove rust?

[@uncledan001]

For small parts I use a several hour soak in vinegar. I learned that on you tube. One of the old Shopsmiths I bought had a band saw with a badly rusted table. I used 400 grit sandpaper and spent about an hour, but looks great now.

[@larryjacobs5713]

uncledan001 thank you it has a badly rusted ban saw table as well. Do you sell any of the reconditioned SS?

[@uncledan001]

Larry - sorry no, I don't sell equipment. I live in Boston area and there are plenty of adds on Craigslist which is where I got my machines.

[@lwoodt1]

Great idea to use clamps as hangers while attaching the rails ...

[@calvinbass1839]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[@JeffWilsonOK]

Do you have the plans for this shelf?

[@uncledan001]

Jeff - no I did not make a plan; I just measured as I went. I have 2 Grey machines from the 1980's and a 1953 Greenie. There are differences in the legs which causes the lengths to be different. My advice is to mount the rails before doing the main shelf section so that the shelf can be cut to fit depending on the height of the rails relative to the inside of the legs. The rails on the 3rd machine I did were on the Greenie and I used 1" by 3/4" Poplar which is the smallest of my 3 machines and is plenty for this task. They can be any reasonable size. All 3 of my machines have different rail thickness. The rail length was about 63" but that really does have a tight tolerance so you would need to measure those outer holes on your own machine. You only have about 1/2" past the holes before the rail bumps into the leg. The main shelf for the Greenie was about 50". The Greys are a bit longer with roughly 64" rails and 51" main shelf. As far as the wedges are concerned, I just started with about a 10 degree 3" long one. Then trimmed to what seemed right.