Shopsmith Episode #4: By the time I got to Headstock...

I decided since I was starting in the middle, I should also have a look at anything that may be broken and require ordering replacements parts. There are two things which trouble my mind: Can Dallas go all the way this year, and Mitt Romney...seriously?  But I digress.  

Pertaining to the Shopsmith, two items needing attention are:

a.  The Motor.  This is a big question mark as it has not seen any electricity in over 20 years.   Although the motor shaft spins manually, the unit is full of sawdust and other unmentionables, and the power cord is toast and must be replaced before any electricity is applied.

b.  The Headstock Quill Assembly.  The quill is a kind of rack and pinion set-up that allows you to move a drill bit or what have you in and out along with a spring to retract it automatically (see close-up diagram).  Rusty’s quill spindle does not extend with ease nor does the automatic spring retract work.  Is it simply full of gunk?  Is the spring broke or come dislodged?  

I have seen YouTube videos and forum threads about the woes of fixing or replacing the quill spring.  

I disassembled most of the headstock assembly and tested the spring assembly part - but only gently in fear that it would uncoil, shoot across the garage, break my framed autograph picture of Bartles and James, and cause me to spend a month of Sundays putting it back together again (the spring - not the autographed picture, that is irreplaceable).  

The spring unit seemed to be working, and mostly full of gunk.  I soaked everything in the Evapo-Rust bath overnight and used some cleaning solutions, wire brushes,  

steel wool, and some polishing compound.  The quill now moves in and out much better, and the quill spring retracts the unit nicely.

  

Cleaning the headstock, or any of the painted cast iron assemblies, is a challenge.  I do not intend to repaint these items -  they have a nice bluish-grey color and are not in that bad of shape.  How to clean off the rust and grime without grinding off the paint?  

I reached into my arsenal of caustic chemicals for help.  I tried a spray bottle of Purple Cleaner (which isn’t really purple) along with various scotch brite and steel wool.  It provided some cleaning, but left a white residue, and seem to have no effect on rust.  Another bottle called Black Magic made things shinier, but I saw no signs of prestidigitation.  The naval jelly was too harsh on the paint, as were the wire brush and scotch brite grinder attachments.  By accident, I used some steel wool over some WD-40 and it surprisingly did an admirable cleanup job.  Truly a miracle product.  

I must say that there doesn’t seem to be a good way of  cleaning out the small openings used by the locking levers and set screws, and in particular, the hollow inside of the pulley shaft used by the quill.  The Dremel tool with a wire brush helped a little, otherwise it was a comical exercise in trying to get some amount of caustic fluid and steel wool inside these orifices.  I still can’t figure out how to clean out the tapped hole used by the set screws.

I waxed up the orifices (the best I could) and quill assembly and reinstalled everything.  Although I chose not to paint the main unit, I think it turned out fine.  

I also chose not to replace the bearings at this time...although this may become a future project.

Two down -122 to go.  Next step: the motor