[Rodney]

I know I'm not the only ShopSmith user here. One nice thing about ShopSmiths is the horizontal boring feature. I did find that I quickly got tired of trying to accurately clamp my work to the uneven underside of the cast aluminum table though.

I came up with this jig for drilling the ends of square turning blanks for cane shanks. It's probably not as useful for drilling natural shanks.



Sorry about the blurry picture.

It's made from scraps. Here's the underside.



There's two runners that fit in the miter slots on the table. The fence is parallel to the drill bit. After using it once I decided I wanted to clamp my work vertically as well as horizontally so I added the 2" wide strip to the front. It's much easier to clamp the work securely now.

The fence is fastened to the table with a carriage bolt and block of wood that slides in the throat plate. I just tighten the nut on top to lock it down.

I didn't have a square blank handy. Here's a sample board in the jig.





I think it will save time and frustration in drilling the ends of long stock.

Rodney

 

[cobalt]

For turning a shank and aligning upfor a topper seems ideal .but as you say a natural shank has its own problems .

would love to get a lathe but no room in my work space

 

[Rodney]

Space is always an issue in small shops. ShopSmiths are multi-tools designed to cater to hobby woodworkers who don't have the space for individual tools. They still take up a good chunk of floor space though. Mine is a mid-1950s Mark V. They're still being made today. They're expensive new but there are a lot of used ones out there. Used ones can be had pretty cheaply.

I think the basic machine can be used as a lathe, table saw, drill press and disk sander. You can also get band saw, jointer and scroll saw attachments for them.

I'm not sure what the British equivalent would be.

For natural shanks it's still with a hand held drill for me. I might try rigging something that references the cut top of the shank for drilling straight holes though.

Rodney