Shopsmith Speed Increaser

[cincinnati]

Never hear much about this. Anyone own one and do you like, dislike? Any problems?
Just kinda interested what owners think of this accessory.


http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/catalog/images/SpeedIncreaser.jpg

[reible]

Hi,

I think in the past couple of weeks there was a post about a router adapter questions for this very tool. I don't have one and have no knowledge of them so I read the post and don't recall much more about it... Maybe someone can remind us of the post or maybe a search for something like router adapter???

Sorry I can't be more help.

Ed

[a1gutterman]

If an owner of the speed increaser posts here, will you tell us if you use it for more then just routing.

Cincinnati, if you want to use the Mark V for routing, this is supposed to improve the performance, so I can understand your qwest for information, but if you use a regular router, you will probably be wasting your money for this item. Unless there is another use for it?

edit: It is also used for shaper operations. Any body use it for that?

[gilamonster]

I have a SI -- bought it about 1990, but never got a chance to use it til this year.

I have been using it for routing...in fact, I have just turned my SS into a router table, thanks to the SI.

We've been working on building our new house for the last couple years, and have finally reached the fun part: finish trim. Installed Tongue and Groove ceiling in the great room, and brought the T&G down the front wall of the living room, around the windows. After I trimmed out all the windows, needed an appropriate casing to frame them, but couldn't find anything I liked. So, we ripped a bunch of #2 or Better 2x6x10s into 3/8 x 1-1/2" strips (planing the good edge before ripping) then ran them thru the SS Router/Speed Increaser set-up to give us a 30-something degree bevel to match that of the T&G.

To accomplish this, I milled a 2x4 with an appropriately-angled face (60-some degrees?) which would guide the molding strips into the 1/4" straight router bit, yielding the correct bevel angle on the molding. You can see this set-up in attached Router1.jpg. The Shaper fence had to be adjusted to take up the space, after the bit, where the bevel was cut. (you can see my Shaper Fence is the old model, modified to fit my 510 table) The shims before the bit are to keep the molding from sliding down, which makes the bevel too deep.

The second picture shows the guard attached. The vacuum hose, when affixed, sucked up any small dust, but left the larger chips to fall on the floor (couldn't lower the guard any further, as it would get in the way of the molding passing the router bit).

Thanks to the Speed Increaser, we were able to mill about 350 linear feet of casing in about half an hour. Granted this is pine, not hardwood, but it sure worked fine!

Next project for it will be routing the edges of the knotty alder window sills. Stay tuned!

[gilamonster]

To answer Tim's specific questions, I have not yet used it for anything but routing. I have shaper heads, but have not yet used them.

I have a couple of individual routers but never gotten around to building a router table in which to mount either one. Since I already have the SI, I decided to set it up for this operation, and I am glad I did. Also, both my routers have only 1/4" collets, and the SI can use either quarter- or half-inch bits...a major advantage.

I will say, that when the SI is running at speed, it sounds like a jet engine! And, in my cold basement shop, I have to start the SS at a slow speed and dial it up to "V" setting, else it boggs down and pops the breaker.

Which brings me to a question: take a look a the exploded schematic of the SI... can anyone tell me how it works? There are no gears, and I see no visible means of both increasing the speed and changing the direction of spin, from horizontal to vertical!

Must be magic.

[JPG40504]

Where's the attachments?????:confused:

[gilamonster]

Must not have sucessfully attached the pix this a.m.

I'll try again...