Value of used Shopsmith

[Leon]

in 1978. I was limited to keeping my woodworking equip ment in a 4x 8 carport storage room. When needed, I wo uld roll it out onto the carport and cut/turn away. Sh opsmith offered classes at a very reasonable rate and the training projects made one familiar with the diffe rent configurations. The variable speed motor is plent y strong and doesn't rely on expensive electronics. St ill runs well after all these years. The ease of dado adjustment comes to mind as the blades are right there and you lower the table over them for use. I've never taken 20 minutes to make any setup change and that in cludes going from a "table saw" (not much table) to a drill press....more like 5-6 minutes. Since then I was able to have a larger shop and , like most others, ac quired a table saw, radial arm, router tables, etc. Th e Shopsmith met my financial and space needs at the ti me of purchase. It doesn't do any one function particu larly well when compared to dedicated tools but I've n ever regretted the purchase.

IIRC in 1978 the Shop Smith was about 1/3rd the price it is today, may be a bit less, I was thinking $800 or so. Like ever ything else it has gone up in price.

[-MIKE-]

Probably explains why the set master I referred to had one. He worked for a PBS station. :-)

[Leon]

I highly suspect that the one Norm used belonged to the production guy, like the shop. Sponsors probably dictated an upgrade to what they manufactured. IIRC a Delta contractors saw and finally a Unisaw.

And then a belt sander suitable for flattening the surface on an air craft carrier. ;~)

[Markem]

But you just paint one of those used shipping containers the write color scheme.......

Emily Latella should be along shortly.

[-MIKE-]

LOL. Having worked for the State and knowing some of their weird purchasing requirements, he may have had other motivation for buying it. They may have had a policy stating you could only purchase one major tool for whatever grant they got to pay for it.

However, I suspect he just fell in love with the hype like most guys who buy them and wanted one for himself and let the State fund it. :-)

[Clare Snyder]

But not as fast as the average wage, or the price of Gasoline, or beer.

In 1978 $800 was a pretty sizeable chunk of cash!! A good 2 weeks pay for an average laborer.

[John Grossbohlin]

Mostly used as a drill press as I recall Norm saying!

[Leon]

And a lathe IIRC. ;~)

[John Grossbohlin]

My father got a new in the crate Shopsmith with a jointer and scroll saw from a retired Boy Scout Scoutmaster around 1960... His troop gave it to him when he retired but he had no interest in woodworking and sold it at a good discount off retail. The Shopsmith still resides in my father's shop. I started using it when I was very young making jig saw puzzles at first and then moved on to using the drill press, jointer and table saw. Switching between options isn't a big deal... I was doing it as a kid (though the jointer seemed to weigh a ton to me back then!).

After using my big stationary tools I find the Shopsmith inadequate but it has served my father well for nearly 60 years... and he can still get parts for it! He upgraded the motor to a larger one when Shopsmith had a sale on them. That was a good move as the original was grossly underpowered for table saw use... It doesn't look a whole lot different from the Mark 5 they sell today.

[Scott Lurndal]

In 1978, the U.S. minimum wage was $2.65/hr. That's 300 hours (or almost five weeks) to pay for the shopsmith (assuming no other expenses for that month). So, in reality, $800 probably used at least six months of discretionary income for the average laborer, if not more. (taxes, fica reduce the top end, then there are day-to-day living expenses, so it probably would take over a year for someone to save $800 for a shopsmith).

$10.00/hr in 1978 was rare, particularly for an average laborer (I was getting $7/hr with shift differential in a starch factory about then which was generous).

[John Grossbohlin]

And a lathe IIRC. ;~)

Yeah... he did use it as a lathe too. I don't recall ever seeing him use it as a table saw. I think the Shopsmith was Russell Morash's if I remember the story correctly.

[Clare Snyder]

Point made then. Minimum wage today here in Ontario is $14. 2 weeks is 80 hours. Thats $1120.

The "average laborer" does not work for minimum wage.

Average wage around here is about $21 an hour. or $1680 for 2 weeks work.

At your $7 per hour in '78 it took almost 3 weeks of before tax earning - so equivalent to about $2580 today

You were "above average" - as you said your $7 was "generouss" - so equivalent pricing today is LIKELY closer to 6 weeks earnings (@$5 per hour then) - so about $5160 today.

Mark 7 lists for $4279 US today - or about $5550 Canadian - - - - -

-

[Clare Snyder]

Mark 5 is $3520

[Gramps' shop]

Minority view: I used a Shopsmith to build an entire kitchen. It was a ma jor PITA to change from one setup to another, but it got the job done. Kin da liked the horizontal boring function, but the teensy table made cutting sheet goods a challenging operation.

My shop at that time was about 40sf in the furnace room of a Civil War era row house. Space is the mother of that invention.

[krw]

That's not Festool's market and Festool doesn't make junk.

[krw]

I may have to downsize but the shop won't get too much smaller. ;-)

[krw]

I thought it would have been Jane Curtain.

[krw]

Gasoline is cheaper now than it was then. Beer? Dunno haven't bought any in over a decade.

I think your wage estimate is high.

[russellseaton1]

t in a 4x 8 carport storage room. When needed, I would roll it out onto the carport and cut/turn away. Shopsmith offered classes at a very reasonable rate and the training projects made one familiar with the different configu rations. The variable speed motor is plenty strong and doesn't rely on expe nsive electronics. Still runs well after all these years. The ease of dado adjustment comes to mind as the blades are right there and you lower the ta ble over them for use. I've never taken 20 minutes to make any setup change and that includes going from a "table saw" (not much table) to a drill pre ss....more like 5-6 minutes. Since then I was able to have a larger shop an d , like most others, acquired a table saw, radial arm, router tables, etc. The Shopsmith met my financial and space needs at the time of purchase. It doesn't do any one function particularly well when compared to dedicated t ools but I've never

The cheaper ShopSmith Mark V is $3559 today on their website. If $800 was two weeks pay back then, the average laborer made $20,800 in 1978. Seems h igh. Maybe it was three weeks pay for $800. That would be average pay of $13,600 in 1978. Based on a Google search I did, I found annual income in

1978 of $17,700. So two to three weeks for the average worker.

But today the cheaper ShopSmith is $3559. If that is two weeks pay today, then the buyer is earning $92,534 per year. That is a lot more than the av erage pay in the USA. If its three weeks pay, then we are talking about a yearly pay of $60,503. Almost exactly the median income in the USA in 2017 .

If the $800 in 1978 is accurate and the $3559 today, it takes the average w orker 2-3 weeks of income to buy a ShopSmith.

[Puckdropper]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

All I need is a simple 4 room house: Bedroom, Bathroom, Kitchen, and living room.

The shop, OTOH, needs to be a intelligently partitioned 128'x128' space!

Puckdropper