I hate to review a product before I have my hands on it, but Shopsmith has something new that for me is a real “head slapper”, one of those “why didn’t I think of that?”, and I wanted to get the word out to everyone ASAP. They call it the Shop Deputy, and it looks like the perfect solution for those of us that have upgraded to the PowerPro headstock and the Double Tilt.
When you upgrade to the Double Tilt, you replace the two end castings, and if you get a new headstock, you are probably looking for something to do with the old headstock. The Shop Deputy is the answer. The kit consists of two short way tubes, mounting hardware and directions. You use your old headstock and end castings to make this! This is an inexpensive way ($100-$150.) to get a great deal more use from your Shopsmith tools. I will post more here when I get mine set up.
The new Shop Deputy lets us use our old headstock and end castings to make our own power base!
I had an old Mark V and just bought a new Mark 7, I have all the parts from my old Shopsmith and just to know what was required to convert to deputy. I see that you have to have the way tubes cut down to size and a couple of lag screws and washers. Is there anything else you need and are the instructions available to make this conversion?
Hi Ron;I am currently making my own version of the Shop Deputy. I had the tubes cut down to 32″, put it on a 48×24 base,and added several hundred pounds of sand (tube sand from HD-$5.00 for 60 lb. tube). I am primarily interested in making a heavier lathe for big, out of round bowls. I’ll post pix and results when I get it done.If you google “short-smith”, you can see several versions of this.
Shopsmithwoodworker 
Would love to hear more about this. Specifically, how are the old castings mounted to a flat surface?
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Shopsmith supplies the hardware and instructions with the kit.
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I had an old Mark V and just bought a new Mark 7, I have all the parts from my old Shopsmith and just to know what was required to convert to deputy. I see that you have to have the way tubes cut down to size and a couple of lag screws and washers. Is there anything else you need and are the instructions available to make this conversion?
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Hi Ron;I am currently making my own version of the Shop Deputy. I had the tubes cut down to 32″, put it on a 48×24 base,and added several hundred pounds of sand (tube sand from HD-$5.00 for 60 lb. tube). I am primarily interested in making a heavier lathe for big, out of round bowls. I’ll post pix and results when I get it done.If you google “short-smith”, you can see several versions of this.
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