Model 500Model 510After years of telling myself that I didn’t need an upgrade I went ahead and changed over to a Model 510, and now I wonder why I waited so long. When you upgrade to a 510, you get three things—size, safety, and dust control.
Size
Seeing both main tables next to each other gives you an appreciation for how much work space you gain with the 510.
The 510 is a lot bigger and beefier beneath the table, too. The 510 table has a wider stance, and the trunion is heavier. The larger table is easily moved up and down with a hand wheel, as opposed to the old lever mechanism on the Model 500.
This is the way I use my Shopsmith most of the time. I have the main table pushed against the extension table, which gives me 15” of rip capacity.
One way to add rip capacity is pull the main table away from the extension table, just like you would do on a Model 500. This leaves a gap, which is a pain in the neck if you’re going to be moving the fence often or if you’re cutting flimsy material that needs support.
The 510 has floating tables like the leaves in a dining room table, and I can add one or two depending on how much capacity I want. This is how it looks with a single floating table.
This is how it looks with two floating tables. This provides 30 inches of rip capacity, more than enough to rip sheets of plywood.
You can separate the tables to give yourself even greater capacity while still providing support for your work. The 510 can be configured to provide 50 inches of rip capacity, which is enough to trim a very wide door or dining room table.
Safety
The 510 is much safer than my vintage 500, especially in table saw mode. In fact, I had stopped using my Shopsmith as a table saw because it didn’t have upper and lower saw guards. The 510 upgrade includes a safety package that includes a push stick, feather board, push block, and fence straddler.
Dust Collection
This was the big surprise. The dust collection on the 510 is not only a step up from the Model 500 (which had no dust collection); it outperforms the dust collection on my other table saw by a wide margin. (Click here to see a side-by-side test.) It uses a standard 2 1/2 inch hose, so you can hook it up to a Shop Vac or to the Shopsmith dust collector.
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