I found this fascinating:
This one's cool, too.
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Enjoyed ShopSmith video! I've always wanted one. Last year my scrapper friend had one he was going to scrap for 6 cents a pound. So maybe $15. I gave him a fridge and washer to scrap for it. Not sure how complete it is, It has table saw, drill press, lath (and chistles), borer, and large sanding disc. A couple of weeks ago I found another Mark 5 near by on Facebook for $200, It had same plus 4" joiner and a band saw plus molding head and dado blades. Big benefit is it had 5" of documentation and instructions with it.
This being FL, I need to clean up the surface rust and dull aluminum but both motors work great. Ordered new $20 "tires" for the band saw which the blade runs on along with $15 guides for blade. These were 3rd party parts off ebay.
The tool is heavy and well made - nice that all parts are still available and completely rebuildable. Both of mine are from the '80s. Lots of YouTube DIY too.
My boss from four companies ago had a ShopSmith and was very proud of it. He was learning the tool(s) and broadening his skills at the same time. A ShopSmith is one helluva set of tools and in the two times I have actually seen one in someone's shop, I have been impressed with how rugged they are, AND how much they can do with their myriad of attachments. Setup time can take a while, but the results are usually worth it.
One of my old bosses was a super-nice guy who owned a ShopSmith and gave me a great start in Program Management but was a newbie around tools. He now lives in an over-55 condo so I really doubt that his Shopsmith survived his career journey.
BTW, @WOLFGANG, I visited the woodworking shop at Del Webb's Sun City over-55 community (of 40,000 people) near Bluffton, SC, and they had TWO ShopSmiths in there, with every attachment known to man. They also had just about every decent woodworking tool ever seen on Norm Abrams' "New Yankee Workshop!"