Sher Shopmate - Impulse Buy

On a whim I stopped at an antique shop; on a whim I bought a Sher Shopmate. The wife saw the smile on my face when I saw it so she didn't argue... until we had to carry it down 50 steps. :doh:

Drill runs well in both speeds although it was stuck in high speed until some built-up gunk came loose.

Not sure why I bought it but there it is. I'll have a go at restoring it as well as I can when time permits. Who knows, it might even make itself useful.

I don't know too much about these other than it's dated around the '60's (?) and they came with all sorts of attachments. Wondering what the attachment (bottom right) does in photo #5? It looks like a lathe type rest...?


http://i.imgur.com/4e70U7m.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/izPo21G.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KOKQSJp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9cUafqU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GO78tna.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IXVPK9n.jpg

Being "Skil" Sher it would be a later model as you say of the 60s. I picked up the frame from our tip shop. and over the years I have collected other pieces that may or may not fit. Yours looks very complete. And yes they do have parts to support a small capacity wood lathe. As a high school kid in the mid 60s I drooled over one that was set up in Grace Bros at Miranda Fair. I picked up a drill similar to yours and was very surprised when its power is so much less than a modern drill of the same capacity. The frame also can be elevated to turn it into a drill press. Yeh one day I will restore the one I have. Oh by the way a bloke on Ebay was selling one with the original paper work. He was good enough to make a copy for me, so if you like I could copy it and post it to you. (Its not a digital version)

Thanks for the offer Rod. That would be fantastic. :)

I did find an old post with some links to PDF files. A couple of them didn't work but the others were very interesting.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f11/ne...tml#post853171

Well done.. The Shopmate was introduced by Sher Power Tools around 1958 and was originally powered by the 3/8 Powermatic drill...If your drill is running to spec it will have ample power to run the machine.
It looks like its all there except for the faceplate and the quadrant thingy that allows you to cut/sand mitres. It slides in that groove in the table top.
The Shopmate becomes a wood lathe by removing the table and replacing the saw arbor with a lathe drive centre.
Sher was taken over by the American Skil Corporation around 1967 and became "Skil Sher"

I know this is a bit of an old thread.
Did you manage to download the manual?
The link in dead and I have a Sher Shopmate as well that was my grandfather’s. I am trying to put all the parts back together into one set. Any help would be appreciated

The thing you ask about in Photo #5 looks like the toolrest for the machine in lathe mode. The lathe tool rests on that as you cut.