On Wednesday, March 28, 2018 at 1:52:39 PM UTC-5, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Wed, 28 Mar 2018 10:15:03 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 3/28/2018 5:55 AM, BillinGA wrote:
I bought one in 1978. I was limited to keeping my woodworking equipment 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 configurations. The variable speed motor is plenty strong and doesn't rely on expensive 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 table 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 press....more like 5-6 minutes. Since then I was able to have a larger shop and , 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 tools but I've never
regretted the purchase.



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

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 high. 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 average 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 worker 2-3 weeks of income to buy a ShopSmith.