In 1953 Rockwell (AKA Delta Milwaukee) finally decided to respond to the popularity of the Shopsmith 10er, which was the first of the Shopsmith line of multi-tools introduced in 1947. While I'm sure that the Shopsmith tools funneled some of the tools sales away from Sears and Delta for a time, but in the end they all owe Shopsmith Thank-You note for getting thousands of DIY'ers into woodworking. The Delta-Shop was quite a bit different than the Shopsmith. Where the Shopsmith was a lathe-based tool, the DeltaShop was built around a tablesaw. A single motor with a dual shaft drove the saw and the jointer which were mounted on a common stand, the drill press and disc sander were a different story. For use them you first removed the saw blade and swapped it with a drive pulley. To use the drill press you flipped it into position from the right end of the saw, where it is hinged, and from there you feed the belt over a pair of pulleys and through the table's throat plate and around the pulley beneath the table. Lowering the bland (now a pulley) adds the proper tension to the belt. Most of these tools that exist today have long since had their drill presses removed and permanently mounted on a bench or tossed into the trash, as they have a very small capacity.
In 1953 Rockwell (AKA Delta Milwaukee) finally decided to respond to the popularity of the Shopsmith 10er, which was the first of the Shopsmith line of multi-tools introduced in 1947. While I'm sure that the Shopsmith tools funneled some of the tools sales away from Sears and Delta for a time, but in the end they all owe Shopsmith Thank-You note for getting thousands of DIY'ers into woodworking. The Delta-Shop was quite a bit different than the Shopsmith. Where the Shopsmith was a lathe-based tool, the DeltaShop was built around a tablesaw. A single motor with a dual shaft drove the saw and the jointer which were mounted on a common stand, the drill press and disc sander were a different story. For use them you first removed the saw blade and swapped it with a drive pulley. To use the drill press you flipped it into position from the right end of the saw, where it is hinged, and from there you feed the belt over a pair of pulleys and through the table's throat plate and around the pulley beneath the table. Lowering the bland (now a pulley) adds the proper tension to the belt. Most of these tools that exist today have long since had their drill presses removed and permanently mounted on a bench or tossed into the trash, as they have a very small capacity.
