I happen to be partial to the old school shopsmith. When I moved back to Virginia, and into the house I have now, I had a surprise in the basement. There it stood, in all of its glory... A 1952 shopsmith with some typing paper taped together , "welcome home, bird". I had no clue what the thing was. But, it was obvious that someone (my dad, brother, and grandfather) had taken a lot of time and pride in the unknown object. In my previous dwelling place (Houston) I began to like woodworking. I used only hand tools. I would like to say that was due to my principals, but really I had no money or wherewithal to be involved with power.
I used that as my table saw, joiner, disc sander, drum sander, drill press, and hadn't gotten in to using the lathe or shaper. But, it was a very simple and straight forward motor that even I could work on. To this day, I generally have it set up as my drill press ( in the upright position) , and I still use the drum sander and 12 inch disc sander. I have no idea what the new ones are like. I still haven't used the lathe or shaper yet, but I plan to. I love a good ole shopsmith!
Cheers
Jenny bird