Here is a few pictures of the SB machine before and after. I have hundreds of pics of everything but most of the them were more than 3mb and have to be reduced first. The lathe was apart about 14 months. So glad its done. It was completely disassembled, inspected, painted and reassembled. The cabinet was the only thing not painted, but the whole under drive unit was disassembled, cleaned and reinstalled with new bearing. sorry I didn't organize the pictures or anything. I have some parts and tool I have made but will put them in a different thread t keep thing simple. I can email pictures of any part someone would like to see. It was neat to see the whole machine disassembled but glad its together again. Chris
I dont come around the forums much but I just happen to click the metal shop, glad I did. looks really nice.
I have a 1942 S.B. 10 L that used to be on a naval ship so its mounted on the heavy roded wood cabinet with the tapered drawer locks. tagged Property of U.S. Air Force. I am honored to own it , A piece of real american history in my book.
I could not get the three jaw chuck loose so I let it be , I am ok with the three jaw chuck anyway/ would love to refinish some of it but my eyes & lack of time/ it would bother me also not having it up & running LOL /
thanks for sharing / nice shop you have there.
Mike E
hi mike, the chuck should come off. Try hitting the chuck key in the check with a dead blow hammer. Just be careful. They say not to lock the head with the back gear, but i do. just don't hit the key hard enough to break a gear tooth. You can use a strap wrench on the head cone to hold it if you happen to have one. Good luck
Mike, that should be a threaded spindle. If so, put something heavy in the chuck and run it in reverse, over and over. Lots of tricks, I never did it myself, but others have put a long bar sticking out the side of the chuck, locked the spindle with the back gears, and put a bucket full of heavy stuff on the end of the bar. Let it sit like that when not in use. I guess the longer the bar the better.
Good luck.
Looks clean!
Wish someone would do that to my shop....
I chuck a large Allen wrench
spin entire assembly as if tightening chuck on spindle
whack Allen wrench with 4Lbs drilling hammer
the chuck stops abruptly while the gear train/spindle continues trying to spin
using the motor was total overkill
I''ve got my 10K up and running and turning accurate parts. I'm using a Hitach WJ200 VFD to power my 3-phase motor from the single phase 240V supply at the house. I disassembled mine, removed the minimal surface rust, cleaned out the gunk and installed new felts and such, but I just couldn't bring myself to strip all of the chipped paint and repaint it. I admire your extra labor.
Chris, outstanding work sir! I'm a lathe newbie and this weekend I gave my little mini-lathe its first tuneup, and I'm delighted with the massive improvement in the quality of cut. But I have to say it feels just a bit less rewarding after seeing this beautiful machine. Got some serious lathe envy going on here.
Does your light 10 have scrape (frosting) marks on the ways? I don't see it. Does it have an X in the serial # on the ways at the right end of the bed?
No frost scraping and an X means rare hardened bed. X means "special order" It's possible to have more than one X. Rare for a SB 9 or light 10 (and only after about 1966). Common on their big brothers.
South bend BEDS were not hand scraped for fit. The frosting was for either way oil retention(debatable) or merely looks. Awesome lathes, I love them and own two. They were not the "best lathes you could buy".
Hardened beds do not have it. "Frosting" on the bed.
Only the headstocks, saddles, tailstocks, cross slide, and compound were hand fitted to a planed and ground bed. With and without Frosting.
Hey cloud9ag, Your machine looks good. I sure would not think about painting that one. I wanted to do a VFD on mine but never got around to it. My 10L is running a 1hp 120v motor. Wish i still had the original paint on it, but mine needed it pretty bad. I used the lathe for 10+ years before taking it apart. The old SB lathe really help me out a lot to support my kids when things were tight. My lathe was apart 13 months. It was hard to find time to work on it but eventually I got tired of tripping over parts and had to get it back together...LOL It was pretty cool to see how all the parts went together and how they functioned. There wasn't anything on it that wasn't totally disassemble and cleaned. Even ran taps thru every thread hole on it. There is a lot.....Its nice to have it running again. Lately been threading rimfire barrels so I can play more with one of my suppressor. 🙂
My bed has the light frosting scrapes at the head stock and on the last foot or so of the bed, but in between they are worn away. My bed ways have about .010-.014" of wear on them, and there is a small ridge at the top of the Vee. I only noticed the wear when I am using the collet holders because the saddle rides up on the non-worn portion of the bed, so I have to stay in that area and adjust my tool height to get good parts. I purchased the good chuck which keeps me farther away from the headstock in the worn area of the bed and I can turn parts with less than .0003" taper.
My bed doesn't have an X in the serial number on the bed. Mine was made in 1971 based on the serial number card I have.
This southbend is nice, but not as nice or as stiff as the Hardinge and Clausing toolroom lathes I've used before, but those are way more expensive.
@kyairgunner
I disassembled almost all of the lathe to clean it and replace most of the felts, but I didn't disassemble the gearbox, and the wicks seem to feed pretty well so I may not take that apart after all. I still have a little corrosion on the crossfeed dial that makes it a little difficult to read, so I may try to find a better one on eBay.
This one has double X's. It was special ordered for a specific use And has a special order hardened bed. It had thread winding apparatus custom made by South Bend. And a small chain drive adapted to the middle step on the cone gear. The crest was machined off that step and a sprocket carrier fitted. Odd. The lathe didn't have a compound slide from the factory. All of the hand scraping on the bottom of the saddle and tailstock are present. Cross slide scraping is like new. The QC gearbox was clean inside as was the apron. The lathe had never cut metal. There were no metal chips on or inside of it. Perfect bed. I paid $180.00 for it at an auction with light rust here and there on it. I was the only one who knew what was under the surface. It cost a few hundred getting it together. Custom matched original color paint. Runs nearly silent with the tumblers in neutral. And pretty quiet with the end gears engaged as well.
I'll do a write up on it sometime. I have some pictures from the build. I don't strip paint from machine parts if it is sound. Just go over castings with a small knotted wire wheel fitted in a drill. Stripping to me is a messy waste of time. Not my first rodeo, I have many beautifully restored machines. Old hat at this.
This one is my 1947 SB9a. My father owned from about 1962. Mine since 1987. Lost him. I "cut my teeth" on it in 1973. Still shows the scrape marks on the worn area of the bed. No nicks or boo boos on the bed. No crash marks on the compound. Extremely well cared for machine. I still have the original instant reverse motor. You know me? You KNOW it gets used. Rebuilt a number of years ago. Runs nice. I like the early tumblers because you can adjust the tumbler gear lash on them. Quieter. End gear lash is important for quieter operation. I hate jingly jangly gears.
