13 Inch 1981 With Taper Attachment

Well my search for a lathe (this time ) has ended with the purchase of a 1981 South Bend 13 inch machine with a taper attachment. It is a really clean machine and looks like it has been taken care of. Once I get it on the floor of my shop I will get some close ups of the various areas. It has one issue where the piece of the taper attacehment that hooks to the cross slide has been broken and repaired. But the repair looks to have been very well done.

Specs:

SOUTH BEND 13" X 42" CC ENGINE LATHE WITH TAPER ATTACHMENT
SERIAL NUMBER: 16725T
Catalog Number: CL145C
Approximate Year: 1981
Specifications:
Swing: 13"
Bed Length: 6'
Spindle Speeds IN RPM, 4 Step Pulley
Open Belt: 270, 418, 628 And 940 RPM
Back Gear: 40, 60, 90 And 135 RPM
Tailstock Spindle Nose: No. 3 Morse Taper
Spindle Nose: D1-4 Cam Lock
Thru Hole: 1 3/8"
48 Feed Ranges: .0015-.0841
48 Thread Ranges: 4-224 TPI, ON Quick Change
Gear Box

Equipped With:
Taper Attachment With Bed Clamp
Flame Hardened Bedways
Cushman 6" Diameter 3 Jaw Scroll Chuck
Chuck Guard
Graduated Hand Dials
Micro Adjustable Stop
Four Position Tool Holder With Z Cutters
Live Center
Dead Center
Wrenches
Under Carriage Motor Design
Start/Stop, Forward/Reverse Push Buttons
2 HP, 220/440 Volt, 1730 RPM, 3 Phase Motor,
(Currently Wired For 440 Volts)

Photo of the unit at pickup

Photos of the unit loaded using info I learned here.

It is bolted to the bed, strapped (Note strap behind screw) , tarped and wrapped with pallet wrap and duct tape. Worked well for the ride.

12.5 hour drive.

Pre purchase photos. One is of the unit I found from an Auction Catalog.

I purchased the machine from CAMPBELL-SORENSEN in Michigan and so far I have been pleased with the experience. The guys in the shop were very nice and the front office person was polite.

I did miss at first that this is a Machinery Dealer (Shame on me ) but I talked to Mr. Sorensen about the machine and what he said was true that it is a nice machine with low usage.

I found by searching on the SN that it came originally from an Auction at B&C Machine in March.

B&C Machine Co.
401 Newell Street, Barberton, Ohio 44203 (approx. 40 miles south of Cleveland)

Looked to be a large CNC machine shop and this unit was a support machine. But someone here may have more details there.

If you look close at the taper attacehment you can see the repair. This is the one thing that should have been noted that was not and I missed it when I bought the unit. But I feel over all this was a good buy and that will be a simple replacement. I will probably upgrade the cross slide anyway.

13" Southbend

You did real good, that was a nice job on the shipping tie down for the drive home...

Very nice!

Very nice 13 inch South Bend complete with taper attachment. And it has the very desirable cam lock spindle nose and flame hardened bedways. I think these two features became standard around 1977-79.
David

Good for you. It looks like a very good machine.

out of curiosity what did you pay for it?

I paid $1425.00 (It has a taper attachement, 3 Jaw Chuck, Tool Post and some tooling) and I drove 12 hours each way with an overnight stay at a hotel to pick it up. Machines are HARD to locate in the South East. So you have to be willing to drive a bit. I know there are a few dealers around, but most of the machines for sell are on the east coast and in the north east anyway.

I did some checking and looking at the tags on it. It looks like I may be the third owner.

It has a Rockwell International Tag on it and a B&C Machine Company Tag that looks like it is from July/August of 1987. I ordered the card on it from Grizzly. I know the dealer got the machine in a lot purchase from the B&C liquidation auction.

Machine feels tight and I will post some pics here with my .0005 10 inch level as a straight edge on the ways. You guys can tell me IF that is an ok way to check for wear. I can tell it needs a cleaning and new felts. I can also tell the micrometer stop may have been added at the Machinery Dealer.

I can also tell it got a shot of paint at some point, but it is dirty so it may have been when it was pulled from Rockwell International because even some of that is worn off the bed.

I was going to repaint it, but I may clean it up and evaluate it. It looks cool and has character like it sits.

I'll post a ton of pics for review and comment... here are the first few.

A few more for now with the straight edge on the ways. The straight edge is 10 inches long.

Looks nice to me. You did well.

Tom

Not to show any disrespect but looking at the photo's, it is hard to believe that in 1981 South Bend was still making a 1920's era lathe.. No wonder they went bankrupt like a lot of other large US companies at the time..

This is a precision machine. SB did start making gear drive lathes and some nice ones at that. The Turnado series fits the bill there if that is what your after.. it's the whole gear VS belt battle. You bind a belt machine it slips. You bind a gear machine it breaks.. Not a place to be as a nube...

If you know the SB history you will see this frame has really been upgraded over the years and the reason this unit was still made is becuase people wanted it. I searched out this chassis because it is very rigid and the shear fact that you can still go buy these lathes in operation from the teens and twenties still really shows how nice that frame is.

And for hobbiest/nube machinist like me the price for a lathe of this caliber is out of reach unless you get machines like this one. I bought a Chinese lathe and it was fine for starters and small stuff (G0602 10x22). I even made enough to pay for it in a year just hobby turning. I just kept hitting the wall with it becuase it does not have the rigidity I need at 450lbs and the drives and slides are hobby class for sure.

I paid $995.00 for that machine and today it is 1095.00 plus freight. So toss a few years and a few hundred bucks and get 1000 times better machine. Easy math in my book if you need more than a hobby machine.

I think one of the things that drove SB out of business is the shear fact that people could buy these used machines all over the place if they had a sharpe eye and ready money instead of a new machine. Of course Grizzly's owner has purchased the South Bend brand and I hope they will return to making some of these smaller 13 and down SB lathes in this format.

Now more pics of my machine. It needs a good cleaning on the under belly.

.RC. said:

Not to show any disrespect but looking at the photo's, it is hard to believe that in 1981 South Bend was still making a 1920's era lathe.. No wonder they went bankrupt like a lot of other large US companies at the time..

Click to expand...

Interestingly enough, that is what I was thinking too.

CV: "I think one of the things that drove SB out of business is the shear fact that people could buy these used machines all over the place if they had a sharpe eye and ready money instead of a new machine."

Not so. I can buy a used Chevy too, but that is not what made GM go bankrupt.

You make a good point, but how many 50/60/70's erra cars are still being used as daily drivers? This machine just a few months ago was in a large CNC machine business doing who knows what.

As I started out on my metal working journey all the wish book variety machines are Chinese so that is what I bought the first time around. Now I have learned enough that these old American iron machines are close to the same money , with slop they have closer tolerances, more features (powered cross feed, directional feed, seperate threading feed, more power...etc etc) and are more ridged for the work I want to do.

And no I will not be getting any SB body art EVER. I was also looking at some Monarch and Leblond machines. But the Monarch's seem to be gold at the moment and I figured (like an old chevy) I can easily get parts for the SB machine (Especially now that PapaGrizzly bought the brand).

I will buy a new machine when the business is there to support it and the tax man says I need to buy equipment. What lathes do you guys have?

But I digress and want to keep this thread on the topic of my 13. I figure I can post what I found and it will help others seek out these older (Mine is a pup really) machines and give them a go....more pics of my machine.

that's just like mine your going to really like it, my machine came from a high school shop in tn, the kids painted it school colors with a paint brush so i will have to repaint it some day to. looks like it will be a big undertaking. nice machine you have.

Ok - Technical question. Does the Micrometer stop disengage the carriage?

If so how does it do it?

It just shows you where to stop the carriage. I think you did really good on your lathe purchase. Kenny

cvmikeray said:

Ok - Technical question. Does the Micrometer stop disengage the carriage?

If so how does it do it?

Click to expand...

No, but for power feed, I believe it is possible to adjust the clutch so that it will slip once the carriage reaches the stop. The power feed clutch is the handle on the carriage that is pulled outward. My experience with South Bend lathes is only with the older style clutch, which has a sort of star shaped handle that is turned to tighten. I have heard that the pull style handle clutches are more desirable. As a caution: do NOT use the stop while threading, as the threading mechanism is designed NOT to slip. (The threading is engaged by lifting on the lever towards the right hand side of the cariage.)

Another minor thing: The ways on South Bend lathes show wear only on the beveled sides of the ways. That is because the carriage is shaped as a vee with a rectangular notch cut out of it. So a worn SB lathe develops a sort of ridge that can be felt. Yours has the more modern hardened bed ways, it they look to be in very good condition.

Thanks for sharing your pictures, and good wishes.

-Jon

p.s. Do you have a copy of South Bend's book, How to Run a Lathe? It is good, not only for for general information, but also for information specific to South Bend lathes. http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?a...nation=us&currency=USD&mode=basic&st=sr&ac=qr

Hey cv what part of Bama? Alabama here also..