Thread: 13" South Bend Lathe....here we go again...

David,
I'm very interested in your project. I'm looking at a very similar 13 myself. Any updates?

Dave S.

been busy with work and hoarding small machinist tooling!

I'll get something posted soon....

That 16/24 you have a picture of a few posts back belongs to Dan Wyatt in Missouri. If you have questions, I can PM you his number. He's a wealth of information, he took that machine completely apart and restored/rebuilt it, and remembers every detail.

Also I still have a disassembled SB 13" large spindle machine just sitting here...and I REALLY need the space...

I'm just sayin...

Nick

Originally Posted by kozzmo99

I believe shimming the uni-leg does nothing as the the leg moves in all directions. So you shim one point at the base to get it level in one plane and the bed and leg moves with it.

This bed shows no twist and I have to imagine a bed with this kind of mass should not have twist. Plus when the one end is floating in that base there is no force present to impart twist.

I got it level with one shim on the pedestal with no twist in about 2 minutes.

I'm curious how it will react when the machine is running.

David

Shimming the Uni-Leg will help. Yes it's supposed to provide movement, but shimming under it, simply raises its overall height. It acts as a higher "floor" plane. Because, what if your low spot is where the Uni-Leg sits? Shimming the motor housing will (in theory) raise the high point of the floor even higher.

Originally Posted by bradjacob

Shimming the Uni-Leg will help. Yes it's supposed to provide movement, but shimming under it, simply raises its overall height. It acts as a higher "floor" plane. Because, what if your low spot is where the Uni-Leg sits? Shimming the motor housing will (in theory) raise the high point of the floor even higher.

Honestly I am more concerned with the twist in the bed rather than wether or not it is truly level. So if the lathe is a little high on the pedestal side so be it. I shimmed the pedestal to get the bubble in the level visible so I could see if it's twisted or not. Plus with the "gyro" leg the whole bed moves in any direction so if it's high on one side the bed will move in the oposite direction on the low side, so no bowing.

David