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1944 South Bend Model 9a restoration

MakerDino

Plastic
Joined
Mar 31, 2015
Location
Pinehurst, NC
Hello everyone. I'd like to share a restoration project here. I just picked up this 1944 9a from a young gentleman in Raleigh NC for $600. He had it advertised as "$600 or best offer" but after looking everything over I just handed the $600 which I felt was a fair price. It came with a wooden chest which contained a steady rest, some measuring tools, lathe dogs, and some other miscellaneous treasures. It's in pretty fair shape for a 71 year old lathe. I'll be posting videos on my YouTube channel, HackAWeekTV, as the restoration work goes on and I'll share them here.

Looking forward to getting to know you all and learning a thing or two. I've done some machining over the years on all kinds of different equipment, some in perfect condition, some in really bad condition. I've found that it's all about knowing what you and the machine can do with what's at hand. This lathe is a most welcome addition to my work shop. The fact that it's a South Bend has some significance. My fiance and I met in a machine shop over a 10" South Bend lathe. She was admiring it and I walked up and said "this is a pretty cool old piece of equipment". She said " yeah it must be old because it has a leather drive belt and the other lathes don't". We had a great discussion trying to guess when it was made. She's a keeper!
 

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Somewhere there's an atlas lathe missing its change gears!

You could recoup some of the expense by selling those off. They
probably have part numbers on them if you look close. These
are the die-cast ones, in the second photo that is.
 
I sold the change gear set on eBay and I have the steady rest for sale there as well. I purchased a 1944 edition of "How To Run A Lathe" from eBay. It's in wonderful condition and a good read. Lots of useful practical information for anyone new to machine work. Highly recommend it.

I should be getting started on this project in a couple of weeks. I'm getting married this weekend and taking some time off next week to spend with visiting family. My soon to be wife is excited about this new addition to our workshop and she's anxious to learn how to run it! I taught her how to MIG weld last summer and discovered that she's a natural. :)

Looking forward to getting started and in the meanwhile I'm enjoying reading the posts here.
 
Good Luck

I started my apron rework last night on my 9A. Clear to me that the builders spent some time on the design and assembly. Everything came apart as advertised. 50 years of abuse could not kill this girl.

My worst component so far (other than a broken apron worm gear housing) was the driven worm gear worn to the extreme.
 








 
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