any company selling refurbished southbend lathes

looking for a company that sells refurbished southbend , looking for a heavy 10 or larger . don't want the hassles of rebuilding it myself , just want it to be ready to go .

You'll have an easier time, probably, buying the lathe you want. A sending it to someone to refurb/refit/rescrape/rebuild, etc.

Grizzly is selling new ones under the South Bend name. Not the same as old ones but relevant copies. Just an option.

They used to be an old machinist who lived about 15 miles from me "Southwest Tennessee" that rebuilt South Bend machines. He had a workshop behind his house and bought them from school auctions. But that was 20 years ago. I'm not even sure if he still alive or not.

There may be a couple of members here that do it, and I'm sure their price would be reasonable. But there's nothing like the knowledge you get from rebuilding your own machine. Knowing how to take it apart and put it back together, goes a long way in knowing how to fix potential problems that arise. The knowledge you gain is worth every minute that you put into a rebuild. If you rebuild your own, don't get in a hurry and break something. Ask questions first. Take plenty of pictures of everything. Nowadays you can take a picture of every screw and part without a big expense. Thanks to the Kodak film company for digital photos, except for their patents they are pretty much out of business because of it. Put all parts in plastic bags or bins, and label them. If you take your time and think about what you're doing you will be surprised how fast it goes.

Joe.

You can occasionally find one for sale that's billed as "rebuilt", but one man's rebuild is another man's rattle-can spray job.

Not sure that there are many people out there rebuilding them for sale - probably not much money in it.

If you know someone with the skills and that you can trust, you can go with them shopping for a used one and then pay him to rebuild it.

Steve

metalmaster10 said:

Grizzly is selling new ones under the South Bend name. Not the same as old ones but relevant copies. Just an option.

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It is my understanding that those things are pieces of shit. It is pretty much a fraud to put the South Bend name on them.

777mechanic said:

looking for a company that sells refurbished southbend , looking for a heavy 10 or larger . don't want the hassles of rebuilding it myself , just want it to be ready to go .

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If you wait long enough, and know what you are looking for, you can probably find one that doesn't need to be rebuilt at all. That is what I would and did put my money on. I found one that had not changed hands since the day it was bought, except from father to son who sold it to me. It had new gears in the gearbox, and the ways had been rescraped a couple years prior. $1700 and ready to go and not a thing I had to do to it. I might have been lucky but I see pristine machines come up every now and then.

Rebuilding these machines is not difficult. Working on modern automobiles is more of a PITA then a South Bend lathe. When I work on calls I tend to rattel off four letter words. Working on my lathe is a very soothing, relaxing, enjoyable process.

You have to be well researched, which is not difficult with the interent and many of the links and advice that come out of this forum and others similar to it. promacjoe game some very specific advice which you should reread.

You need only very simple tools to work on these. There are a variety of ways to remove rust and dirt off the important surfaces with a small amount of elbow grease. Putting in new lubrication felts and spindle disassmebly is not hard if you've done your homework. This will not take you very long to do at all.

My advice to you however is do not attempt to paint the lathe right away. Just bring her home, read, read again, read some more, take it apart, clean, lube, assemble, deal with the electric, buy lots of tooling, make chips.

777mechanic said:

looking for a company that sells refurbished southbend , looking for a heavy 10 or larger . don't want the hassles of rebuilding it myself , just want it to be ready to go .

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They come up on ebay occasionally in the type of condition you're looking for. In your case if you don't care to do the work yourself, a tad of freight probably won't bother you and it will make your life easier.

Cheers,
Alan

I wouldn't buy a machine tool until I could put my eyes and hands on it, to check it out! Take someone Knowledgable, that you TRUST, to shop for a lathe with you. Locate used machine tool dealers and ask what they have available, for your needs. Some dealers may offer to "find" a heavy ten for you, if you have a "comfort level" with that dealer or a recommendation from someone, about the dealers integrity, you might want to go that way, too. Beware of buying "rebuilt" machinery. A steam clean and a paint job is NOT rebuilt! I've seen chipped gears, wore out bushings, sanded ways, sloppy lead screws,etc. on machines that were "rebuilt". Again, never buy a machine from fleabay if you can't go look at it. Put the word out among friends, especially those who might work in the trade. Look for the heavy ten with "hard ways" preferably a catalogue #8187, that would be a toolroom model which was built with tighter tolerances than the standard 187 models. Some "heavy tens" built in the 70's-80's had "cam lock" spindles, which opens up more chuck options. If you buy a lathe package with a lot of tooling, that shouldn't make much of a difference. Look for a machine "a little old lady only drove to church on Sunday"! Ha. Good luck in your search.

Short answer to your original question, there are machinery rebuilders out there, however, none that I know of specialize in rebuilding South Bend lathes. A professional rebuilder would likely charge more for a rebuild than the lathe is worth. I kind of got off on a tangent,above, after reading all the posts. P.B.

Rebuilding these machines is not difficult......(snip)......You need only very simple tools to work on these. There are a variety of ways to remove rust and dirt off the important surfaces with a small amount of elbow grease. Putting in new lubrication felts and spindle disassmebly is not hard if you've done your homework. This will not take you very long to do at all.

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Sounds like a rattle can rebuild to me.

Or "eBay overhaul"

What is "simple tools" about a large surface grinder plus a way grinder or perhaps a planer? Then a Biax and all the surface plates, straight edges and inspection equipment to back up a scraping job on the cross slides, compound, and all the parts and surfaces that mate to the ways to re-align them? New base casting to fix the TS droop. Hone and cylindrical grinder for rebuilding the TS quill. Another lathe to make or mate new leadscrews and nuts.

Yep, SB lathes are almost stone axe simple, but the equipment to rebuild one the same as for any more complex lathe.

Your point that most people should just take the lathe and use it, I agree with. Most people don't consider a clean-paint-partially-refelt-and lube, anything close to a "rebuild". The OP does use the term "refurbishment" though so maybe the requirements are not so stringent as a true rebuild.

smt

thanks for the replies , i've been running a monarch 6100 series at work . love the lathe so i started looking for a monarch 10ee then looked at a hardinge lv and almost died when the rebuilds where around 27k and up . and the biggest problem is there short , i know precision but the monarch we use holds awesome over 60'' but weigh more than a semi . so thats why i've been looking at a southbend , easy to get parts . went and bought machinery handbook tonight just to see what kind of tooling i would need to buy to refurbish the lathe and it's out of my reach price wise . so i'll keep hunting to find 1 . have all my bars and gauges to test one .

my best guess to have a 10L re-built would be around $2500 - that would be the bed,saddle,cross slide and compound. the balance to be done yourself.

but,seriously, if you are using a 61 I can`t see you being too happy with a SB, or any flat belt,cone pulley machine.