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How Rare are 9" turret lathes?

panabax

Aluminum
Joined
Mar 28, 2015
Location
Dallas, Texas USA
There is a 9" for sale on the Dallas craigslist. It looks to be in need of quite a bit of TLC. The thing that caught my attention is that it is a turret lathe, serial number 42971NCT9. The serial number indicates it left the factory with the turret assembly installed. It also has the collet closer installed and the lever action cross feed. I was thinking about buying it for the parts for my 9A, but I ended up winning another 9A from a school auction and I think two 9" lathes at a time should probably be my limit. Is there any great value in these add-ons? I assume the turret would need to be re-bored to be used on my 9A and, given the NCT serial number, I would hate to separate the turret from the bed.

One other curious thing is that the headstock has grease zerks above the spindle bearings. I can't imagine that is original (or good). I have an old 405 headstock that has oil cups in this location but I have never heard of a SB 9 having grease zerks. Any ideas on what they were thinking?

Anyway, here is the listing: South Bend 9" metal lathe

Baxter
 
...and I think two 9" lathes at a time should probably be my limit.

Is there really any such thing as too many lathes?

And $1250 is way too much for a 9C, especially will as little tooling as it seems to have. Those grease zerks would have me worried - the spindles are lubricated with light oil, not heavy grease.
 
Grease fittings on the headstock bearings would be cause for deep concern about the health of those bearings. South Bend spindle bearings like a quite light machine oil but NEVER grease. You might use grease if the bearing clearances had become hopelessly large just so that you could use the lathe but I'd be very, very suspicious about the condition of the lathe and the care it's received over the years. Unless there is some other endearing quality that you haven't mentioned, I'd stay away from it.
 
Those attachments are often pretty pricey on ebay, but the base lathe looks like a worn out nag.
The turret tail and "production" cross slide are only of limited value unless you are setting up for a production run.
If that lathe was used in production expect it to be very worn, as it should be at the end of a useful life.
Odds are that unless you have a specific need it will just sit there in a corner looking sad since a more normally configured machine is going to be a lot easier to jump on for ones'n'twos.
 
All true.

The nice thing about turret lathes, though, is that the bed ways are much less likely to be worn. So if you're looking for a good bed, a turret lathe is a good place to start.

Neil
 








 
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