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If you died tomorrow, what would you want done with your South Bend Lathe?

1945_SBL_4sale

Plastic
Joined
Jun 30, 2017
It's something to think about. My late husband owned "Bertha" and now I'm logging onto a machinist website (something I have absolutely NO interest in) to try and find a buyer. She's on wooden skids and comes with all his tooling for her.

Memories:

He found her years ago leaning on the side of an old barn with a dirt floor. She was neglected, rusting, alone, not loved or touched in a long time. She needed some TLC, sanding, dusting, dental work (gear/teeth), oil, wires, and attention. He went to visit her for a while, whispering sweet nothings, promising her this and that, putting her on skids and getting ready to bring her home.

His buddy wanted to hire a friend to move her, but he had other ideas. He cut through the front of my steel two-horse trailer and welded a winch to the floor and he used that to slide her into the trailer to bring her here. His buddy was so mad (thinking the move was dangerous) that he wouldn't even watch the move (which went smoothly, without a hitch). When he got her home he un-welded the winch and placed it out the back door of the shop (barn) using the concrete slab as a base to winch her into the shop where she has stood since he slid her into place that day.

Cheating on me, he spent a lot of time with her and I have to admit, I did get jealous. He made love to her in so many ways. He made a new gear for her and bought her all kinds of trinkets. She got better and better the more he loved her, the more attention he gave her, the more he fixed her up. Did I mention I got jealous?!

Anyway, he's gone now and she needs someone to love her. She misses him, and so do I.
 
Look on ebay and see what people are getting for something similar to what you have. I could see someone taking advantage of you if don't do a little research.

This site has a for sale section, although this might be better spot?

Post as much information about it as you get and plenty of pictures including accessories and guys here may help with its worth, possibly a sale.

Brent
 
I too am sorry for you loss. I hope someone will find this fine machine and love it as much as you husband did,
 
It's something to think about. My late husband owned "Bertha" and now I'm logging onto a machinist website (something I have absolutely NO interest in) to try and find a buyer. She's on wooden skids and comes with all his tooling for her.

Memories:

He found her years ago leaning on the side of an old barn with a dirt floor. She was neglected, rusting, alone, not loved or touched in a long time. She needed some TLC, sanding, dusting, dental work (gear/teeth), oil, wires, and attention. He went to visit her for a while, whispering sweet nothings, promising her this and that, putting her on skids and getting ready to bring her home.

His buddy wanted to hire a friend to move her, but he had other ideas. He cut through the front of my steel two-horse trailer and welded a winch to the floor and he used that to slide her into the trailer to bring her here. His buddy was so mad (thinking the move was dangerous) that he wouldn't even watch the move (which went smoothly, without a hitch). When he got her home he un-welded the winch and placed it out the back door of the shop (barn) using the concrete slab as a base to winch her into the shop where she has stood since he slid her into place that day.

Cheating on me, he spent a lot of time with her and I have to admit, I did get jealous. He made love to her in so many ways. He made a new gear for her and bought her all kinds of trinkets. She got better and better the more he loved her, the more attention he gave her, the more he fixed her up. Did I mention I got jealous?!

Anyway, he's gone now and she needs someone to love her. She misses him, and so do I.

My wife would scrap it and everything else as well.
 
All of us should review such things with the spouse as we all have machines with good resale value that also have accessories stashed in other places that increase value and if all is known the survivors can properly dispose of machines and recover value instead of having scrap or some picker getting too much of a bargan.

To the op, look around the shop and locate anything that looks like it fits as well as seeking out any friends who may know what is really there.

Folks here can properly identify by serial and model numbers and give "guestimates" on value based on other sales.

If friends are not interested then craigs list with photos will get it done but price with room to haggle as that size is a wanted item and will move fast so start higher than you think as you can always go down.

Do not post any addresses or phone numbers and state you will only communicate via cl email as it keeps email addresses secret.

Make sure you have company when folks look and also state buyer to move and payment in full before attempt and no refunds period.




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To answer the original question on this thread, and if I died tomorrow what would I want done with my South Bend Lathe?

I have 3 lathes, 1 is much nicer than the other 2 which are both South Bends. But to keep this simple, let's just think about all my machines. There are much more than a lathe, and there are not only metalworking but woodworking machines as well.

1) I would hope that someone in the family was interested in taking the machines and using them. Sometimes that is just not possible, but if/when I die, I hope my son will possibly want my machines.

2) Short of a family member (brothers, sisters, uncles, grandkids, whoever), I would try to find a friend of the family that was interested in metalworking that would take them. One problem with many of them is that they are big, hard to move, and need a motivated owner to want to move them.

3) Short of a family member, or a friend of the family, I'd want them to figure out how much the machines were worth and try to sell them and do something with the money that they would enjoy as much as I did using the machine(s). Unfortunately I don't tell my wife how much all the machines are worth and don't have an inventory. This might sound familiar to you. Sometimes you just have to do the best you can.

That said, my plan is to build a house with a shop and have the machines in the shop and leave the house to my kids with the machines. If they don't want them, they can sell them. My wife would inherit most of it, and when she was gone the kids would get it. I wouldn't expect my wife to use my machines, but would hope my son would. My daughter won't use them. She would use the kitchen appliances. A little bit of this for one, and little bit of that for the other. LOL

And to what the machine you've posted pics of in other threads, I would say about $750-$1000, possibly a tad more but it will take an interested buyer for a 16" lathe. Not too many home shops looking for that type of lathe. Looks like it's missing some doors and parts, and it's not in vary good condition. When you say your husband restored the lathe, what he really did was get it back working again. If you look around some of the lathes on this site that people have restored, some put them into better than original condition. Not trying to hurt your feeling, I'm sure your husband did some work to the lathe to get it running, but he didn't restore it. If he did restore it, he must have beat the crap out of it for many years after.
 
And to what the machine you've posted pics of in other threads, I would say about $750-$1000, possibly a tad more but it will take an interested buyer for a 16" lathe. Not too many home shops looking for that type of lathe. Looks like it's missing some doors and parts, and it's not in vary good condition. When you say your husband restored the lathe, what he really did was get it back working again. If you look around some of the lathes on this site that people have restored, some put them into better than original condition. Not trying to hurt your feeling, I'm sure your husband did some work to the lathe to get it running, but he didn't restore it. If he did restore it, he must have beat the crap out of it for many years after.

I was avoiding posting on this one, but your last line cracked me up, and I'd have to wholly agree with that last paragraph. I like 16" sbl's. I have two. Without trying too hard I can pretty much find one somewhere in the country for below $2000 every day of the week, $1000-$1500 pretty regular. I know because I watch for 16" sbl's regularly, though this one is 16/24. None of these are truly restored of course. A clean machine that looks well maintained, or you see some painted up a bit with a fair amount of tooling might push $2000-$3000. On a rare occasion you might see something with ways ground and scraped, and really nice push $5000-$8000, but there's limited buyers for that price, as many will go cnc, or another route if they have that doe.

Even liking 16"ers, for me the value is hurt on this one also, because it has no chip pan, to add it would require different legs and a pedestal. I see boxes of parts, including base covers etc. To maybe increase value, I would lay all those parts and tools out, and get pics of them. There could be tooling and such that could increase interest.


My wife would scrap it and everything else as well.

I fear I am in the same boat as you. My wife repeated has told me to get rid of those machines. Her vision goes one way, she see's money and time go out, not what returns or what may return. When I offer to spend money and time productively on women, booze, and late nights out she becomes slightly more agreeable to my shop efforts, but just slightly. I think she may not even sell them, she will probably pay someone to take them away.

I'd love for at least one of my kids to join me on the dark side, or take some interest in some type of craftsmanship. At this point they seem to be choosing different paths. They saw me dirty, beat down, and wore out a little too often I think, lol. When they start feeling the weight of real life and need to grind some doe out, who knows, maybe.

I have a glimmer of hope for my youngest daughter, she ain't afraid to mix it up. But her brains and education are at a higher level, even for being young. The kid is wicked talented on multiple fronts, with some nice creative and problem solving skills as well. I'm hoping to guide her towards mechanical or electrical engineering with some hands on know how. But girls typically shy away from hands on work in the end, so who knows, time will tell I guess.

My son does well with computers, programming and such. He does like building things. Been trying to edge him towards learning cnc, but I'm meeting resistance so far. The others aren't nearly interested. Looks like my best hope is those two. The youngest girl likes to hang out and give me a hand. Was teaching her some safety and minor basics about the lathe this week. She and my wife made me a funny fathers day pic this year too, kinda in line with things.

Regardless of the funny pic, she hates that I smoke btw, and I swear to Christ tells me about it every damn day. Annoyingly relentless about it that I have to hide to catch a break in peace, lol. She even formulated a story in which bad men hanging out on a street corner must have lured me in to teach me smoking, and they are bad guys, I should stay away from them. Pretty funny when she gets going on it.
 

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I was avoiding posting on this one, but your last line cracked me up, and I'd have to wholly agree with that last paragraph. I like 16" sbl's. I have two. Without trying too hard I can pretty much find one somewhere in the country for below $2000 every day of the week, $1000-$1500 pretty regular. I know because I watch for 16" sbl's regularly, though this one is 16/24. None of these are truly restored of course. A clean machine that looks well maintained, or you see some painted up a bit with a fair amount of tooling might push $2000-$3000. On a rare occasion you might see something with ways ground and scraped, and really nice push $5000-$8000, but there's limited buyers for that price, as many will go cnc, or another route if they have that doe.

They are not bad machines, but when you start getting up into $2k-$3k you start getting a lot more options on vintage machines, many quite a bit better...however South Bend is a household name pretty much, so it does have that going for it.

Problem is that household implies that most households would find the late desirable, and that is true for the smaller lathes that can be run on single phase, but the larger ones not so much. She will find a home for it, that I'm pretty certain...but won't be receiving any windfall in the process. Could be a very nice lathe under all that grime, really hard to tell...if it was run hard without proper lubrication it could be pretty worn.

Even liking 16"ers, for me the value is hurt on this one also, because it has no chip pan, to add it would require different legs and a pedestal. I see boxes of parts, including base covers etc. To maybe increase value, I would lay all those parts and tools out, and get pics of them. There could be tooling and such that could increase interest.

Yes, hard to tell in the pics, but it certainly is a filthy mess and needs to be cleaned and lubed up.

I fear I am in the same boat as you. My wife repeated has told me to get rid of those machines.

I don't think my wife would figure out how to sell them and get them moved. She would just leave them in the garage and not use that space. LOL

I could see the reaction on her face if someone said she could sell them, the response would probably be something to the effect of, "Really, somebody would want to buy them ? :confused:". :)
 
Since I have been cleaning up my fathers estate and am at trailer load #22. Finding a good home for the stuff is more important with this family. My wife knows that someday when I am not able to use the machines I own, it is time to sell them, rather than waiting till I am gone, then I can supervise the transactions.

Bill
 
Since I have been cleaning up my fathers estate and am at trailer load #22. Finding a good home for the stuff is more important with this family. My wife knows that someday when I am not able to use the machines I own, it is time to sell them, rather than waiting till I am gone, then I can supervise the transactions.

You know Bill, I think we all have that plan in mind...but some how life doesn't always dish it out how we planned... :rolleyes5:

Most of us are not planning on dying tomorrow, but unfortunately any one of us might. :o

It happened to the OP of this thread... :(
 
It does not really matter as when you are dead, well you are dead. It is fade to black and that is that.

Sure, it doesn't matter really in that you're dead. But the question is what you would want done with your machine.

What would want your spouse/wife to do with your 10EE if you died tomorrow? Yeah, you won't be around, but what would you want done with it ?

Of course this thread was asking about a South Bend, and I'm just generalizing to represent a machine or more than one machine. I have a lot more than 1...wait until my wife actually goes through the shed and storage container at the yard I rent. She'll find more machines that she doesn't know about...waiting to be cleaned up and put back to work. Hopefully she can figure out how to get someone to operate the forklift, cause most of them are heavy. LOL
 
I would want my wife to sell it for as much money as possible and do somerthing we always said we'd do but never got the chance.

To the owner- I am guessing that the pics in your other threads is the machine when your husband first got it...judging by the loose bits, it sitting in the doorway and no power to it, I would say fresh off the trailer??

If so post some current pics and all associated bits to get a good general idea of value.
 
Sure, it doesn't matter really in that you're dead. But the question is what you would want done with your machine.

What would want your spouse/wife to do with your 10EE if you died tomorrow? Yeah, you won't be around, but what would you want done with it ?

Of course this thread was asking about a South Bend, and I'm just generalizing to represent a machine or more than one machine. I have a lot more than 1...wait until my wife actually goes through the shed and storage container at the yard I rent. She'll find more machines that she doesn't know about...waiting to be cleaned up and put back to work. Hopefully she can figure out how to get someone to operate the forklift, cause most of them are heavy. LOL

I think this is true, we all have things the wife has no idea about, and the money we all spend on stuff and don't tell...
 
Thanks for all the replies! I enjoyed reading them all. Bertha was sold to a gentleman who was very happy to find her. All the parts were in boxes. She'll outlive many more generations!
 








 
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