Need help identifying/dating SB Lathe

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a Bridgeport Mill (See this thread), that was in need of a lot of TLC and I'm nearly done restoring it.

Even more recently, my grandfather passed away and tucked wayyyyyyy back in his garage is this South Bend lathe.



I went over today to check it out and take some pictures. I also got the Serial Number which is 107,478. Below that is a small J.F.P. and below that is J.O.D.

Catalog Number is 113C
Swing is 13"
Bed is 6'

Unfortunately "dating" this machine has not been anywhere near as easy as my Bridgeport.

I know my grandfather purchased the lathe from the old Balantine Beer brewery in the 1960's and Im guessing since it has an actual serial "number" and not a code number that it at least dates Pre-1947.

Any help or clues on how to date this lathe would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-Morgan

[This message has been edited by NJTy180 (edited 03-15-2004).]

Over at the Yahoo South Bend group website, there is a spreadsheet that you type in the s/n and it spits out an estimate for the date, it works for pre and post war. Or just call Southbend or LeBlond directly. This appears to be an easy one, since you have a s/n and a catalog number.

Jeff

[This message has been edited by mendoje1 (edited 03-15-2004).]

That serial number corresponds to about 1941. If you call Rose at South Bend, she can tell you the exact shipping date.
The letters are the initials of the men who scraped in the lathe.

-Bill Fill
Olympia, WA

Yahoo SB lathe shipping date estimator gives a range between March and May of 1941.

Now if I was a wiseass I'd say dating a lathe is easy, just ask it out for a drink.

[This message has been edited by BillSct (edited 03-15-2004).]

Over at the Yahoo South Bend group website, there is a spreadsheet that you type in the s/n and it spits out an estimate for the date, it works for pre and post war. Or just call Southbend or LeBlond directly. This appears to be an easy one, since you have a s/n and a catalog number.
Jeff

Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks Jeff.

South Bend chronology.xls and sb_serial_numbers.xls both seem to point to early 1941 as a production year.

Just as a side note, ModelsByYear.xls did nothing but crash Excel, not sure if it does that for anyone else.

I guess its safe to assume this is a Series S machine cause of the production date?

If anyone has any other info or thoughts, feel free post. Id like to learn as much as possible.

-Morgan

ModelsByYear.xls doesn't work for me either. Guess it's broken.

wow, thanks for all the helpful replies everyone.

Glad that file isnt just working for me

Oh, for what its worth despite the horrible pictures and the condition it appears to be in and it surviving a flood, the lathe does still work smoothly. It does however need a new leather drive belt, the current one is slowly starting to fall apart but I wont be looking for parts till I start restoring it.