New South Bend Lathe info

I attended the IMTS show and walked by the South Bend Booth and on the isle they had a vintage lathe and shaper. I was looking at them and 2 salesmen approached me. I said these are American made Iron, and he said yes. Then I walked over to a 10 K lathe and I said this is made by Grizzly? The one salesman quickly walked away and the other stayed and as I read his name badge he was the National Sales manager. I forget his name. Well he went on to explain that both companies are owned by the same guy and that's the only thing they have in common. I also see the catalog says that South Bend Lathe Companies address is in Bellingham, Washington and their website is southbendlathe.com

He went on to say that "all" of the brand new South Bends are made in Taiwan "now". He said last year they had one model made in China, but not now. He also said that before original South Bend closed they were also having lathes made in Taiwan at the same factory they now use. From that I took that as saying South Bend lathes are made by another lathe factory and they make lathes for several companies and South Bend does not have it's own factory. I looked at the scraping on the cross-slide and it looked pretty rough, meaning it looked like they used either a fly cutter or cup wheeled grinder to finish the flat and dovetail, hand scraped it for looks and then 1/2 mooned the exposed surface.

Their sales brochure has a history of South Bend but fails to mention they are now made in Taiwan in it that I could see, I may have missed that, but i looked at several pages and did not see "Made in Taiwan". The ad in the brochure for the 10 K lathe is a bit bogus in my opinion. They have a "Made in The USA" badge on page 7, and as you read the info it says "Lathe Stand" is made in the USA....on page 6 showing the lathe there is no mention as to where it is made.

I am a big fan of Taiwanese made machinery as I have taught scraping there for years for TAMI and PMC that are Machine builder association and research centers. I have learned over the years there are many "classes" of quality of machines made over their. These new South Bends look from the outside to be one of the better classes of machine build quality, with that said, In my opinion, I have never been to impressed with Grizzly machines as I feel they are on the low side of quality.

This is just some info for you. I am not going to debate the pro's and con's of the politics of them. but this is an observation for you to think about. Rich

I always find it funny how companies want to claim made in the usa but dont want to step up and make stuff in the usa. They will use red white and blue in the label they will hide country of origin and name it after an old line brand but when it comes down to it they bail.

I suppose they could machine it precision and put in some scraping just for looks. But with your experience if it looks cheesy to you then it might be just that. That is a shame because for over $17k for a 1440 they should be making enough money to make it at least look good. That is almost 4x the griz price. Hope it runs better than it looks.

Standard Modern toolroom machines page 3
http://www.homesteadtrust.com/gsa/pdf/StandardModern_GSA_Catalog_Lathes_103108.pdf
Looks like a1340 SM with 3J, 4J, stedy, follow and tool holders about 15/$16K

Still the SM is not U.S. made so not a whole lot of difference but I think it a better lathe that the new SB.

With the SM.Page-4. inch gears//metric gears @ $594 each... what is that?... do you not get change gears in basic package?

FWIW, the new 10K I bought last September is clearly identified as being made in Taiwan on the SB Nameplate on the feed gear cover on the left side of the head, and is identified in the manual on the specs page as well. So they are not trying to hide it, but are not shouting about it either.
The Manual plays up the retro look of the "Old South Bend" history. (Which to some is a glorious history..)

I did a long review from Day 1, on the "New South Bend Lathes" thread I feel is complete, though probably tedious to people at times.

We see a lot of this marketing all over, now.

Big Letters "AMERICAN COMPANY", Tiny letters, "Made by the Peoples' Red Dragon Noodle &machine pty, ltd"

Ask me about the bearings I bought from a flag-waving Red, White, and Blue With Eagles And Stuff website.
-The prisoner-made bearings I threw in the trash because the SEALS had fallen off in transit.

I read within the last year that South Bend is the exclusive provider of lathes for the U.S. Navy. Though not all components are American made at leas the USN is doing business with a US company.

Vlad

Vladymere gr said:

I read within the last year that South Bend is the exclusive provider of lathes for the U.S. Navy. Though not all components are American made at leas the USN is doing business with a US company.

Vlad

Click to expand...

I doubt the veracity of this post.

Mr. Nelson,

You are correct. I was misataken. I did not read they where the exclusive suppliers to the USN. What I read is "Our largest customers are the US Navy and Army as well as many departments of our Government."

Vlad

Vladymere gr said:

Mr. Nelson,

You are correct. I was misataken. I did not read they where the exclusive suppliers to the USN. What I read is "Our largest customers are the US Navy and Army as well as many departments of our Government."

Vlad

Click to expand...

The Navy's machinist school had a large number of belt driven SB lathes for training in San Diego. I spent 20+ years in shipboard machine shops and the only SB's I've ever seen were on ships built in the 50's and 60's (but there may be more). Although I believe it is customary for the government to outfit ships with American products, most from what I've seen recently on the newer class DDG's, were Taiwanese styled machines -14x40's. When I first seen the grizzly ad for the new SB's, I assumed they were still made in the US but then I noticed the stand said "made in US" while the machine didn't specify. With the current price tag, I can't imagine why it would not be cost effective to manufacture here.

Richard King said:

He went on to say that "all" of the brand new South Bends are made in Taiwan "now". He said last year they had one model made in China, but not now. He also said that before original South Bend closed they were also having lathes made in Taiwan at the same factory they now use

Click to expand...

Like this is supposed to make anyone feel better that it is made in Taiwan ?

Taiwan is China after all, Republic of China, sounds like China to me... lol

But really, does it really matter ? The U.S. continues to send their products overseas for manufacturing at the expense of the buyers.

This message bears repeating...

Heh. I did not see any SKS's in that vid.
Well, regardless of where my lathe was made, none of my materials and supplies to make my products come from anywhere but US ISO900x certified sources. And my customers know it, appreciate it, and make me keep buying more lathes.
Selling your customers products made from garbage results in one sale, one time. Not a good long term plan.
Anyway, ontopic, so far the 10K does a good job, paid for itself in a couple of months, and there will be another one here to keep it company shortly.
But, Yes, IS there a reason they cannot be built in South Bend again by my fellow taxpayers?

Please excuse my ignorance as I am new to this forum. I recently purchased a circa 1965 South Bend 10K ( light 10) from a gentle man that basically did a few superficial things, like slopping on some gray paint and replacing the felts. I would like to refurbish this machine correctly. So I need to find out if the ways can be re ground/ scraped as it has a groove in it from obvious carelessness and wear. If so, does anyone have a source for this. Cost? Are 10K lathes interchangeable with each other or perhaps 9A ways? I unfortunately do not have the time or tooling at this point to spend learning to do it myself. Thank you. Ron

If you can dodge the worn areas of the bed, then do that. Lathe bed grinding isn't so easy to source, and then you need to adjust the height of the headstock, ways of the carriage, etc.

When you find the worn areas taxing your ability to compensate, then yes, you need to do something.

I say set up an ebay "followed search" and have emails sent to you when anything South Bend is listed.

I have jumped on more than 2-3 tools for sale, and now realize that unless you are going to start making money with it before the sun sets, a little patience (or a lot of patience) will bring equal or superior machinery to your attention.

This ebay vendor has a book and the parts needed for refurbishment (just get the correct kit), but keep in mind that selective fits are to be found, and if you don't know exactly how the gears go back in the gearbox, you will need to resort to trial and error. Mark any assembly with the notations needed for you to assemble it exactly as you found it. The book in question doesn't stress the need for an arbor press, but an arbor press will come in handy.

Rebuild Book Kit for South Bend Lathe 10L "Heavy 10" | eBay

http://www.ebay.com/sch/stevewb/m.h..._DefaultDomain_0&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Beware that link to a heavy 10 manual and kit, it won't fit your light 10. I advise you to start a new thread, instead of responding to this unrelated one.

allan