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South Bend 9" Junior Lathe

Lanix

Plastic
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
Location
SC, USA
Recently purchased a Model 22-AB South Bend Junior 9" x 4ft Lathe ~1928
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This is the first lathe I've ever owned, and I hope to do some sort of restoration on it, which probably includes a de-gunking, painting and polishing.

The purchase included:
Lathe
Table
3 Motors (2 functional)
Small amount of tooling.. 3 holders, a wrench, dog, chuck.
And of course the change gears

The Chuck:
fM8Bi1g.jpg


Tailstock:
PRLmQLI.jpg


Motors:
This one works, but is currently dissasembled
AVGPOKa.jpg

The other 2, a treadmill motor, and another similar to the one above that was last known to not work
Kbx13i1.jpg


Change gears and a few tools:
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The Drive system:
0HWQUoX.jpg


Closer-up of the Headstock:
hCEJTXH.jpg


Compound:
d607zs7.jpg


The old switch, in pieces
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I took the spindle assembly out to get a glimpse of the bearings and this is what I saw:
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How bad is this damage? still useable? I can catch my fingernail on quite a few of these grooves, but none of them seem too terrible
I also saw that the bull gear had a missing tooth. so unfortunate :/

-Aaron
 
The Junior is a nice little basic lathe.
I got mine 5 years ago.
Needed a good cleaning and some parts replaced.
Added a 1 1/4 HP Makita router with 1/8", 3/16", 1/4" and 3/8" collets.
Can run Dremel bits, die grinder bits, end mills, drill bits, router bits etc.

Ronald
 

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Long bed, nice. I have a near identical 3' bed one. Those spindle bearings look fine, put it together, get it to 2 thou on the spindle lift test, and use it. I'd recommend against painting, what you have will look good with a cleaning and oil wipe-down. The bare metal parts would benefit from some gentle de-rusting, perhaps with electrolysis. Beware abrasives on machined surfaces.

allan
 
The Junior is a nice little basic lathe.
I got mine 5 years ago.
Needed a good cleaning and some parts replaced.
Added a 1 1/4 HP Makita router with 1/8", 3/16", 1/4" and 3/8" collets.
Can run Dremel bits, die grinder bits, end mills, drill bits, router bits etc.

Ronald
Nice! looks like a sweet little setup

Aaron
 
Long bed, nice. I have a near identical 3' bed one. Those spindle bearings look fine, put it together, get it to 2 thou on the spindle lift test, and use it. I'd recommend against painting, what you have will look good with a cleaning and oil wipe-down. The bare metal parts would benefit from some gentle de-rusting, perhaps with electrolysis. Beware abrasives on machined surfaces.

allan

I think im set on painting it, I have a fancy for that SB Gray, not original but it will still look good... also Its pretty much disassembled at this point, just a few stubborn taper pins to get out.


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I think im set on painting it, I have a fancy for that SB Gray, not original but it will still look good... also Its pretty much disassembled at this point, just a few stubborn taper pins to get out.

Mine took me about 2 weeks to clean up and fix all the little issues.
Parts are a little hard to find but I find them on EBay over time.

I thought about painting mine but I like the patina of these old machines.
They do look good painted though.

Here's my milling attachment before and after repaint.
I got it because I've not seen one made for the Junior.
 

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Of course it's your lathe and you can paint it orange if you want to but I would encourage you to do some research on the 9 Jr and its appearance before you start loading "South Bend Gray" paint on it. I have one of them and it's newer than yours and so far as I can tell it was either black or a very, very dark gray in its youth. I personally think they look better just cleaned up with whatever original paint is left. If you use it, it won't rust anyway.

Your bearings look good. Clean them up and put it back together. Also clean the "gook" out of the gears and then figure out if you have the complete set. If not, you'll be limited in the threads you can cut so you may want to shop for gears to fill in the gaps. Be aware that the gears from the 9" Workshop lathe will not work on your lathe so be careful when you're shopping.

It's a great lathe and potentially quite accurate and stout!
 
Terrific and loved the pictures. You should tell people here how to post pictures that can be seen!
 
Of course it's your lathe and you can paint it orange if you want to but I would encourage you to do some research on the 9 Jr and its appearance before you start loading "South Bend Gray" paint on it. I have one of them and it's newer than yours and so far as I can tell it was either black or a very, very dark gray in its youth. I personally think they look better just cleaned up with whatever original paint is left. If you use it, it won't rust anyway.

Your bearings look good. Clean them up and put it back together. Also clean the "gook" out of the gears and then figure out if you have the complete set. If not, you'll be limited in the threads you can cut so you may want to shop for gears to fill in the gaps. Be aware that the gears from the 9" Workshop lathe will not work on your lathe so be careful when you're shopping.

It's a great lathe and potentially quite accurate and stout!

Yes I know they were originally made black. I have done some research, but I particularly like the look of the gray, I may change my mind...it's still not to late. I want to see how well I can clean it up. Then maybe decide on going original or not. Thanks for the input though, good to know about those gears. I'll have to check again to make sure I have them all.

Edit:
QOiBDn6.jpg

80, 72, 64, 60, 56?, 52, 48 in the left stack, and 46, 44, 40, 32, and 16 in the right stack, I'm fairly certain that is all of them?
 
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Yes I know they were originally made black. I have done some research, but I particularly like the look of the gray, I may change my mind...it's still not to late. I want to see how well I can clean it up. Then maybe decide on going original or not. Thanks for the input though, good to know about those gears. I'll have to check again to make sure I have them all.

80, 72, 64, 60, 56?, 52, 48 in the left stack, and 46, 44, 40, 32, and 16 in the right stack, I'm fairly certain that is all of them?

That's all of them.
You should have 2 of the 32 tooth gears.
One is probably on the gear train.
 

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I agree ---there appears to be a 32 tooth gear on the stud in the first picture. Plus the large "turning" gear which is nice to have since it allows you to have a couple of longitudinal feeds using the half-nuts. Except for the somewhat goofy counter shaft you're good to go. I think that countershaft arrangement was for driving the lathe off an overhead line shaft which was popular in industry at the time your lathe was made. You should be able to find a bench-mounted countershaft to work with your lathe. Again, don't get one for the 9 Workshop lathes because the pulley sizes and spacings are different for the 9 Jr. You'd want one for a wide-bed 9 or 9 Jr.
 
I agree ---there appears to be a 32 tooth gear on the stud in the first picture. Plus the large "turning" gear which is nice to have since it allows you to have a couple of longitudinal feeds using the half-nuts. Except for the somewhat goofy counter shaft you're good to go. I think that countershaft arrangement was for driving the lathe off an overhead line shaft which was popular in industry at the time your lathe was made. You should be able to find a bench-mounted countershaft to work with your lathe. Again, don't get one for the 9 Workshop lathes because the pulley sizes and spacings are different for the 9 Jr. You'd want one for a wide-bed 9 or 9 Jr.

You can probably use the existing pulley on a replacement counter shaft assembly.
That's what I did. Pulley spacing was the same but the diameter was about 1" different.
 
Spent some time cleaning up the parts today, got through a bunch of the smaller parts.
ybV2QjB.jpg

VaqzEPI.jpg

They still look a bit dirty because I put a bit of oil on them to prevent any sort of rusting that may occur.
Still have to clean up the handwheels and such, but most of the nasty stuff is gone.
 
It always feels good after you clean off 80 years of grime and get a fresh start. Looking good.
 
More cleaning out of the way
vI4jE9T.jpg


Also I have a question regarding the felts for this lathe.
I have been doing research into what kind of replacement felts I need, and It's my understanding that the bed for this lathe is practically identical to a Heavy 10 bed but the headstock is not. So far the only felts I've pulled out of this thing are the 4 way wipers, 2 tiny ones from the gear train, and one from inside the saddle.
67mK3e3.jpg


Should there be more? and which of those felt kits on ebay would work? or should I just try to make some?

There are slots in the spindle bearings, but they dont look deep enough for felts, just for the oil to spread out, but I could be wrong here.
FMt9cxK.jpg




Thanks,
Aaron
 
I didn't take mine down as far as you but there were
four square felts in the head stock by the spindle bearings.

Mine were just dirty and cleaned up fine so I reused them.
 

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I didn't take mine down as far as you but there were
four square felts in the head stock by the spindle bearings.

Mine were just dirty and cleaned up fine so I reused them.

Thanks for the info, I went and took another look at the headstock (one of the few pieces I havent cleaned up yet) and can confirm there are no felts in there, just those slots i mentioned earlier.

I guess another question would be, even if there wasnt originally a felt, should I consider adding one(possibly in the little groove)? or would that starve the spindle of its much-needed oil.
Here is an image before i took the whole thing apart, of the lower-half of the spindle bearing. (the more pics the better right? :) )
w41TGay.jpg
 
The slots on the sides of the bearings are where the felts go.
At one point they were probably removed and not replaced.
The center slot is as you said, for oil distribution and left open.
There are sellers on EBay that have kits and you may be able
to contact them and get just the felts you need.

Felt is also available in bulk from "The Felt Store".
Are you handy with a knife?
This is what I'd use:
2/pk FM6732OWH Off-White Felt 6" Wide x 6" Long x 7/32" Thick Hard F-1/Duro-Felt | eBay

The felts act as a buffer and hold oil and release it slowly instead of allowing it to quickly drain through.
Best to have them.
 
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The slots on the sides of the bearings are where the felts go.
At one point they were probably removed and not replaced.
The center slot is as you said, for oil distribution and left open.
There are sellers on EBay that have kits and you may be able
to contact them and get just the felts you need.

Felt is also available in bulk from "The Felt Store".
Are you handy with a knife?
This is what I'd use:
2/pk FM6732OWH Off-White Felt 6" Wide x 6" Long x 7/32" Thick Hard F-1/Duro-Felt | eBay

The felts act as a buffer and hold oil and release it slowly instead of allowing it to quickly drain through.
Best to have them.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll add those missing felts in when I reassemble it. I went ahead and got that two pack you linked, it shouldn't be too hard to cut a few pieces from it, and have plenty left over to sit on another shelf.

Next up is to see about fixing that missing tooth on the bull gear then paint stripping. fun fun.

-Aaron
 








 
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