South Bend Heavy-10 - Just Purchased. Great To Be Back!

If you saw my previous post on being scammed from some wishy-washy, shady jackass, this will be poetic justice!


After my upset, I was scanning every possible avenue to find another Heavy 10. I found one on eBay and called the seller directly at his company. *(he used the same name for his eBay handle).

Heavy 10, 4 foot (hard) bed, great amount of tooling, etc, etc... for $1,800. DIRTY - but I know the machine will be a great one! Dirt and grime are only temp obstacles.

All of a sudden, the SAME model (as the jerk scammer) comes up on Craigslist. It "looked" nice, so I called.

Guy reassured me that it was in fantastic condition mechanically, but simply dirty from being in a sheet metal factory for years.

Little to no use, bla bla bla...

Ok, I'm excited now. I asked for some detailed pics. Got them. Looks promising.

I rent the trailer, jump through some hoops, do the dance - and schedule some time to see it. THAT NIGHT! No way, would I loose out again.

When my eyes finally met the machine, I just KNEW!

ALL the following checked out amazing:

1. No bed wear, whatsoever
2. No slop in the carriage wheel
3. Oil in the spindle cups
4. Oil in the apron
5. Oil cup lids all snapped back nicely.
6. Knurling on side-gear cover, was prickly
7. Knurling on tailstock nut, was prickly
8. Twin-gears, spindle gear and idlers had visibly, NO wear. They looked as if they were NOS
9. FULL travel of (both) the compound and cross-feed with ZERO binding
10. scraping visible on both the compound and cross-feed ways
11. Cross feed and compound dials showed ZERO boogering, scratches, nicks or dings.
12. Compound casting has no crash marks
13. Under-drive was free of oil & swarf
14. Under-drive showed small amounts of light surface rust - as if it was from humidity.
15. Motor was clean free of oil/dust
16. Headstock bearing caps screws appear to have never been unscrewed.
17. Gearbox plate is free of dents, dings or scratches
18. All gibs are sticking out far, which means they haven'y been cranked inward to compensate for wear
19. Spindle spins silky smooth as does the back gears, cone-pulley and back-gear-lever
20. Overall, the machine looks and FEELS very solid, smooth and tight. Just like the seller said - very little use.

I'm about to embark on a full disassembly in order to clean, degrease, re-wick and reassembly. I'm not bothering to paint it, because I need to being using it, as soon as possible.

For $1,900, the machine came with a LANTERN post, set of Armstrong Tool holders, Jacobs drill-chuck and a 3-jaw Buck, Adjust-Tru chuck.

Not too shabby!

I'll let the pics speak for themselves. And I'll post "after" pics once the cleanup is complete.

Some more pictures.

Interesting, the back end gears are different than mine. Mine are just a typical solid web cast iron gear, haven't seen them with the holes and drill bushings? through them before.

Nice score. Did you buy both, or just the CL one?

If anyone is interested in the South Bend Heavy 10 that I (WAS) going to buy, here is the link. It's a great price for a 4-foot, Hard Bed, Taper, collet rack, collets, handwheel-closer, thread protector AND thread dial. I spoke to the seller and he's a solid person. Business owner and ironically, this machine too, is sitting in a sheet metal factory, not being used.

The seller was taking $1,800 from me as my offer.

South Bend Precision Lathe

bradjacob said:

South Bend Precision Lathe

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Brad,

The guy put a 3HP motor on that Heavy 10!

PS looks like a nice Hardinge chucker...

traditional-tools said:

Brad,

The guy put a 3HP motor on that Heavy 10!

PS looks like a nice Hardinge chucker...

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I guarantee it's a type-O. He probably meant 3 Phase. Because the description is all over road, weird.

Hmm- something odd- I thought the late model machines did not have oil holes in the reverse tumbler idler gear studs. Might be a single tumbler part?

allan

Very good photos, so how far did you need to drive to pick it up.?

kitno455 said:

Hmm- something odd- I thought the late model machines did not have oil holes in the reverse tumbler idler gear studs. Might be a single tumbler part?

allan

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My late 50s double tumbler 10L has the oil holes in the reverse tumbler gears.

They're sort of a pain in the neck, if you don't have them positioned just so they can't be oiled without removing the cover over the back end of the spindle. I had to take mine back apart and rotate them for access, which is still fairly lousy. Need to use the oil can with the small flex spout to get in there. Its kind of a compromise between actually having the oil run in and good access. If the holes are at the bottom, the oil won't run down into the bearing area.

Excellent score, Brad! You deserved it!

wawoodman said:

Excellent score, Brad! You deserved it!

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Indeed.

The location of the re-seller on the sticker (cold spring, NY) is interesting. I was unaware that building actually
was a working machinery shop at one time - it had the sign there years ago, which is gone now. But the building
stands, and I walk by it nearly every other weekened when I meet my buddy there for coffee and a BS session
when we both motorcycle into that town.

Next time I'm there I'll try to find remnants of the sign on the building.

Nice lathe. Curious where is that lathe in Bensalem? My building used to be on Knights Rd.

RF

That looks like a "peach" Brad... You must be doubly stoked about finding that lathe, after the frustrating experience with the first seller. I wish that there were buys like that around here. We have to be content to fix up old clapped out machines.

Cheers...

Brian

Nice pics and nice machine.

Not familiar with 10" South Bends; what's the story on the twin SHCS's on top of the bearing blocks?

The 10L that I bought from Ferrous Antiquos for $750 appears to be somewhat newer that yours. The differences being that yours has a hinged cast iron cover over the gear train on the headstock end, and mine has a chintzy plastic gear cover instead. The other differences are that mine has a camlock spindle nose and yours has a threaded spindle nose. You also don't have a flame hardened badge on the tailstock end of the lathe, which is present on mine. I need to compare your serial number to mine, but I can't until I return to my shop in May. I'm also sure that my cash outlay is equal to yours, as I have had to make several purchases on the internet in bringing my lathe up to where it is at present.

Why would you take that apart.

Make some chips and show us what you're made of.

If you have problems that aren't you, we'll be happy to offer advice.


That was a steal

Bruce Nelson said:

The 10L that I bought from Ferrous Antiquos for $750 appears to be somewhat newer that yours. The differences being that yours has a hinged cast iron cover over the gear train on the headstock end, and mine has a chintzy plastic gear cover instead. The other differences are that mine has a camlock spindle nose and yours has a threaded spindle nose. You also don't have a flame hardened badge on the tailstock end of the lathe, which is present on mine. I need to compare your serial number to mine, but I can't until I return to my shop in May. I'm also sure that my cash outlay is equal to yours, as I have had to make several purchases on the internet in bringing my lathe up to where it is at present.

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Bruce - mine also has a hard bed, although it doesn't have the tag. I wished it did - they're look neat.

gadget73 said:

Interesting, the back end gears are different than mine. Mine are just a typical solid web cast iron gear, haven't seen them with the holes and drill bushings? through them before.

Nice score. Did you buy both, or just the CL one?

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Those holes and grommets are to help reduce noise and ringing. I only bought the CL one. If I had the $$, I'd have bought the 2nd, just for the tooling. And maybe the bed. Haha.

kitno455 said:

Hmm- something odd- I thought the late model machines did not have oil holes in the reverse tumbler idler gear studs. Might be a single tumbler part?

allan

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No, they're original to the year.

packrat2 said:

Very good photos, so how far did you need to drive to pick it up.?

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Thanks! I drove one hour, about 55 miles each way. Easy-Peasy...