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South Bend 9" Gift

Pintopete

Plastic
Joined
May 27, 2017
Last week, a good friend gave me a 9" South Bend lathe. It actually seems to be a collection of parts. There are two beds, two carriages, two tailstocks, one headstock and one UMD cabinet. The numbers on the beds are 47555NKR9 and 160796. The numbers on the end covers are CL-477Z and 415YC. I did not look for numbers or codes on the headstock but it is a flat belt style as is the UMD. It does not have a QC box. There are some change gears and a Universal 5" chuck. It will be a lot of work but perhaps a fun project and rewarding tool when done.

Thanks, Peter.
 
Be sure you match up the correct parts together.

The parts were scraped to fit each other and randomly putting a tailstock on a bed may not result in the best fit and alignment.

Good luck with your project and keep us posted on your progress.

Steve
 
The Frankenlathe is home! I determined that the headstock, carriage and tail stock all match as they were when South Bend sent them out the door. I will have some spares which is good. I observed that the original bed is not as clean or as in as good condition as the un-matching spare. I will clean it all up and try to better assess the condition. Would it be horrible to use the better bed with the matching parts? I'm hoping for the best but I doubt this lathe will win any precision awards due the amount of use and neglect that it has seen. Either way, I'm excited about refurbishing it.

Thanks, Peter.
 
You need to get it off that dolly. It is top heavy and it will do a face plant in a heartbeat. Be very careful moving it on that thing as a little stone will stop a wheel and over the lathe goes. When it happens you can't save it so just get out of the way.
 
Would it be horrible to use the better bed with the matching parts?

As this lathe has three v-ways, there are two for the carriage (one is for the headstock and tailstock).

If the headstock/tailstock were moved from one bed to another, they might work fine, as the v-way in the part should be in line with the spindle The other side of the part just rests on a flat way, so alignment from one side to the other is a non-issue.

The carriage is not only fitted to be in the line of the spindle, but for the distance the two v-ways are apart. You could find that the saddle rides OK on one v-way, but is only touching one side of the other v-way because it was fitted to a bed that was slightly wider or narrower.

If you have the saddle that is from that bed, you might be able to put it on your apron and have it work.

You can also test it by marking the bed with blue spotting paste used for scraping, laying the saddle on the bed, moving it back and forth a bit and seeing where the blue transfers. If you have good coverage on all surface, it may be fine to use.

I would suggest getting the book "machine tool rebuilding" by Connolly.

Steve
 
Steve, thanks very much for the great info. Admittedly, I wasn't thinking that deeply. I'll work on giving it a good bath to clean off all the gritty oil/grease. Right now it's pretty hard to evaluate any part of it. I'm excited and hope it is in decent rough condition to resurrect and use.

Thanks gain, Peter.
 
Steve, I searched for the book you suggested. Amazon has it for $370.00 A further search provided higher prices. Seems incredible to me for a used book. I can look in the public library system.

Ha! Google is wonderful! Found free download to Kindle. It seem complete. Scanning now. Thanks again Steve!!

Peter.
 








 
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