What's new
What's new

Spindle thru Hole Sizes and Vintage Lathes

Tim Mahony

Plastic
Joined
Dec 4, 2008
Location
Carpinteria Ca
Greetings from Carpinteria Ca,

I am squarely bit by the vintage South Bend Lathe bug and am trying to figure what models might answer my rescue search. I have been a lurker for a long time here, doing the reading / admiring and know that I would like a pre-war or earlier lathe.

My interest is a lathe with a spindle thru hole of 1 3/8" or a bit larger. It appears that the early 11 & 13" units have smaller spindle openings....So my question : What if any early models have a larger thru hole

Currently on ebay there is a 13" mdl 34-O that warms my heart in a big way (smile)........more than I can afford at the moment (still adding to the $ pile) plus too far away to reasonably ship and I believe this unit would have a 3/4" thru hole, but that is the idea of what my dream is made of. Thanks in advance for any information. tim
 
For a South Bend lathe just make sure it uses a 2 1/4-8 spindle thread. This should give you the spindle bore you want. I don't believe any of the 11" lathes had the large bore but the later model 10", 13" 14 1/2" and 16" lathes had the larger bore and by later I mean anything from about 1950 up thru the 90's when they started to drop these lathe models.
 
Go by the spindle thread not the year - there were years when 10" and 13" lathes were being made with both sizes of spindle (I'd guess '30's to '50's).

The other thing to do is to try and find the lathe in the catalogues on Steve Wells site:
The SBL Workshop - Home
You have a catalogue no. to look for, 34-O, which might be quite early - if the revisions in catalogue number for a given size of machine followed a logical order, it has evaded me in my looks through the catalogues! O is probably the length, 34 should tell you when and what spindle.

Good luck!
 
Oh, and that 34-0 has been on ebay for a long time, probably because the price is so high. It is however, a neat old machine, and fairly rare, coming from that brief period before SB started using the Flather gearbox, and made their own 3 speed instead. Probably 1920 or 21. Definately small spindle hole.

allan
 
I recently purchased a 1917 South Bend that was sold as a 16 incher, but all the data plates except the name plate are missing. I'm trying to figure out exactly what I bought. The major diameter of the spindle hole appears to be 1.31 inches and the rest of the hole is 1.16. The catalogs from the 20's and 30's say these machines have a MT3 spindle taper, but those numbers (1.31 and 1.16) don't match any MT dimensions that I have seen. Any suggestions as to sources?
 
look for a heavy 10 inch with a 2 1/4-8 spindle nose or a 13 inch with the same. you will be glad you got the
larger spindle nose.
 
I recently purchased a 1917 South Bend that was sold as a 16 incher, but all the data plates except the name plate are missing. I'm trying to figure out exactly what I bought. The major diameter of the spindle hole appears to be 1.31 inches and the rest of the hole is 1.16. The catalogs from the 20's and 30's say these machines have a MT3 spindle taper, but those numbers (1.31 and 1.16) don't match any MT dimensions that I have seen. Any suggestions as to sources?

How about you give us the serial number off the tailstock end of the bed, between the front ways. I have a feeling your date might be off.

allan
 
I recently purchased a 1917 South Bend that was sold as a 16 incher, but all the data plates except the name plate are missing. I'm trying to figure out exactly what I bought. The major diameter of the spindle hole appears to be 1.31 inches and the rest of the hole is 1.16. The catalogs from the 20's and 30's say these machines have a MT3 spindle taper, but those numbers (1.31 and 1.16) don't match any MT dimensions that I have seen. Any suggestions as to sources?

My 1919 15" has a 1 1/8" hole measured on the left end of the spindle...Bob
 








 
Back
Top