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1952 Southbend 9A Restoration

Headstock!

After I secured the headstock to the bed it was time to install the spindle, the real main event. My spindle appears to be in really good condition with little or no wear to be found. The image shows what might be radial scratches but in real life the spindle is polished and smooth with no damage at all.

1 spindle 1.jpg


I then put together a suitable spindle-pusher based on what is recommended in the restoration book. All of these parts are available at McMaster-Carr with no fabrication or adjustment needed, although it is really straight-forward!

2 spindle pusher 1.jpg


Actually pressing the spindle into the headstock was actually very easily. It wanted to slide in very smoothly so the turning of the wrenches required very little torque and it seated itself easily and well.

3 spindle pusher 2.jpg


4 spindle installed.jpg
 
Headstock is Complete!

Finally I attended to a few small details now that the headstock and spindle were well and safely installed. First up was the classical take-up-washer replacement. I've had these parts in my inventory since 2019 when I was doing my initial forum reading and research. It felt great to finally get them onto the machine!

1 fabric washer upgrade.jpg


Next up was the absolutely scary business of checking run-out on the spindle to ensure the bearings were set properly and working as intended. As this is a really hard issue to solve and surely beyond my beginner's capabilities I was very anxious. I spent 3 weeks on the bearing in the QCGB and I was not looking for another serious setback.

I used the method recommended by the restoration book and placed a long brass rod through the spindle and exerted an upwards and then downwards force on it's end of approximately 75 lbs. I put a test indicator on the spindle to see what I got.

2 runout 2.jpg


To my absolute glee the total run-out I measured looks to be 0.00025"? The test-indicator is a tenths indicator and I couldn't get the needle to cross a line no matter how hard I pulled or pushed. I'll take that result!

3 runout 1.jpg
 
Tailstock

The tailstock re-assembly went so quickly and so easily that I didn't get any pictures of it in process. For completeness, here is a shot of the unit on the ways. It slides very smoothly.

IMG_9460.jpg
 
Relocating the Machine

At this point the machine was getting very heavy. Moving the ways alone was pretty heavy, so adding the legs, saddle, cross-slide, compound, and tail-stock brought it way past my ability to lift it. Now was the time to get the machine into it's final position before it became too unwieldily - especially before the horizontal drive unit is re-assembled and attached.

Moving the machine was a journey all in itself. I've been saving a 30" x 72" x 2-3/4" butcher block top for something like this and decided to use it. Currently in use as a recycling break-down table, it itself was too heavy for me to move on my own.

1 table with recycling.jpg


First step was to pick it up with my mobile gantry set-up and bring it over to my panel break-down table. I honestly wouldn't be able to do anything in my shop without the gantry. I gave up lifting basically anything over 50lbs last year due to ongoing back issues.

2 table set on cutting table.jpg


The top is 72" long and I only need a 64" piece so first matter was cutting the board down to size. Of course as is the nature of how this restoration has been going, my track saw couldn't quite make it through the entire slab! A handsaw brought it to completion without too much trouble.

3 table cut 2.jpg


Next step was to get it over to the lathe's final resting place. For this I am using an old steel "tanker" style desk from the 60s / 70s. It weighs ALOT and should make a sturdy base especially with the weight of the new maple top.

4 table top above desk.jpg


Once it was set down there it was time to move the machine.

5 table top on desk.jpg
 
Moving the Lathe

It was finally time to move the machine itself.

I rolled the gantry back over to my workbench and got it strapped in. A short while and a few inches later I had the lathe in the air. Yikes!

1 lathe intial lift.jpg


The journey from my workbench to the lathe's new base is only about 20 feet but it seemed like a mile. I took it very slowly to ensure the machine wouldn't swing or bang the gantry verticals.

2 lathe enroute.jpg

Eventually I got it roughly situated above the table. The desk is 30" x 60" which is plenty big for my 42" 9A. I want 2" of overhang on either side for any clamping I may need to do in the future which is why I cut it at 30" x 64".

3 lathe above desk.jpg


I set it down very carefully where I wanted it to sit. Now the thing to do is finish up the restoration and get the machine REALLY heavy with all the remaining attachments and accessories.


4 lathe on desk.jpg
 
Horizontal Drive Unit

Now that the machine is over on its final resting place I was anxious to get the Horizontal Drive Unit properly placed behind the lathe. I have spent hours pouring over each page the the army maintenance manual but never understood that the dimensions given for the 10K layout were also appropriate for the 9A. After some deep forum trolling I came across the answer and embarked on getting it into place.

First thing for me was getting the tension lever into good shape. My philosophy for this build is that all hand-controls and machined surfaces should be mill-finished and all other surfaces should be painted. This suggested that the tension lever should be mill-finished, but the piece is large and you really only interact with part of it. I decided to make it a "two-tone" component. Since there was now obvious place to transition to paint I decided to file in a small step.

tension lever 2.jpg


tension lever 3.jpg


I polished the handle up and buffed it out a bit before taping it up for paint.

tension lever 5.jpg


tension lever 7.jpg


I think it came out pretty well. The handle still needs some buffing with scotch-brite.
 
Horizontal Drive Unit Assembly

Assembling the Horizontal Drive Unit went very smoothly. The main components went together quickly; I had read another post that warned against removing the components from counter-shaft and pulley but it seemed to go pretty smoothly for me. There was a decent amount of gunk that came out but everything cleaned up very nicely.

components pre-assembly.jpg


I first got it temporarily mounted on the bench using some blocking and clamps to align with the cone and counter-drive pulleys. I used my big steel square to get everything lined up and bumped it around a little bit to fine-tune. I'm using a 4L520 belt for the spindle speed pulleys as indicated in the army maintenance manual.

first assembly 1.jpg


first assembly 2.jpg


Finally all that was left was setting up the belt-tensioning system. After polishing & buffing the unpainted surfaces I laid everything out for assembly. I've seen other restorations on this forum that utilize nylon washers to ensure painted-to-painted surfaces don't get scratched. I chose to follow this guidance.

tension lever 8.jpg


tension lever 9.jpg


I am very happy with how this is starting to shape up.
 
Motor Mount

Time to mount up the motor and see what this thing has got under the hood.

I had some challenges with this step as my Horizontal Drive Unit was bored for "Old Nema 66" and the motor I have and is generally specified is a "New Nema 56" mount. I did a whole post on this to get help from the community. You can find that here:

Motor Mount Nema Dimensions

Summary is I found a USA company that makes the Old Nema 66 to New Nema 56 convertor. Details on them in the referenced post. Here is a quick set of pics showing how that went:

Horizontal Drive Unit mount:

motor mount 1.jpg


56 Frame Motor mount:

motor mount 2.jpg


56 Frame Motor plate:

56 frame motor plate.jpg
 
Motor Mount Finalized

Old Nema 66 to New Nema 56 bracket as received:

1 converter as received.jpg

2 converter as received close up.jpg

Painted up to match:

3 painted converter.jpg


Installed on the Horizontal Drive Unit:

4 converter installed front.jpg


Motor installed onto bracket:

5 motor installed.jpg
 
Rack & Screw

I also had a chance to finally clean and de-rust the rack and the lead screw. I hadn't tackled these yet due to their long dimensions and my lack of a proper vessel. I finally decided to make my own which was very easy using some 4" DWV pipe with a bonded end cap. I taped it up to my part cleaning cart to keep it vertical as the volume of the vessel is about 3 gallons which is about 25 lbs of evaporust.

1 vessel 1.jpg

2 items inside vessel 1.jpg


Filling the tube was a bit of a pain as I did not want to lift the whole bucket of evaporust and try to get it into the tube. I also wanted to make sure I could get the evaporust back into the pail after I used it in the vessel. I ended up buying an inexpensive hand pump off of amazon to move it back and forth.

3 items inside vessel 2.jpg
 
Rack & Lead Screw Final

The rack and lead screw came out of the evaporust bath looking great. Rack installed right onto the bed. There was a pretty significant center bow to my rack screw which was easily pulled out through installation. Anyone else have this condition?

1 rack installed.jpg


My lead screw looks pretty good. It's hard to tell exactly but the wear looks very minimal throughout the screw. I haven't installed it yet as the QCGB and Apron aren't 100% ready to be hung and I haven't inspected the tailstock end lead-screw hanger / babbit bearing since I cleaned it back in January.

2 screw closeup 1.jpg


3 screw closeup 2.jpg


4 screw closeup 3.jpg
 
Gear Train Cover

A small thing but nice to get done was the gear-train cover. Nothing to it, obviously, but dresses the machine up quite a bit.

1 cover installed closed.jpg

2 cover installed open 1.jpg


I put on a nylon washer to separate the painted rubbing parts. It's a little thick tho, and raises the cover a little too high to align concentrically with the spindle opening. We'll see how if interacts with the lever collet closer when i get on to that.

3 nylon washer closeup 2.jpg


I also went ahead and cleaned up my existing metric threading chart. After giving it a gentle cleaning in dish-soap and water, I rubbed it with 0000 steel wool to brighten the raised letters and then gave it a wax and buff. The turtle stuff is the only wax I have around and it's likely 15 years old. The metric transposing gear is sitting next to it on the bench(100/127).

4 metric thread plate cleaned.jpg


The tag went right back onto the cover with the original screws. There are a number of other screw holes on the front of the cover and on the side of the cover facing the operator. I do have a "remember to release belt tension when not is use" metal tag but its holes don't match any of the screw holes. Anyone knows what goes there or is it nothing on the 9A.

5 metric thread plate installed.jpg
 
QCGB & Apron

Next up was installing the brains of the operation (definitely not me!), the QCGB. The gear box has been the absolute bane of my existence so I was anxious and excited to finish it up.

The screw went into the QCGB with no issue and secured easily using the gear and jam nuts. The gear box easily hung onto the bed although the right most screw was a little bit of a tight squeeze to get past the lip of the headstock casting.

qcgb installed.jpg


The apron went on extremely easily too. It was very nice to finally operate the apron which slid very smoothly into place. I made the mistake of removing the saddle lock to get it out of the way while installing the apron. That was a mistake and after 20 minutes of trying to get my fingers in there to get it installed I broke down and removed the apron and started over. Totally do-able with the apron off!

apron installed.jpg


The lead screw support bracket and bearing slipped right on, too (especially the second time after I removed and re-installed the apron!) The existing babbit bearing is in great shape and it has a very nice fit with the screw, especially with a thin coating of oil.

babbit on bench.jpg


babbit installed.jpg
 
This whole series has been great! Many of your ideas will help me as I begin to reassemble my 1948 9A refurbishing project, so many thanks!

Next on my list is attending the Richard King scraping in Utah in a couple weeks.

Here's a suggestion you may want to consider: I have a plan to fabricate a thin SS plate to cover the change lever pin holes in the QCGB casting so the inevitable pin drag scratches aren't so apparent. Or, in my case, maybe fabricate several plates. :)
 
Thank you so much. It can be slow going but the progress occurs and it is very rewarding! I'm jealous of you attending the scraping class. I recently purchased a 27" prismatic straight edge and will be milling / grinding / scraping it later this year as my first endeavor into that world.

Your suggestion on the pin guard for the QCGB is very smart. After spending so much time cleaning and degreasing and priming and painting it was depressing to see the scratches appear so quickly. Post up your results if you head that direction.

This whole series has been great! Many of your ideas will help me as I begin to reassemble my 1948 9A refurbishing project, so many thanks!

Next on my list is attending the Richard King scraping in Utah in a couple weeks.

Here's a suggestion you may want to consider: I have a plan to fabricate a thin SS plate to cover the change lever pin holes in the QCGB casting so the inevitable pin drag scratches aren't so apparent. Or, in my case, maybe fabricate several plates. :)
 
Evan - This has been great reading. Outstanding job on your progress reports, and the work you've done on your machine looks great. I'll add that it looks like you've got a really nice shop to put it in, too. I'm also restoring/rebuilding a 9A (1956), and progress wise am just a little behind where you are. I'm liking how you polished your handles vs. painting them and may go back and do the same on mine. I had the same thoughts about grabbing a painted handle/lever with grimy hands, but painted 'em anyway. Also, I know you went thru an ordeal with your QCGB and hoping you can answer a question I've got on mine. The round oil control wicks - mine had 5 of these, and they looked to be 1/8 diameter felt. You remember if yours was the same? I think someone has been in mine over the years and want to make sure I do it right and not repeat something done incorrectly. Thanks, and look forward to reading more from you.
Rick
 
Thanks, Rick! The shop is a life-long dream. I recently moved out of my garage into this new space. I've taken the liberty of filing it with some nice old machines that will all need going thru. The SB is the first one. After that the Bridgeport, and then either my surface grinder or my Southbend 7" shaper. We shall see.

There are a ton of oil holes in the QCGB as I'm sure you've noticed. All of the ones that enter or exit from a bore or journal get actually a 3/16" round cross-section felt. The felts go in the top of the passageways and only need to be 1/2" long or so - they function as "meter valves" to slow down the oil from draining down and store some oil in the felt itself. All of the "keyways" in the journals get a 3/32" x 3/16" rectangular cross-section felt. The top-shaft, central shaft, and lower shaft get a 1/16" x 1/8" rectangular cross-section felt

Many will tell you to purchase the Ilion Industrial Services book "A Guide to Renovating the South Bend Lathe" and the accompanying felt replacement kit from eBay. You probably have it already but if you don't, check it out!

Evan - This has been great reading. Outstanding job on your progress reports, and the work you've done on your machine looks great. I'll add that it looks like you've got a really nice shop to put it in, too. I'm also restoring/rebuilding a 9A (1956), and progress wise am just a little behind where you are. I'm liking how you polished your handles vs. painting them and may go back and do the same on mine. I had the same thoughts about grabbing a painted handle/lever with grimy hands, but painted 'em anyway. Also, I know you went thru an ordeal with your QCGB and hoping you can answer a question I've got on mine. The round oil control wicks - mine had 5 of these, and they looked to be 1/8 diameter felt. You remember if yours was the same? I think someone has been in mine over the years and want to make sure I do it right and not repeat something done incorrectly. Thanks, and look forward to reading more from you.
Rick
 
Gear Train

With the QCGB and the headstock installed it was time to marry up the two with the banjo and gear train. Originally my philosophy was that rotating parts should not be painted. I thought the painted gears and pulleys gave the machine a "toy" look. However, as the machine started to come together I changed my mind as the painted gears are actually very sharp looking. I set about painting the gears after pulling out all of the painting gear I had hoped I was done with.

3 taped up gears 1.jpg


Next up was to prepare the reversing gear assembly. First thing I did was gently wet-sanding the machined surface with 1200 and 2000 grit wet/dry on top of my smaller surface plate. This polished the machined surfaces and got them set up to smoothly rotate.

1 reverse lever 1.jpg


Now many of you might be saying, "now wait a second, evan. I thought you said that all hand-controls would be polished and not painted." To that I will say, you are correct. I had painted this control prior to coming to that philosophy. However, given that I will be adjusting this often to take advantage of both auto cross-slide and auto top-slide, I've decided to install the upgraded lever from the 10K discussed often on this forum.

I've actually got two options for the upgraded reversing lever. I've seen members on this forum do the left one, but the right one with the bronze handle is the one I really want to figure out. So that's why I never went back and polished up the original reversing lever.

2 reverse lever replacements.jpg


Installing and torquing up the gears was challenging as the lead screw kept spinning. I tried a bunch of stuff and then ultimately used some channel-locks on the lead-screw with a rag protecting from the jaws. This seems like a big no-no but it worked for me.

4 installing gear.jpg


The final gear train rotates smoothly and quietly and looks pretty good.

5 gear train complete.jpg
 
Evan, thanks for the quick reply and confirming your GCGB wick size. Looks like either the wrong ones were installed in mine, or what I removed compressed over time and are much smaller in diameter than what goes back in. I've got the Ilion book, but there was such a difference in new vs old wick diameter I thought I'd ask you about it. In either the felt kit or book it warns about compressing the felt too much, and didnt want to make that mistake. Regardless, it's coming back apart - I used the wrong size. Tearing it back down won't be as bad as stuffing fat new wicks into the oil passages. And, you're living my dream with that shop, lol. Thanks again and look forward to more of your posts.

Rick
 
Wiring it All Up

Ok. It's time to do the wiring.

I spent a long time on the forum reading drum-switch wiring posts. There are many of them started by people like me who are definitely not experts with this kind of thing. I learn slowly after a lot of googling and post-reading. So I am going to walk everyone through my exact steps to getting the machine wired up and running. Many will find this series of posts obvious - I was not one of them! Perhaps this thread can help someone in the future. All of this prep work was completed back in 2020 when I was first deciding to take on this restoration.

There are (3) components that need to be interconnected: the motor, the drum switch, and the mains lines. I started fact-gathering by inspecting the motor information plate on my new 56 frame "Marathon" brand 3/4 HP motor, purchased from Grainger (part no. #1K081):

1 motor plate 1.jpg


My motor is split-phase and wired to accept either 120V or 240V. The hook-up diagram for each voltage (they are different) is drawn right on the label. In my case, I used the left drawing as I am using the "Lo Volt Line" aka 120V to power my motor.

2 motor plate 2.jpg


This diagram identifies the (6) wires coming out of the motor by color and by industry standard (i.e., "J10 Black" or "T1 Blue", etc.) My motor wires match up exactly. There is also a ground-lug in the motor junction box to be wired into my shop's ground and the drum-switch's enclosure for safety. The diagram shows that the wires should be divided into (2) groups of three and then wired to the mains as such. Very straightforward.

I then took a look at the note underneath the drawings which specifies how to achieve both clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) rotation, with the existing drawing showing how to hook-up for CCW. For the Southbend 9A horizontal drive unit, achieving a forward running lathe requires a CW hookup.

3 motor plate 3.jpg


The instructions here state that switching direction can be accomplished by simply swapping J10 Black with T8 Red in the hook-up diagram. This is the job of the drum-switch. At first inspection I noticed that the switch has (6) screw terminals and a ground-lug. Now I had to figure out which was which.

Taking a look at the drum-switch I notice a drawing on the inside lid showing the operation of the mechanical interconnects. With a careful look at these drawings we see that the only difference between having the switch on and having the switch off is that lug 3 and lug 4 swap. Since we need a swap to achieve our motor direction change, we are in luck. If we make sure that J10 Black and T8 Red are hooked to lug 3 and lug 4 we should be in business.

4 drum switch plate 1.jpg


Now I don't know about you but I am very bad at remembering these kinds of things and I need a VERY easy to follow diagram or I will make a dumb mistake. I utilized my professional skills to put together what I considered the most simple to follow chart, including even the part numbers as I knew at the time it would be at least a year before I reached that step of the project. It was longer than that so I am glad I included them.

5 wiring diagram.jpg


The only thing left was executing my plans. I'll review all of that in the upcoming posts.
 








 
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