Video of my refurbed 1919 13" South Bend

Made chips with my freshly refurbed South Bend lathe today (on my birthday) Everything went well, need some tweaking but overall I'm very happy with it's performance. The 2.5" x 3' solid round bar was no problem for this machine, it took a .043 doc like a champ (.086 off dia.) was very straight with no taper at about 5 inches then I got some taper but that may have been some movement in the cross feed. Don't see any type of lock for the cross feed. Cot was pretty smooth for just grabbing a hss cutter out of the box and not touching it up at all. This thing has a great range of speed but I do not think I can reverse the lead screw. Overall I like it and think I will find a spot for it in my shop as a keeper. I'll put it up for sale at $1,500.00 so I'm sure I'll be keeping it.

Over 200 views and no comments, kinda disappointing

Could you tell us what your feedrate is (.005 ipr or what?) Your depth of cut is not anything amazing. If you don't have at least a quick change gearbox, your idea of getting $1,500 for it is far-fetched. You'll either have to lower your expectations, or keep it. Probably comments like this are disappointing also.

Lord Byron

............Charley, don't let it bother you, this forum is production machine oriented and not aimed to feed the ego's of the average hobbyist........... It helps to explain and understand the lack of comments, ........as a beginning machinist, and I will be till I pass on, I for one, enjoyed the video, well done, and congrats on bringing the machine back to its glory days! Sell it for what you can and move on to the next project, its kind of what some of us do here.......................Rick

Charley Davidson,

You wrote: "This thing has a great range of speed but I do not think I can reverse the lead screw."

What do you mean when you say that you don't think you can reverse the lead screw? I see the tumble reverse lever on your lathe - there is a square-headed screw that must be loosened before you can move the tumble reverse. The screw is inside the left hand change gear cover. It's on the tumble reverse lever casting. The lathe originally came with a wrench which fit this screw. ( I would like to know the Armstrong or Williams wrench number of both this one and the (?other?) wrench that fits the bull gear locking pin.)

(More sophistcated lathes have a squeeze lever to unlock the tumble reverse. A South Bend Series O lacks that level of sophistication.)

Or, were you remarking about reversing (swapping) the lead screw end-for-end to equalize wear? There, I must agree that the early SB 13 is not designed to do this, but then again very few lathes are so designed.

The original spec says it can peel off a mild steel chip 3/16 thick, which reduces the diameter 3/8" in a single pass. I would not try it !

BTW: Is your chuck stick on your spindle ?

John Ruth

Bruce Nelson said:

Could you tell us what your feedrate is (.005 ipr or what?) Your depth of cut is not anything amazing. If you don't have at least a quick change gearbox, your idea of getting $1,500 for it is far-fetched. You'll either have to lower your expectations, or keep it. Probably comments like this are disappointing also.

Lord Byron

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Don't know what feed rate I had it set at just whatever change gear that was in it at the time, as for the price I do not expect to get that out of it but you gotta start somewhere, but as I stated "I'm not sure I want to sell it"

rsturgis said:

............Charley, don't let it bother you, this forum is production machine oriented and not aimed to feed the ego's of the average hobbyist........... It helps to explain and understand the lack of comments, ........as a beginning machinist, and I will be till I pass on, I for one, enjoyed the video, well done, and congrats on bringing the machine back to its glory days! Sell it for what you can and move on to the next project, its kind of what some of us do here.......................Rick

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Thanks, Just seemed odd that out of that many views there were no comments pos. or neg.

SouthBendModel34 said:

Charley Davidson,

You wrote: "This thing has a great range of speed but I do not think I can reverse the lead screw."

What do you mean when you say that you don't think you can reverse the lead screw? I see the tumble reverse lever on your lathe - there is a square-headed screw that must be loosened before you can move the tumble reverse. The screw is inside the left hand change gear cover. It's on the tumble reverse lever casting. The lathe originally came with a wrench which fit this screw. ( I would like to know the Armstrong or Williams wrench number of both this one and the (?other?) wrench that fits the bull gear locking pin.)

(More sophistcated lathes have a squeeze lever to unlock the tumble reverse. A South Bend Series O lacks that level of sophistication.)

Or, were you remarking about reversing (swapping) the lead screw end-for-end to equalize wear? There, I must agree that the early SB 13 is not designed to do this, but then again very few lathes are so designed.

The original spec says it can peel off a mild steel chip 3/16 thick, which reduces the diameter 3/8" in a single pass. I would not try it !

BTW: Is your chuck stick on your spindle ?

John Ruth

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I was made aware of the reversing lever that I payed no attention to but haven't tried it out yet. Do you have any pics or links to the original wrenches as I got a few in the deal that I'm not sure what they are for or even if they are for this machine. I'm planning some machine rearanging to make space for it and so I can bring my second Bridgeport home to get started on rebuilding it.

I used to have an old flat belt lathe they are so nice to run they are quite and you cant go to fast, slow is the only speed. Nice job on your southbend looks great.

South Bend-furnished Armstrong and Williams wrenches

Charley Davidson:

I would like your question about the "Original Equipment" wrenches of a South Bend Series O lathe to become a general question for the group. I've not been able to discover exactly what wrenches were furnished by South Bend. Therefore, I cannot furnish the pictures you want.

I can, however, describe the jaws of the wrench which fits the SQUARE HEADED locking bolt on the tumble reverse lever. Looking at the bolt head, it is tall and square - the matching Armstrong or Williams wrench has a thick square jaw to match the tall square bolt head. It's as simple as that. The jaws of these wrenches have a very squared-off opening.

The Armstrong and Williams square-head wrenches came as both open-end and box-end (closed end) wrenches. I do not know exactly what came with the South Bends. All the Armstrong and Williams wrenches of that era have a part number, usually three digits. The two companies often, but not always, used the same part number for a particular wrench. (Many of their offerings were interchangeable, in fact practically identical.)

These wrenches are commonly found in flea markets for $1 or less. I have several sizes, some of which do not fit anything on my South Bend, but are useful for square-headed bolts on other machines.

The real mystery to me is "What sort of wrench was furnished for the bull gear pin on a South Bend Series O?"

John Ruth

My first "real lathe" in 1966 was one of these series O 13" with no QC and home brew drive. Good capable starter lathe. It was a few years "newer", being dated 1923 inside the bed casting. I had it in my soggy basement on Bunker Hill Road in Coventry, Connecticut. I was 26 and still in my first year at P&WA's apprenticeship.

I Like your counter shaft at the top, Wish i had one.

It looks like you have a nice lathe, glad you are pleased with how it came out and the performance. Your tool holder has a lot of overhang though. I wonder if you could improve it further by getting/making a tool holder with less overhang. I have a couple of tool holders I made out of blocks of steel with a slot in the side and setscrews on top to hold the tool. The tip of the tool only overhangs the compound maybe 1/2" or so and I think being more rigid as compared with the lantern tool post has improved the finish I am able to get. This is especially true with a cutoff tool, being more rigid way reduces problems I think.

. I wonder if you could improve it further by getting/making a tool holder with less overhang.

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One of the best changes I made to my old lathe was a Chinese copy of an Aloris quick change toolpost. I have no idea how you old timers with the lantern type posts got anything done.

I'll put it up for sale at $1,500.00 so I'm sure I'll be keeping it.

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Is this the old "I tried to sell it honey but nobody wanted it" price?