Help putting old lathe back togeather

hello all

i was able to pick up a lathe for a pretty good price the only real downside was it was apart the only piece im having trouble with figuring out is the handle i think puts tension on the belt (or loosens it maybe takes it off completely for gear changes?) im having a hard time finding any information about this lathe i.e manuals etc thanks for the help!

currently on a built table for it not bolted down cleaning it up and what not looks to be in pretty good shape

Counter shaft (behind lathe proper) is mounted in ordinary wall or ceiling mount line shaft bearings - you are not going to get them to move for belt tensioning / loosening until you build them a swinging or sliding frame to hold them

As to info, you will be lucky to find a sales flyer, and the "manual" likely never existed - not something being done that far back

South Bend had no manual - instead put out booklets jam packed with generic info like this from 1927

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1617/5795.pdf

If your talking about the lever shown in the 2nd pic with your hand, that looks like its for engaging the back gear assembly, in which, that spring would probably be for holding it in or holding it out.

Interesting little lathe...appears to have power feed as it has a slotted lead screw...very unusual in a lathe this size.

more pics would help....but yes as Mr Oder noted that is a tensioning lever and needs a swinging or sliding frame for the countershaft unit.

First photo, the loose bolt to the far right in the picture and the strap hanging next to it go together. That's the tensioning mechanism for the flat belt. Look at South Bends you will see the arrangement. The whole assembly, motor, counter shaft and lathe can be mounted on a bench top. No need to mount on wall or ceiling. Unusual to have two compounds on the cross slide. The rear one looks like an Atlas or Sears craftsman lathe compound that was mounted for a special purpose. (Note: if the lathe is normally mounted on legs then the motor and counter shaft will need to be as Oder says, although you may want to do as Logan did which was to have a mounting shelf fastened to the lathe with its own support pedestal.

Logan lathes Page 2

Tom

thanks for the reply's what i plan on doing is build a 1 ft by 1 ft cube out of angle iron with a plate on top to mount the motor and the counter shaft belt drive behind the lathe with the motor underneath the belt drive im also going to make the top plate slotted so when the lever in the second pic is back it will be tight we shall see how she goes.... it was originally on legs but that kind of doesn't really work with my shop set up... so ill try it my way im not going to cut up the mount it came with for the motor and belt drive in case my method doesn't work and am forced to make it work in my shop etc etc

thanks for the reference material it really helped