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9" South Bend, No 415YO, to buy or not to buy?

ThatsAmoreEel

Plastic
Joined
Jun 6, 2021
Hi folks,

I am a hobbyist with no experience using a lathe, but looking to expand my parts making abilities.

I recently came across a South Bend 9" lathe, model C9W10JR, CAT NO 415YO, with an asking price of 395$. The machine is missing a few parts including the face plate/ chuck, the tool post, and the tailstock. The belt is also broken at the staples, and the only threading gears are the ones currently attached. It may also having some missing smaller parts that I did not notice with my untrained eyes.

It seems to be in excellent condition, no rust, operates smoothly, gears are in good shape, and I can still see the original filing on the ways.

Is this a good deal, considering I'll have to track down these missing parts? How hard will these parts be to find? I see parts for similar lathes on Ebay. Do the 9" models generally have compatible parts? From what I can tell this machine is an interim model between the 405, and the A, B, and C models. Will that make it more difficult to find what I need?

I mostly want this to be a good deal on a lathe I can use. I'm not a collector, and I'm fairly financially poor. I don't want to end up investing thousands to get this thing working. I just want to get into making stuff, and if I can feel good about my machine being valuable, that's a bonus.

What do y'all think? Should I jump on this? Should I resell it for parts, and use the money to buy a newer machine?

Sorry for the long post. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
 
As a beginner, you will have learning issues, everybody does, nothing against you personally. The last thing you need is a non-runner with missing parts. You do not even know how to evaluate a used lathe. Do not touch this regardless of price. You do not need a project. You need a running machine with all the tools, parts and accessories. When encountering a problem, you must have enough confidence in the machine to accept the problem is you, not the machine.

If you live in an industrial area, you should expect a starting lathe with tools will cost around $4K locally. If not, be prepared to drive a ways to pick up a good deal. I also suggest to find an experienced lathe guy to help. There are many pitfalls. Save your money, and keep looking. It may take a year or more before you find a good machine at a good price. Think auctions and deaths.
 
If you bought it, you could likely sell it again for the same price, if not for a little more, depending on the buyer. So, to me, the risk is minimal.

Does it have the change gears or a gearbox? If no to both, I might pass and keep looking, but having super clean ways, might make me want it anyway.

You can get more information on that lathe by taking a look at vintagemachinery.org and wswells.com.

If I wanted a lathe, had a small budget, and plenty of time, I'd probably buy it. It may take me some time to get all the parts at good prices, but if you're not in a rush. If you wait, you will likely find something more complete, too.

A lot of this depends on what your area is like. For me, in NE Ohio, right in the rust belt, is a VERY machine rich area. There's a lot available here, probably more so than Idaho.
 
As a beginner, you will have learning issues, everybody does, nothing against you personally. The last thing you need is a non-runner with missing parts. You do not even know how to evaluate a used lathe. Do not touch this regardless of price. You do not need a project. You need a running machine with all the tools, parts and accessories. When encountering a problem, you must have enough confidence in the machine to accept the problem is you, not the machine.

If you live in an industrial area, you should expect a starting lathe with tools will cost around $4K locally. If not, be prepared to drive a ways to pick up a good deal. I also suggest to find an experienced lathe guy to help. There are many pitfalls. Save your money, and keep looking. It may take a year or more before you find a good machine at a good price. Think auctions and deaths.

I don't think I could possibly disagree with this more. :)

I knew nothing about lathes and machining (next to nothing) and bought a 13" South Bend. I learned a TON by taking it completely apart, cleaning it, and restoring it. I know this machine inside and out. YouTube is a GREAT teacher. As a beginner, I couldn't have asked for a better education. Not only did I turn a $700 lathe into something usable, It looks damn nice. And I could turn around and sell it and quadruple my money.

IMG_3231 2.jpg
 
The original “filing”?

Anyone can scratch mimic flaking into the ways. No one would part a lathe that still has hand flaking near the headstock.

That sounds like a huge project
 
I don't think I could possibly disagree with this more. :)

I knew nothing about lathes and machining (next to nothing) and bought a 13" South Bend. I learned a TON by taking it completely apart, cleaning it, and restoring it. I know this machine inside and out. YouTube is a GREAT teacher. As a beginner, I couldn't have asked for a better education. Not only did I turn a $700 lathe into something usable, It looks damn nice. And I could turn around and sell it and quadruple my money.

View attachment 322572

What did your tooling, time, materials Cost and how long was it inoperable?
I’m 4000$ in my SB16 and growing
 
I have to agree with Steve on this one. Even tho the price might be attractive, you really don't want an incomplete machine
right out of the starting gate. This tells me that the machine has not been well-preserved nor thought of with any favor.
Sounds more like a parts-machine to me, pieces of which have already been sold off. I'd leave it for the scavengers
to disassemble. There's no telling what else is wrong with it internally. I'd pass.
(It might be just me, but I've noticed quite an uptick in price on used parts on E-Pay)

Hold out for a decent and clean 9" Model A with gearbox.
My 2 cents.

PS: A photo or two would have helped.

PMc
 
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I was in the same boat as you are when I bought my 9 inch SB. I did not know anything about lathes. It was in pieces and the price was $250. I did ok with mine. It is a model C (uses change gears). I was only missing one small gear and was able to buy a reproduction for about $25. I think when a set comes up on eBay they sell for about $200. A cheap chuck may be $100 or more and a used tailstock maybe $100. You will have quite a bit invested in a 9 inch model C. You should be able to do better if you are in populated area.

Look for one with as much tooling and as many accessories as possible. The cost can easily exceed the price of the lathe.

Regarding judging bed wear, I will leave that advice to others. Most people will probably say to find one with little wear. I suspect they are rare. Even a well worn lathe can be used to some extent to learn on, but certainly the less wear the better.
 
What did your tooling, time, materials Cost and how long was it inoperable?
I’m 4000$ in my SB16 and growing

My time = free. I spent about 3 months of evenings and weekends.

Outside of what I spent on the lathe, I think I have about $600 into it for some replacement parts. The only thing that NEEDED to be replaced were the half nuts - they were junk. The gears I replaced still worked, they were a bit noisy and I was trying to reduce that. I did a little, but not by much.

I generally don't count cost of tooling because that is subjective. I don't have a steady or follow rest, because, so far, I haven't needed one. My lathe isn't a museum piece or a collectors item. I have no desire to search out and buy all that is South Bend. I did get a couple face plates cheap and a 4 jaw chuck, but again, your definition of "tooled" vs anyone else's is likely to be a little different.

Finding the perfect SBL with every possible chuck, collets, rests, etc. is practically a unicorn and not a realistic measure.

YMMV
 
I can understand the sentiment about dropping money into a project, but think about how much ridiculous (IMO:)) money people drop into fishing gear, 4 wheelers, race cars, etc. The difference here is that after you've dropped all that money having fun, you're left with tools and skills that can actually return the investment over time, if you market yourself correctly. You can invest as much or little into the "sport" as you like, just know what to expect. Lots of guys drop a few grand into Horrible-Freight machines and gripe about the out of box quality and performance. Others will buy the most worn out old iron they can find and gripe about lack of function. In both cases, the operator needs to understand the machine's limitations and what they need to do with their own two hands, and if they enjoy the ratio.

The benefit of South Bend is that everything can be had for them, and even a worn out one can make decent parts if you know how to work with it. IMO, most of the guys who get fed up with project machines either expected to do too much too quickly, or tried to figure it out all by themselves without researching what's already been done or whats already been made.

If you are looking for a machine for professional endeavor, that's a different can of worms, but I wouldn't use that same metric when trying to financially justify what you do at home, unless you are also the type to monitor your kids utilities usage so you can give them a bill when they move out. I don't keep running tally of every dollar that goes into my garage because I don't plan to ever sell it for profit. I have a family with little kids, but still try to budget a few hundred dollars every few months for the non-profit fun stuff, so as long as the bills are paid and groceries bought. I'm also clear with the wife and kids that the garage is not a "man cave." It's the garage. The family is welcome to build and play out there too (as they grow and learn to stay out of trouble in the process).
 
Some of the parts you listed are a fairly easy fix, like the belt, face plate, chuck three jaw or four jaw, tool post. Now the tailstock
is a all different matter tailstocks were fit to the lathe at South Bend so any old TS will not do {I don't think you want to deal with that}
but I may be wrong.?
 
Okay, so far I think I count 3 encouraging me to buy, and 4 encouraging me not to. So at least I know my buyer's anxiety is justified.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. I'm still betting that flip-phones will make a come back, so my photography abilities are a bit lacking.

If you bought it, you could likely sell it again for the same price, if not for a little more, depending on the buyer. So, to me, the risk is minimal.

Does it have the change gears or a gearbox?

That is sort of what I had thought. Then again, I'd have to find someone to buy it, and who knows about that.
It has change gears. The ones currently in it are in good shape, but it does not have any extras.

Some of the parts you listed are a fairly easy fix, like the belt, face plate, chuck three jaw or four jaw, tool post. Now the tailstock
is a all different matter tailstocks were fit to the lathe at South Bend so any old TS will not do {I don't think you want to deal with that}
but I may be wrong.?

I suspected the tailstock would be the hard part. I see them on Ebay for about $150+, but I don't know for sure what will fit this machine.

I don't know what the market is like around here, but I do check craigslist and auctions for tools fairly often and have never seen another metal lathe. Then again, I only recently decided that I needed one. The project most prominently in my head right now would require one, and I'm sure future projects will too. Ultimately the goal is to be able to build anything I want. The way I see it is, the only reason to have a job is to be able to afford to work on my projects. Yet it still feels like an ordeal to buy tools :rolleyes5:

I do have more time than money right now. I don't mind picking up a project, but rebuilding a lathe can't be my main project for the next year, as it's really just a means for other projects.

Assuming I can find a tailstock that would work, looking at Ebay it seems like I could be up and running with it for an additional $600 or less. So then the question is, is this a better than a different $1000 setup? It'd be hard for me to justify investing much more than that without finding someone to learn the skills from first.

Based on what I've seen here I think I might just be more patient, and maybe a bit more proactive about finding a used lathe, and hope something better pops up. In the meantime I'll work on other things, and save up for the next lathe that comes along.

...unless someone convinces me otherwise.
 
So I guess I have to admit, I am not in Idaho. I just used a random location. Sorry, but I do not give personal info on the internet.

Though, I did happen to see a metal lathe on CL just now that is near me. It's a Harbor Freight 8x12 with a bunch of tooling and accessories plus a cabinet stand for $1250. I know better than to buy HF, but this tool has surprisingly good reviews. Of course that's more than the tool is new (without accessories). I think I might just make a low ball offer and see where it goes. Maybe $500, $600?
 
I was thinking that you would be into that lathe for about $1000, which seems high for a project that you need to hunt down parts to finish. I don't recall the exact number, but there are about a dozen or more change gears in a set, so you need most of a set.
I think you probably can do better. Even if you hate Facebook, as I do, I found that Facebook Marketplace has many listing for tools, including machine tools, and it does not seem to be like Craigslist, where at least half the listing must be relisted ever day, but have been for sale for months or more.
 
I was thinking that you would be into that lathe for about $1000

Which one, the original SB or the HF I just mentioned? The SB would end up being a lot more if I got the same amount of extras, though it's probably better built. There looks to be a good bounty of goodies listed with this HF.

I would part with $1000 for a lathe if it felt like a decent deal on a tool that will last. It's hard for me to go much more than that. I guess I'm just used to buying woodworking tools which are much cheaper, especially used ones.

I do browse FB marketplace as well (even though I do hate it). There is actually a nice looking lathe there now, but it is several thousand.

By the way, I would just like to thank you all again! I appreciate the help. It's hard to sort through these decisions without knowledgeable input from others. It's nice to see a classic forum thriving like this. Here I thought these places all died at the hands of reddit.
 
So I guess I have to admit, I am not in Idaho. I just used a random location. Sorry, but I do not give personal info on the internet.

Well, that does cut into the amount of assistance given, the "value" of machinery is all over the place depending on location, a great deal in bfe Idaho is not the same as a great deal in Michigan. I don't think anyone here is going driving around Idaho to find you, but whatever makes you happy.
 
Well, that does cut into the amount of assistance given, the "value" of machinery is all over the place depending on location, a great deal in bfe Idaho is not the same as a great deal in Michigan. I don't think anyone here is going driving around Idaho to find you, but whatever makes you happy.

That's a pretty fair point. I guess it's just the principle of it. I'm more concerned about my data sitting in a server at amazon than I am about any actual people tracking me down. Which is still pretty silly, admittedly.

I live in what used to be an industrial town in the iron ranges in the Minnesota. You'd think there would be plenty of old machinery lying around. Maybe I follow the wrong auction houses.
 
Reputation is everything on this forum, putting the wrong state in your profile doesn’t look good and may prevent anyone from dealing with you should you want to buy or sell something here. (You would need an address to send receive anyway)

As Dalmatiangirl61 said deals are VERY location dependent. If your in Hawaii a worn out mill can sell for 6000-8000$ where that same mill could go for 1000$ in Ohio.

No one is looking for you on here. And the more information you give (like that HF lathe + price) would give more then enough info to pin down your state or even your city anyway.

Please read the stickys on rules for posting, the grizzly/HF/import hobby machines are against the rules and can get your thread closed.

No one here (that cares) will suggest a HF lathe because they are junk/trash. The mills are worse and the combo lathe/mill are the Pinnacle of disappointment.

The “bench top” size BRAND name machines (lathes/mills/shapers/Etc) ALL fetch a healthy price exceeding bigger more capable machines.

The hobby market pays these prices because the import machines can NOT compare.

The collector market pays these prices because they are rare/collectible.

Neither side wants the junky imports.

I wish you Good luck finding your machine, a 1940’s and up southbend 9/10 will usually fetch a price far north of 1000$.

The tooling also will cost more then what ever you pay for the lathe.

Basic tooling you’ll NEED, the proper lubricants, a 4 jaw independent chuck/drive dogs, live center/dead center, turning tool, cutoff tool, small boring bar, dial indicator, level (to setup machine) and a tool post.
 








 
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