Stumbled upon a CL ad and seen a dilapidated lathe but didn't realize it was a South Bend until Johnoder and Kinto pointed it out. So I figured for $60 total I paid for it, I couldn't let Junky become scrap metal. At first I thought it was going to be used and abused, I would just clean it and put it off to the side in case I ever needed a part on a better quality one once I find it but after carefully looking at Junky, he seems in great shape.
Long story short, the seller's great grandfather bought it new tinkered on it a little he passed away in the 40's, which left it to his son which splattered it with a grease gun at some point but never used and gave it to his son who left it in the barn untouched until he passed away just recently with no children and a nephew inherited the farm and was about to send it to the scrapyard if no one responded on CL.
So a little hop, skip, jump and 2 hour drive later.. Junky is in the trunk of the wife's Outlander (she wasn't impressed), which now is leading to my dilemma. He's in good shape, missing a few parts (countershaft, rear cover, spindle handle, tool post), a bit handicapped with a broken foot but the good things are: no broken or damaged teeth, ways look great to me still need to do some testing with dial indicator, no heavy rust anywhere since it was caked in grease, no play, and has a full set of manual gears by some miracle, everything moves and seen no visible wear in the apron plus some minor tooling.
Anyways enough rambling here is the pictures(excuse the mess of a garage, just moved in)
Let me know if anyone wants any close ups of certain areas in case I missed something, I only played with mini lathes making pins/shafts/bearings or fittings for other antique equipment that I restored. Should I bother rebuilding him a little or just set off to the side?
Long story short, the seller's great grandfather bought it new tinkered on it a little he passed away in the 40's, which left it to his son which splattered it with a grease gun at some point but never used and gave it to his son who left it in the barn untouched until he passed away just recently with no children and a nephew inherited the farm and was about to send it to the scrapyard if no one responded on CL.
So a little hop, skip, jump and 2 hour drive later.. Junky is in the trunk of the wife's Outlander (she wasn't impressed), which now is leading to my dilemma. He's in good shape, missing a few parts (countershaft, rear cover, spindle handle, tool post), a bit handicapped with a broken foot but the good things are: no broken or damaged teeth, ways look great to me still need to do some testing with dial indicator, no heavy rust anywhere since it was caked in grease, no play, and has a full set of manual gears by some miracle, everything moves and seen no visible wear in the apron plus some minor tooling.
Anyways enough rambling here is the pictures(excuse the mess of a garage, just moved in)
Let me know if anyone wants any close ups of certain areas in case I missed something, I only played with mini lathes making pins/shafts/bearings or fittings for other antique equipment that I restored. Should I bother rebuilding him a little or just set off to the side?