Gigantor
Plastic
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2012
- Location
- Long Island, NY
Hello All,
I’d like to start by thanking all the members that post on this forum. This information is invaluable to a novice such as me. I’ve been lurking in the shadows for about 2 months now reading everything I could about South Bend lathes. You’ve taught me what to look for when buying a lathe, what models were made and how to tell them apart, what books to read about these machines and machining, you’ve even taught me how to fix a droopy side gear cover. I’ve gotten all of this and much more just by reading your posts!
With all this knowledge (and a little bit of squirreled away cash) I felt ready to go out and purchase my first lathe. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy and with the little cash I had to spend I was ready to take on a basket case. After all, you folks have turned trash into museum pieces and it’s made me feel like I could do the same.
So I started looking through Craig’s List every single day only to find ridiculously priced machines that looked like they had seen better days. I wasn’t afraid of cosmetic issues (all of them suffered from that) but bed wear (and they all looked like they were worn out). I kept trying and kept making phone calls. I did find a WW2 era Heavy 10 that the seller was willing to let go for less than half of his asking price but after taking a look I decided to wait and see what else would come up. After all, he’d been advertising it for awhile and it was still out there. Then one day I saw a posting for a Model A Precision cheap. I made the call and went to see it a few hours later. I bought it on the spot. I tried negotiating, but it really was too good to pass up.
The sad story part: This lathe was shipped on April 4th 1954 and had been taken very good care of its entire life by a gentleman who I believe was named Thomas R. Quermann who worked at Sperry Corporation in their gyroscope division and who was granted several patents based on his work. I pieced all of this together based on the name written on the cover of “How to Run a Lathe”, memos and sketches I found in the table drawer and the internet (I love the internet). I actually purchased the lathe from a gentleman that called himself a real estate investor who admitted that he knew nothing about what a lathe does or how it works. It seems that Mr. Quermann had advanced in years to the point of not being able to take care of himself any longer and was sent to a home to live out the rest of his life. His house was sold from under him lock, stock and barrel to this investor who couldn’t even be bothered to know his name and dispose of his possessions as if they were worthless. I felt very sad for Mr. Quermann and somehow felt uneasy about the whole transaction. I figured the least that I could do was tell Mr. Quermann’s story to you good folks and implore you to take whatever steps necessary to make sure that your beloved possessions don’t suffer the same fate. Will them to someone who’ll appreciate them, a charitable organization that can benefit from them or maybe even a vocational school. Don’t let them fall into the hands of swindler looking to make a quick buck. I truly appreciate the care he gave to his tools and I will endeavor to do the same in his honor. I hope that one day my I’m old and gray my sons will do the same for me.
I've caught the same disease you all suffer from now and hope to use this lathe to make small engines of all types with the grandiose goal of one day making a pair of working live steam locomotives for my two boys to display proudly and brag about their old man’s skills. I’ll have plenty of dumb questions, I'll be searching for stuff (it seems that you can't have enough stuff when you own a lathe) and making myself a general pain on this forum. Please be patient with me, as stated earlier, I’m new to this and I hope you don’t mind.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Here are a couple of pictures of it in it's new home. All I've done is sand and paint the legs of the table and scrub down the table top with a degreaser. It's as original as the day it was built, original paint and all.
I’d like to start by thanking all the members that post on this forum. This information is invaluable to a novice such as me. I’ve been lurking in the shadows for about 2 months now reading everything I could about South Bend lathes. You’ve taught me what to look for when buying a lathe, what models were made and how to tell them apart, what books to read about these machines and machining, you’ve even taught me how to fix a droopy side gear cover. I’ve gotten all of this and much more just by reading your posts!
With all this knowledge (and a little bit of squirreled away cash) I felt ready to go out and purchase my first lathe. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy and with the little cash I had to spend I was ready to take on a basket case. After all, you folks have turned trash into museum pieces and it’s made me feel like I could do the same.
So I started looking through Craig’s List every single day only to find ridiculously priced machines that looked like they had seen better days. I wasn’t afraid of cosmetic issues (all of them suffered from that) but bed wear (and they all looked like they were worn out). I kept trying and kept making phone calls. I did find a WW2 era Heavy 10 that the seller was willing to let go for less than half of his asking price but after taking a look I decided to wait and see what else would come up. After all, he’d been advertising it for awhile and it was still out there. Then one day I saw a posting for a Model A Precision cheap. I made the call and went to see it a few hours later. I bought it on the spot. I tried negotiating, but it really was too good to pass up.
The sad story part: This lathe was shipped on April 4th 1954 and had been taken very good care of its entire life by a gentleman who I believe was named Thomas R. Quermann who worked at Sperry Corporation in their gyroscope division and who was granted several patents based on his work. I pieced all of this together based on the name written on the cover of “How to Run a Lathe”, memos and sketches I found in the table drawer and the internet (I love the internet). I actually purchased the lathe from a gentleman that called himself a real estate investor who admitted that he knew nothing about what a lathe does or how it works. It seems that Mr. Quermann had advanced in years to the point of not being able to take care of himself any longer and was sent to a home to live out the rest of his life. His house was sold from under him lock, stock and barrel to this investor who couldn’t even be bothered to know his name and dispose of his possessions as if they were worthless. I felt very sad for Mr. Quermann and somehow felt uneasy about the whole transaction. I figured the least that I could do was tell Mr. Quermann’s story to you good folks and implore you to take whatever steps necessary to make sure that your beloved possessions don’t suffer the same fate. Will them to someone who’ll appreciate them, a charitable organization that can benefit from them or maybe even a vocational school. Don’t let them fall into the hands of swindler looking to make a quick buck. I truly appreciate the care he gave to his tools and I will endeavor to do the same in his honor. I hope that one day my I’m old and gray my sons will do the same for me.
I've caught the same disease you all suffer from now and hope to use this lathe to make small engines of all types with the grandiose goal of one day making a pair of working live steam locomotives for my two boys to display proudly and brag about their old man’s skills. I’ll have plenty of dumb questions, I'll be searching for stuff (it seems that you can't have enough stuff when you own a lathe) and making myself a general pain on this forum. Please be patient with me, as stated earlier, I’m new to this and I hope you don’t mind.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Here are a couple of pictures of it in it's new home. All I've done is sand and paint the legs of the table and scrub down the table top with a degreaser. It's as original as the day it was built, original paint and all.