New owner, of I think a 10K

My name is T and I have an iron problem. I cannot resist periodically bringing home large ferrous items. The latest is what I think (I have other machines, but this is my first South Bend) is a SB 10K. I saw a Craigslist ad for a Heavy 10 and was interested in looking at it. That machine was decent, more worn than some but less worn than many, but its capabilities sort of overlap with my 14" LeBlond except the 10L had a much shorter bed than my LeBlond. On the other side of the sellers garage I saw this other SB, and the seller said he planned that he'd put it up for sale right after he sold the 10L. This other one had exceptionally little wear- nearly no-backlash in the cross-slide and otherwise looked in remarkably original and unabused condition. And it has a moderate amount of tooling and accessories. It apparently came out of some sort of government maintenance shop, but at least to my eye, looks to have seen little use. No threading dial, steady rest, or taper attachment, and of those, only the threading dial and steady are a priority for me (my LeBlond has a taper attachment; I'd 'like' one for the SB but it's non-urgent unless/until I find one at a non-extortionary price).

I didn't bring it home today and will have to go get it separately, and first I need to reshuffle the already full shop to make room for it.

The tag on the QC gearbox says 'Model A' but do I have it correct that this seems to be a 10K (and looks like it has a gap bed)?

The hinged cover on the end does not seem to want to fully close without dragging on parts of the mechanism

Any words of wisdom from those of you who are more familiar than I am yet with these particular machines?

Any suggested sources for things like the thread dial, steady, or taper attachment other than the notorious e-place?

Thanks in advance

PS, if I have this correct that this is a 10K, and (if I understand correctly) a 10K is really more or less a SB 9" with slightly taller headstock and tailstock (and maybe some other enhancements, I am not sure), would a steady rest or center rest from a 9" SB have dimensions that'd be workable for use on a 10K, or do I really need to look for would I be best off with ones for a 10K? Thanks!

Yes, 10k....bonus as its a gap bed 10k....9" center rest will work but will have diminished capacity.

iwananew10K said:

Yes, 10k....bonus as its a gap bed 10k....9" center rest will work but will have diminished capacity.

Click to expand...

iwananew10K--- Questions relative to this 10K, bear in mind I have never seen one in person. My questions are probably pretty dumb ones... That gap bed feature--- I take it that there is a LARGER section of the bed that is removable? If so, how MUCH larger? That existing "gap" shown in the pic just in front of the headstock does not look very useful to me. I can't make out from the pic if there is an additional section that is removable. Also, I thought the 10K's came standard with "large" crossfeed and compound dials? I take it (based on the pics) that the large dials were an OPTION on the 10K as well? Apologies for my ignorance on the 10K, will file away your answers for future reference.

In the first picture, under the piece of paper, you can see a "crack" for lack of a better word. That's the end of the gap piece.

I found some info on the gap bed model in this prior discussion:
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/south-bend-lathes/south-bend-10k-gap-bed-224073/
Mine doesn't appear to have the offset saddle shown in the other prior discussion, which'd lead to weird tool overhang and lack of rigidity in trying to actually use the gap, but I don't really plan to use the gap function, though I am _very_ glad to have the 4.5 foot bed.