South Bend 10k Model B - Rebuild

South Bend 10K Model B
September 30, 1952

I have been into restoring vintage motorcycles and trucks for years and finally got the opportunity to pickup a lathe super cheap. I believe it has seen a few miles but will hopefully clean up well, or be an expensive anchor when I'm done. It is missing some parts but I have already started ordering some and the old Owner is going through her father's house looking for a stash of parts. I have ordered all the South Bend part catalogs and the Rebuild manual/Felts from Steve Brooks but had a few questions.

1. I cannot locate the horizontal motor mounting distances for the measurements between the lathe bed and the motor bracket. The current plan to to use the old table hole dimensions and replicate those on a new steel table. Was there any data or manual pages on this?

2. Is anyone reproducing the Gear change data plaques? I read on here that Jim Kull passed away last year.

3. Know anyone that may have the 10K Spindle Cover (besides watching eBay)?

Photo 3 shows Brad's SW paint color against factory paint I found on the gears. I will be switching this color to the SW Urethane Alkyd Enamel, which only comes in Gloss.

This machine is not worth restoration. It has reached the end of its economical life. Secondly, you are not a machinist and you have no means to restore it, even as a hobby, unless you have your own machine shop. I suspect, as this is your first thread here, that you will not accept this advice either.

I must agree with the masses on this one. Part it out and get your money back. Get something you can use right from the get go. I don't even see a back gear in the headstock?

Thanks for the advice! I will just part it out then and stop before I sink anymore time or money into it. I had my concerns picking it up originally when I saw the broken teeth and the back gear was pulled out already. Another lesson of "ran when parked."

I am not a machinist. My goal is to learn the basics enough turn spacers and washers mainly. The random small parts that I have to ask friends to do or beg a machine shop to turn me one lousy axle spacer.

Clean it up and run it, that broken tooth on the bull gear won't matter until you find the back gears. I don't see a stack of change gears either. You can still do some basic turning, you will just have to do it all with hand feeding. Learn the basics, when a better lathe comes along get it, give this one to the next person wanting to learn to run a lathe. You have to crawl before you can run.

The machine certainly looks like it has led a hard life. Yah, it has broken teeth on the bull gear and some missing parts, but, it's true condition cannot be determined until it's cleaned up a bit. I'm not betting the ways and spindle bearings will be in beautiful shape, but I've been surprised before.
More importantly, if you got this machine for "super cheap" as you say, then I think you will make out great either way. It has V belt pulleys rather than flat, that pair of pulleys is worth a few hundred bucks alone on fleebay. It also looks like you scored a nice toolpost, is it a genuine Aloris or knock off? Either way, it's worth a few bucks, or, will be handy to save for your next lathe. Same for the 3 jaw with two piece jaws, carriage stop, change gears ect. All these things are typically pricey upgrades not included with most machine purchases. Whatever tooling you have, except for steady and follower rest, will also fit 9" South Bends. Just about every part on that machine, if not broken or worn completely out, has some value.
Clean everything up, figure out where you stand and what will be the best way forward for you. If you play it smart, this machine will at least be a good education for you and cost you nothing in the end.

I've made good things with worse. I'm with the clean it out, get it working and sell it when something better comes along crowd. Lack of back gears is a pain, but since you don't have the change gears you won't be doing much threading with it anyway. I would have been totally pumped to have this as my first lathe.

Plus, if you screw up and damage something, who cares?!

If you have the gears for that machine, you can set it up to cut all nature of odd threads. By making a little shaft that allows compounding of the regular gears you can make decent metric threads and things like 50 pitch US threads, not found on the machine's chart. I keep a B model in back of my T lathe just for that stuff.