South Bend 8" Junior - Practical for Beginner's First Lathe?

Hello all, and thanks for all the information I have been absorbing from this forum.

I am in the market for a first lathe, and am partial to older South Bends since that it what I remember using with my grandfather as a kid. It also looks like with the number of them that were produced over the years, parts and accessories are still widely available.

I don't have a lot of room to dedicate to the early stages of this new hobby, so I've been looking at short 9" models. However, a 1933 8" x 24" Junior model has come up for sale locally. It seems like the perfect little lathe to learn on. My question is, since these were only produced between 1931 and 1933 are parts common for them? Can tooling and accessories from the 9" models be used on them?

I'd hate to end up with an odd duck that makes learning more frustrating that it needs to be.

Any thoughts or recommendations are welcome.

-mals

Here is a short South Bend for you on ebay.

South Bend 9" Swing Lathe | eBay

Sorry for not posting pictures of it but for some reason it is not working for me.

Rob

Robert Lang said:

Here is a short South Bend for you on ebay.

South Bend 9" Swing Lathe | eBay

Sorry for not posting pictures of it but for some reason it is not working for me.

Rob

Click to expand...

Thanks, but that is actually the one I am looking at. It's incorrectly listed as a 9" in the auction.

In researching the model, the 1308-TB is an 8" Junior Under Mount from 1933. That 1933 catalog is the only reference to the model (it's not listed in the 1932 catalog).

My 2 cents here , which may be only worth 2 cents . I realize your kinda tight on space but that lathe only has 10"- 12" between centers
depending on where you find specs . Thats a pretty limited size work envelope . Are you sure that size will work for you ?
animal

Starter Unit

Personally speaking, I do think this might be that odd duck that you might want to avoid,
even though it's nice and compact and cheap. I think it's great that you want to learn
how to run a lathe, but buying an 88 year old lathe could present more problems than
you expected or wanted. Disclaimer; I know absolutely NOTHING about these model
lathes. I would personally be turned off by how short the working length is and that big strap and cover would always get in the way. It's just so odd.
(I own a '49 and '58 9" SB lathe)

Any vintage 9" SB metal lathe is probably going to be a handful for you unless it has been thoroughly
gone thru, cleaned, and felts replaced. I really don't think you want to get bogged down with taking
one apart. It's very messy and can take months.

Might I offer a suggestion? If learning how to run a lathe is the main goal, why not learn on a good, new machine that's ready to go? It's clean and everything works (hopefully). Yeah, I know it's an import, but
so what. I know it's a little more money, but you would be spending that on tools rather than fixing the one on EPay.

THEN, if you stick with it and get thoroughly hooked, you'll have a better understanding about lathes
and what to look for in a vintage South Bend. I would just hate to see you buy someone else's problems.
But if you become disinterested, then you have a good working lathe to sell instead of an antique.
Heck, you might even prefer to get into CNC.

Here's a video on a Grizzley 10" x 22" bench top lathe.
Seems like a good starter unit.

https://youtu.be/2GEb0uXMz6M

Just saying,

PMc

View attachment 313296

Paint on lathe looks worn not fresh, thats a plus, but does look like its been repainted somewhere in its life. Paint and fasteners on lower drive unit looks fresh, someone recently worked on it. 1 jaw on the chuck appears to be broken. If its an hours drive away, and sells for $500, its probably not a bad deal, better than an HF mini lathe, even if it needs a little repair.

I cannot answer any SB specific questions because I have never had one. I do have a little Logan 9x18, its cute and does little work just fine. What I find the biggest pia is the change gears, this is my first and last change gear lathe. If you decide on this little SB, or any other lathe with change gears, I would recommend using a die holder for threading, unless you really want to learn single point threading and don't mind the time/hassle of changing gears.

dalmatiangirl61 said:

Paint on lathe looks worn not fresh, thats a plus, but does look like its been repainted somewhere in its life. Paint and fasteners on lower drive unit looks fresh, someone recently worked on it. 1 jaw on the chuck appears to be broken. If its an hours drive away, and sells for $500, its probably not a bad deal, better than an HF mini lathe, even if it needs a little repair.

I cannot answer any SB specific questions because I have never had one. I do have a little Logan 9x18, its cute and does little work just fine. What I find the biggest pia is the change gears, this is my first and last change gear lathe. If you decide on this little SB, or any other lathe with change gears, I would recommend using a die holder for threading, unless you really want to learn single point threading and don't mind the time/hassle of changing gears.

Click to expand...

+1 on a lathe with threading gearbox if you can swing the cost.

Did You Buy It?

Looks like the auction has ended...did you buy it?
Inquiring minds want to know!

PMc

animal12 said:

My 2 cents here , which may be only worth 2 cents . I realize your kinda tight on space but that lathe only has 10"- 12" between centers depending on where you find specs . That's a pretty limited size work envelope . Are you sure that size will work for you ?
animal

Click to expand...

Thanks animal, I really don't have any specific projects in mind at this point. I more just want something to get the feel for it and work through learning the basics of machine work. I figure all that can be done on a small scale, and if it is something I want to pursue, and I then see what projects I want to take on, I can find the right setup for that direction. And to your point of the 1308-TB having a small envelope, the SB specs for it say that it has a 6-1/2" distance between centers.

mcload said:

Personally speaking, I do think this might be that odd duck that you might want to avoid,
even though it's nice and compact and cheap....

Might I offer a suggestion? If learning how to run a lathe is the main goal, why not learn on a good, new machine that's ready to go? It's clean and everything works (hopefully). Yeah, I know it's an import, but so what. I know it's a little more money, but you would be spending that on tools rather than fixing the one on EPay.

Click to expand...

mcload said:

Looks like the auction has ended...did you buy it?
Inquiring minds want to know!

PMc

Click to expand...

PMc, your post is basically the internal monolog I have been having with myself since I started looking into this. Get something that is fairly modern, in decentent shape, and ready to go when I get it. Or, find something that I like the look and feel of, and have part of the hobby bringing it back into usable form and learning from there. The downside is that is a lot of effort for an unproven interest.

As for the auction and this SB 8" Junior, the problem was solved for me this morning when I woke up and saw that it had been bought with the Buy-It Now option.

Thanks again to all the replies above. It is all good info for me to consider when looking at my options.

-mals

Anyone else having trouble opening ebay links today? I have tried on several threads, a page opens then instantly closes?

animal12 said:

My 2 cents here , which may be only worth 2 cents . I realize your kinda tight on space but that lathe only has 10"- 12" between centers
depending on where you find specs . Thats a pretty limited size work envelope . Are you sure that size will work for you ?
animal

Click to expand...

[but that lathe only has 10"- 12" between centers ] it only has 6-1/2" between centers cat. no. 1308TB wt. 325 lbs and say what you may about the cat. no. 1308TB lathe but someone out there at one time was in need of this machine to do what they wanted to do and thank god south bend was there to make it for them