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South bend heavy 10 fixable?

hogleg64

Plastic
Joined
Apr 1, 2018
Hello all, I'm a long time reader and first time poster. I started machining in the Navy 1981 and been doing it for a living every since, I don't know everything (by no stretch of the imagination) but I'll do in a pinch. Anyway enough about me lets get to why I feel compelled to write this post. I recently purchased a South bend heavy 10inch lathe c187Rb from ebay and had it shipped to my home, and when it arrived it had been pretty severely damaged in my book, basically at least on my first look at it where the saddle and apron connect is busted and I wondering is this fixable or is it completely shot? I've read a lot about people rebuilding these machines and where would be a good place to look for parts?
 

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Oh man, what a nightmare thing to happen.

Saddle and taper attachment appear ok. But needs new dial side crossfeed screw at least, but that's the short piece with gear, not the long screw.

I'd say apron housing is done, I wouldn't try to fix that. Not sure what hit it, forklift maybe, to break that hand wheel too. Anyway besides the hit, if apron was hanging during the drive, then leadscrew is most likely bent too.
 
looks like that lathe fell on its face - is that a motor belt tension handle underneath the taper attachment? Check the gear box and leadscrew reverse levers too. What a bummer.

Definitely seek redress from the shippers, either your own or the sellers depending on who arranged it. As the sale was through eBay you have protection through them too. It'll take a bit of fixing and a fair bit of money to find the parts (apron, cross slide screw, carriage handle etc), but the bones look good. D1-3 (?) spindle, taper attachment, large dials - all of which are highly sought after on a Heavy 10. Just the spindle alone is worth $300.
 
I've seen worse. It could be made functional again - are the ways damaged though?

If you have all the apron pieces that were torn out they could be brazed back in. Handwheel
would be tough to replace with an aftermarket. Original used replacement or tack it back together of
you have all the pieces.

How badly is the bottom of the apron damaged? I know for a hard fact that just dropping the apron off
a bench onto a floor can crack out the front of it.

As mentioned: check the leadscrew for bend, check the gearbox for damage.
 
First thing, is file a claim against the shipper. Get the money back in your pocket BEFORE you consider anything else. You may even be able to purchase the lathe from the insurance company for scrap value.

Parts are available (most likely on ebay), but they can be pricey. You will probably be better off getting another H10 to use as a donor machine to fix this one. Besides the obvious damage, there might be gearbox damage, as you can see the leadscrew is bent.
 
Thanks guys for the advise, this just happened yesterday and yes claims have been filed and I'm not going to touch it until I have refund money in hand. I talked to the seller today and they told me they don't want it back and to just push it to a corner of my garage and use it for parts which got me thinking about the rebuild option.
As far as the damage you guys know about what I know from the pics the ways and spindle and gear box are a big concern right now. I don't want to mess with it too much until I hear from insurance. Needless to say it made me sick when I saw the condition and more I dug the sicker I got.
 
yes that is the motor belt tension handle underneath the taper attachment, I said the same thing when I saw it.
 
That lathe took a HARD spill, I’d put my money on it falling off a lift gate truck onto its face.

That lathe would only fit on a lift gate sideways and every lift gate I’ve ever seen has some “slop” when loaded.



The seller doesn’t want it back? Does that mean they are refunding you or are they waiting until the shipping company refunds you for the whole purchase?

Also what did the shipping company say?

We all hate to see good machines destroyed by ignorance and hate seeing good people scammed even more, I’d guess your going to see some serious opinions/emotions on this thread.

Don’t leave us hanging!!
 
As far as the damage you guys know about what I know from the pics the ways and spindle and gear box are a big concern right now.

Spindle is tougher than you might guess. Unless it fell directly, with full weight smashing on chuck, I would think its fine. And it appears apron and front face took the impact. So I'd bet spindle is ok. Regardless a dial indicator, and rolling it by hand will tell the tale. I'd use a test indicator on the internal taper for that check, don't read off the chuck. Maybe put a test bar in spindle taper.

Maybe the ways got dinged, or not. You can file down any high spots, and epoxy fill a low spot dent if need be. The cast iron of bed is pretty tough and highly doubt its cracked.

The gears in apron either got a tooth knocked off, or not, but doubtful. If any dings, file or grind the ding off. The shafts are short internally, not impossible to bend one, just less likely. The most likely bent shaft would be the carriage hand wheel shaft. Either that shaft, and/or the taper pins might be bent and a real fun time to get out. Everything in apron turns ridiculously slow, not fast like a car transmission, so noise or things blowing apart are not likely to happen. The fastest turning part of apron is worm gear driven by main lead screw, which even that is fairly slow even at top speed.

I'd want to level and align an unknown machine regardless, but you'll really really want to do the full monty on that here. Head stock, tail stock, qcgb with leadscrew through apron etc.
 
The seller claims they are going to refund me the full amount before the insurance company pays them because it takes a while to get their money form the ins company and

they don't want me to be without a machine, which is ok by me.

The shipping company who delivered it, claims to have record of it being damaged when they took possession of it, although they can't say if it was their guys or the other shipping company who is responsible.

Evidently it switched hands somewhere along the delivery rout. The machine started out in Florida and ended up in Illinois.
 
down in the Marion/Carbondale area, I'm gonna wait and see what shakes out here before I move forward on anything.
 
I checked it out a little better last night, I believe the saddle and taper attachment may be salvageable but the apron if fooked, spindle seems to spin

ok no weird noises or wobble to speak of, lead screw is probably jacked as well and the cross slide screw is like the apron fooked. I'm trying to not dig

into it too deep right now because I want it to be as close as possible as it was when I received it when and if an adjuster shows up.
 

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Sorry about the quality of some of these pics.

does anybody know what the 2 aluminum washers are for? they appear to be machined to a certain spec maybe like a spacer or bushing or shim or something.

The picture with the plastic wrap is how it showed up at the house from the shippers.
 
It's really amazing how often this kind of thing happens. Insurance company and/or shipper
should thank their lucky stars it didn't fall on someone. Very sorry to see this.

PMc
 
If the bed and saddle aren't too worn, I'd look at buying a second wore out Heavy 10 of the same generation and make a good one between them. If you have a head-stock, tail-stock, and saddle from the same machine, the rest should bolt together without any need for refitting.
 
does anybody know what the 2 aluminum washers are for?

My guess would be part of a project that got lost during parting off (who hasn't lost parts this way?). I don't remember anything like that on an H10.

Check the saddle closely for hairline cracks, especially around the cheese head screw recesses - that much force is bound to damage not only the apron, but the saddle as well.
 
what a shame, that must have physically hurt when you unwrapped it and saw that. Looks like one of the most optimistic packing schemes I've seen for a lathe.
 
It literally made me sick, I came in the house made a couple phone calls to the seller and the shipper and laid down

and took a nap, I had to flee reality cause reality was sucking pretty hard at that point, lol. I've been saving for 2 or 3 years and shopping and doing my home work reading reviews and forums and checking references. I finally

got up the gumption and pulled the trigger on this one and then this happens...yeah brother I was SICK, lol. Did I

mention this was to be my retirement lathe? Hopefully this works out ok and then up next is a milling machine and a

bandsaw. I'll let you all know how it works out with the lathe, thank you for all for the advise and support.
 








 
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