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South bend opinion and suggestions needed

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Plastic
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Location
northern steeler nation
Went and looked at this south bend, and I know nothing about them, price is very good. Honestly it looks worse than it is, just sitting and collecting grime. It seems to be in good mechanical condition overall. The only two things I found were the cross slide slid a little forward and backward, and the main feed screw, screw was good, but seemed like the internal gears were loose worn or...had a fair amount of slop
My questions are what model. A heavy 10? would the parts be readily available and price worthy to fix. Would it be a good hobbyist home lathe

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If you "know nothing about them" why are you messing around shopping for a South Bend lathe? What do you expect to do with the thing? How will you know if it's in serviceable shape or not? What will you do with it when you get it home? This seems to be happening over and over again. People think that it would be "cool" to have a lathe but have no idea what to do with one and have no idea what the difference is between a good one and a piece of scrap metal.

Of course, it's your money and you can spend/waste it however you want but I'd suggest you get some experience with lathe turning before you jump into the deep end of the pool. A poor lathe is nothing but a waste of time and money. A good lathe can be a source of great pride and joy but you'd better know what you're doing before you leap!
 
Not a heavy 10 Looks like a 13 inch or a 16 inch SBL to me, it will be real heavy to move..was it a heavy 10 that you are looking for.??
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I know nothing about them

My questions are what model

Or 14 1/2 (sharpened tag says 183C , 14 1/2)

Note 1 1/8 spindle bore - so no 5C collets

Note not especially plentiful 2 1/4 - 6 spindle nose thread in case one was after additional spindle tooling

Good info here (see the several editions of catalog 100 in forties)

The SBL Workshop - Catalog Index
 

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Looks like it was running so ask a lot of questions. Does everything work, anything broken. I don't see the half nut and thread dial likely that will be $100 or so.

Big old girl good for tractor parts and the like.
Could be a cream puff good enough for close work but likely not.
Paint doesn't mean anything.
Likely worth -200 to +2000 (near cream puff for 2K)
The top of the V way should look like it does almost under the head stock if it was near perfect.
No it does not need be perfect for tractor parts... but now-a-days there is not much tractor work, if any.
 
Looks like it was running so ask a lot of questions. Does everything work, any thing broken. I dont see the half nut likely that will be $100 or so.

Big old girl good for tractor parts and the like.
Could be a cream puff good enough for close work but likely not.
Paint doesn't mean anything.
Likely worth -200 to +2000
I can get it for 400. It was running and sounds good. Just loose in the two areas I mentioned. If half way *cheap* fix then I think it would be good for all the parts I make

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Slop in cross feed doesn't matter much if any..with the gibbs set it will cut to the dial.
Plus she can make her own parts.
Gears likely very dry so also perhaps not a big problem.
If you have parts to make it might be good for you..
Only having a few parts to make it can be better to job out the parts.
Tag looks like 14" from here.
 
It's a 14.5 or 16. The motor base of 13's or 10's is smaller. Can't go wrong for $400.

Cross feed nut is cheap and easy to reduce the slop on cross slide.

Main lead screw drives a worm gear in apron. Worm gear has two bushings. One of those bushings tend to wear on a thrust side of it. This can potentially be adjusted tighter with the circle nuts that hold them, or bushing replaced too. This is a bit of work though. Need pull quick change gear box with lead screw attached. Then drop apron.
 
Agreed, hard to go wrong at $400, BUT, be prepared to spend 3x that, maybe more, to tool it up well. Its not a cheap game to play....

Edit: Is it 3 phase? If you don't have 3 phase you will need a converter or vfd, your price just doubled and you still need tooling.
 
It depends on what you have in plan for the lathe? Are you going to make clock parts or drive shafts? I started out with a small 7" table top lathe. Did a lot with the little POS. but for the $500 I bought it for it was great. I recently bought a newer 1979 southbend 13" and restored it. It does everything I could ask it to do. It was also a lot of fun bringing something like that back to life.
Members on here will emphasize the tooling costs! I didnt really believe it either but now I have lived it and the tooling far exceeds the cost of the machine. I bought mine for $900 and have probably 2k into it and that's without tooling.
It also looks like all the paint is peeling off leading me to believe that someone has already tried to go thru it. You would probably have to sink $1000 off the bat to get it going in the right direction.

cons:
OLD model.
Very heavy for a home use lathe
Old style gear box
threaded spindle
non hardened ways
lantern tool post
Old style cast spindle bearings
Small dials

I dont know about the motor and belt condition?

Be patient, keep looking and learning about these lathes and figure out what you want it to do for you.
 
If you decide to buy it also get the stand-on pad all three chucks, anything about the shop that looks like lathe stuff and try to make a deal on the drill press.

look for a steady rest about the shop.

Johnoder's link to books shows 1 Hp, so likely you might put a 1 1/2 - 2 hp single phase on her and run.

Read some PM posts about moving a lathe..to be safe and not break it.

She does not have the best speed for 1/4 aluminum but still you can run 1/4 aluminum stock.
QT Johnoder: Small hole through spindle(Note 1 1/8 spindle bore - so no 5C collets.)

Many end up wishing they had a bigger lathe / and many big lathes just sit there waiting for something to do.

If it was close to me and I had space, and it seemed good/working I would buy it.

You can run threads with not having a dial/half nut, you just stay engaged, not a big/any problem.

With the 4 jaw being fair, you (that lathe) can make a collet holder and draw bar to be held in the 4 jaw. (a good easy project)
(be sure the chuck is clean and add a line-up mark being the collet holder to one jaw.)

Be sure the spindle is taking oil at both ends/ don't tear it down but pick out the chips and be sure she has oil on moving parts and where oil is needed. *I would run it for a time before painting.. that way you know what it may need.
 
Looks just like ours did!

$400.00 is good buy, get it.

It will be heavy and require forklift or other lifting equipment to place on trailer or other.

An in spot teardown to move should NOT be considered as the parts are still way heavy.

The bushings mentioned above can have spacer rings made ad we did.

It likely is 2 hp motor and 3 phase which is GREAT!.

A 3 to VFD is not expensive and ours does both RPM and MPR in back gear with plenty of power.

Do get the rebuild manual and felt kit or at minimum the manual as it has great and complete instructions for full teardown and assembly.

Felt can be purchased as industrial supply or in the kit.

The end cover looks to be missing, ours was when first looked and used as leverage to set price to $200.00 then found under other stuff while loading.

Ask to look through rest of location for missing or extra "lathe stuff".

We made assorted posts along the way with ours years ago for suggestions and ideas.

For now go get it!

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For turning (OD work) the cross-travel sloppiness (nut) has little to do with accuracy. The cutting forces are pushing the tool back toward tightening against the nut and thread. Turning the cross hand wheel .001 or .100 you are likely to get just that amount. There is no tendency for the lathe to pull the tool post forward during the turning operation. Same with facing a part end, there is little problem with having some cross-feed problem for facing..

Milling and vise held work on the cross slide would have more a problem but with good thinking even that should not be any/much problem.
 








 
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