South Bend Turnado

Can anyone tell me anything thing about this machine, like/dislike? is there anything i should upgrade? i was told that this is not the US model. but unsure.

thanks.

turnado

do you have a photo..??. I may have a parts list for one....packrat2

It is, I believe Italian and badged for SB. Run one from time to time, twitchey speed control levers and sometime the clutch refuses to stay fully engaged. Otherwise, its a very robust machine and peels off metal better than other SB's I've run.

South Bend imported larger lathes from a variety of places.
Depending on model and date, there were Nordics from France, some machines from Spain, and later Turnados were made in Taiwan.
There were also South Bends made in Korea and Australia.
Then there were a whole lot made in South Bend Indiana, depending on what and when.

If you find the actual model number, size, and date, somebody here can help you figure out where it actually came from.

The ones I have heard to steer clear of are the french made Nordics. Not because they are bad lathes, but because they have an almost impossible to fix clutch/brake system.

Here is a quote from Joe Micheals, from a thread here in 2004-



We just got rid of a Nordic 25 engine lathe here at the power plant. The reason we got rid of it was that an electromagnetic clutch in the headstock failed. Even when Southbend was reasonably healthy, they did not support us when we'd call them for parts for this Nordic lathe. We knew this clutch was giving out, and Southbend, even a few years back was no help. They explained that they had taken on the "Nordic" line in the 1960's-1970's and then ditched it. What we found out was the Nordic lathes were made by a French firm caled "Muller & Pessant". Muller & Pessant ditched the Nordic line, selling the rights to some Belgian firm, who did even less with it. We once tried to contact the Belgian firm directly for parts and got nowheres. The clutch was made by Warner of France, and it proved impossible to get another clutch from them- if it was not obsoleted. LeBlond, Ltd found what they thought was the right clutch in stock in the USA. Fortunately, they sent us dimensions of the clutch they found and a cross section of the headstock of the Nordic lathe it was for. Surprise- Nordic had a few versions of headstock internals for the same size/line of lathe. In short, a Nordic lathe is a mongrel that no one seems to support. When the clutch failed in the Nordic 25 lathe here at the power plant, LeBlond Ltd DID try pretty hard to help us find a replacement. They had very little information to go on because Southbend had never really supported the Nordic lathes for some years previous. LeBlond, Ltd called around the US to various rebuilders but could not come up with the right replacement clutch. We got prices to convert the Nordic 25 to get rid of the electromagnetic clutches and put in an AC inverter drive. All the electrics, including the motor mounting would have had to have been replaced. It was not worth it. We took that Nordic out of the plant and it is in the boneyard rusting. Ways were like brand new, cross slide & compound rescraped a few years earlier. We figured it was a light duty lathe, parts were impossible to come by, so out it went. It will likely go for junk.

We are putting in a 24" x 96" heavy duty LeBlond engine lathe. No one would even take the Nordic in trade. Baby the one you've got, because if something lets go, you could be all done.

Joe Michaels

I would say it was made in the US?
please review attached.

davem83 said:

I would say it was made in the US?
please review attached.

Click to expand...

That is a TURN-ADO made in South Bend, In. That is the older headstock with a 2 9/16" through spindle hole. It was replaced with a new headstock in late '74 that had a 3 5/32" through hole.
What's wrong with your machine? I have some parts.
Ted
[email protected]


BTW: South Bend never sold any Italian machines

nothing is really wrong with it, I was in the process of purchasing it. and wanted to know as much as possible about it. what do these machines generally sell for?

thanks.

I know nothing of these machines but I do have a brochure for the 20" turnado with the other SB literature in my posession. It has all the specs and list the accesories for it.
If yours is built the way this one is listed, that is one tough machine. I was gonna scan it along with the other stuff for addition to steve wells site but if you think it would help I could scan it and post it here, it would be only 6 pages I don't think that is too many to post here at one time.
cheers,
Mitch

that would be great if you would do that.

thanks.

big SBLs 17" 20" 25"

looks like you have the 17 inch one, SBL also had a 20 inch and a 25 inch,
I have the catalog sheet on the 17 inch turn-nado you can have it for postage..
regards packrat2

Having trouble scanning it to my computer. I can scan and print but wont scan to the desktop. Maybe I can get it straightened out later but right now still trying to recover from the heat at work today, tomorrow is supposed to be 101 or 102 with our humidity the heat index may get to 115 .
Cheers,
Mitch

I too have the same lathe. It appears that it was made in the '60s if the 65 preceding the serial number is correct, otherwise I'm not sure. Ted, aka SB latheman has been helpful. I still have a minor issue, but I'm living with it for now. Before Leblond sold to Grizzly, they said they could provide a new clutch for that machine for $3500, and a six month lead time. I do have the original manual, but like all lathes of this type, they assume you already know everything...

I'm working on a Turn-Nado 17" presently, and am having some trouble with it. The longitudinal and cross feeds became unreliable after the tool was crashed into the chuck. I've taken the carriage and apron off, and now have the apron on my bench. The problem I'm having is that I cannot remove the housing for the feed selection levers, evidently, without removing the gears and associated parts inside the apron first. I do not want to do this if it can be avoided, since I suspect that the problem is with the cam-like parts inside the small housing, which is attached to the front of the apron. It seems like it will be a lot of work just to examine the parts in the housing for wear or damage. Is there a better way? My "manual", such as it is, consists of several dog eared xeroxed pages, and there is only one page which shows an exploded view of the internal parts, with another page of part numbers and names. This is a 101 style apron, according to the drawing.

I've removed the hub and handle for the longitudinal feed, by knocking out the tapered pin which secures it to the shaft. Unfortunately, it looks like the cross feed lever cannot be removed in a similar fashion to enable me to remove the remaining parts from the housing. Today being Saturday, I'll resume the job on Monday when I return to work. I'm a bit out of my depth on this, having little documentation on the machine and no prior experience with South Bend lathes.

Personally, I'd prefer to crate the apron assembly and ship it to someone who is able to repair it. I see a long and frustrating task ahead if I have to do it myself. Can anyone recommend where I can locate a place to do this service, or at least a source of information that will assist me in this project? Searching the web has turned up little information, though, discovering the Practical Machinist site has given me some hope. The machine's serial number is 70 GJ 2038.

Thank you,
Tom

Resolution?

tr4252 said:

I'm working on a Turn-Nado 17" presently, and am having some trouble with it. The longitudinal and cross feeds became unreliable after the tool was crashed into the chuck.

<SNIP>

Thank you,
Tom

Click to expand...

Hi Tom. I ran across your thread as I just purchased a Turn-Nado 17 myself. Did you ever get your problem resolved and, if so, what was involved in the repair?

Gary