spitfire_er
Aluminum
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2014
- Location
- Minnesota
Well, I guess I might as well start a thread being as I talked myself into doing basically a complete restoration.
I've owned lathes for several years including a few Logans, and a handful of South Bends, and once upon a time an old grizzly 12X36. The heavy 10 is my 10th lathe I believe and I have slowly worked up to getting the exact lathe that I wanted. Go back about 2 months ago I had A Logan 922 11x36", and a SB 9A 9X36", and a Delta Metal shaper. The Logan was OK but it left a little to be desired being that it was showing it's age and I was having issues holding tolerances, not to mention those tiny dials!
I decided one day to sell all three machines and head out for a heavy 10 with a 4.5' bed. I found several across the country but WOW, they know what they want for them! Wish list was Cam lock spindle, 4.5' Bed, and dual tumbler gear box! After only about 3 weeks of searching I found an old ad on craigslist which I had looked at before. All the ad said was Heavy 10 with a few misc extras! I did text the guy a few weeks prior to mainly ask about bed length, but no reply. He was asking $1,500. Forgot about it till a couple weeks later. The ad came up again this time $1,000 OBO, well I had to inquire again! I called the guy, got through and he went over it with me. Said it was the 4.5' bed and came from a smith a few years ago. After talking for about 10 minutes I said I'll be there asap. We set up a date and I drove a 600+ mile round trip to pick it up.
Didn't get everything I wanted, but here's what I got for $900!
1951 SB heavy 10 with 4.5'. Had the quick collet attachment with a few collets, but I have a full set and stand of SB collets from another lathe so no big deal. 4 chucks, 3, 4 scroll, 4 independent, and a 3 scroll/independent. Two are Buderus chucks and the other might be a Banini? Had a cheap QCTP piston style. Micrometer tail stock, with wipers on the bottom. Large dials all around! Along with a bunch of misc stuff that came with it!
Only thing I would have liked is the wide range gear box, and a cam lock spindle, but I can always change the spindle out later.
Brings me up to a couple weeks ago. I decided being that I will most likely keep this lathe for myself, might as well get it all back to factory. I asked Richard King for a few references for rebuilders in my area. Thanks again Richard for getting me Rick Arneberg at A & D Machine Tool Rebuilding in Roberts, WI. He did a fantastic job and got it done in about 10 days!
I had him regrind and scrape the bed, fit the saddle with turcite, align my tailstock, and he re-fit that and the headstock. He also did a little scraping on the cross slide which I was not expecting. I'm sure I missed something, but I am very happy with how it turned out! I did have a few nicks in the ways which I knew would not come out, but other than that, "it sure is pretty"! I opted not to have him re-paint it for me, but had a beautiful bridgport in there that they just repainted and it looked amazing!
I just got it back about a week ago and decided I might as well do a complete strip and repaint on the lathe. I have yet to decide on the cabinet yet, but knowing myself, I'll at least do a paint over to make it match. I can always re-do the cabinet later.
Here's a few photos of what it looked like before!
I've owned lathes for several years including a few Logans, and a handful of South Bends, and once upon a time an old grizzly 12X36. The heavy 10 is my 10th lathe I believe and I have slowly worked up to getting the exact lathe that I wanted. Go back about 2 months ago I had A Logan 922 11x36", and a SB 9A 9X36", and a Delta Metal shaper. The Logan was OK but it left a little to be desired being that it was showing it's age and I was having issues holding tolerances, not to mention those tiny dials!
I decided one day to sell all three machines and head out for a heavy 10 with a 4.5' bed. I found several across the country but WOW, they know what they want for them! Wish list was Cam lock spindle, 4.5' Bed, and dual tumbler gear box! After only about 3 weeks of searching I found an old ad on craigslist which I had looked at before. All the ad said was Heavy 10 with a few misc extras! I did text the guy a few weeks prior to mainly ask about bed length, but no reply. He was asking $1,500. Forgot about it till a couple weeks later. The ad came up again this time $1,000 OBO, well I had to inquire again! I called the guy, got through and he went over it with me. Said it was the 4.5' bed and came from a smith a few years ago. After talking for about 10 minutes I said I'll be there asap. We set up a date and I drove a 600+ mile round trip to pick it up.
Didn't get everything I wanted, but here's what I got for $900!
1951 SB heavy 10 with 4.5'. Had the quick collet attachment with a few collets, but I have a full set and stand of SB collets from another lathe so no big deal. 4 chucks, 3, 4 scroll, 4 independent, and a 3 scroll/independent. Two are Buderus chucks and the other might be a Banini? Had a cheap QCTP piston style. Micrometer tail stock, with wipers on the bottom. Large dials all around! Along with a bunch of misc stuff that came with it!
Only thing I would have liked is the wide range gear box, and a cam lock spindle, but I can always change the spindle out later.
Brings me up to a couple weeks ago. I decided being that I will most likely keep this lathe for myself, might as well get it all back to factory. I asked Richard King for a few references for rebuilders in my area. Thanks again Richard for getting me Rick Arneberg at A & D Machine Tool Rebuilding in Roberts, WI. He did a fantastic job and got it done in about 10 days!
I had him regrind and scrape the bed, fit the saddle with turcite, align my tailstock, and he re-fit that and the headstock. He also did a little scraping on the cross slide which I was not expecting. I'm sure I missed something, but I am very happy with how it turned out! I did have a few nicks in the ways which I knew would not come out, but other than that, "it sure is pretty"! I opted not to have him re-paint it for me, but had a beautiful bridgport in there that they just repainted and it looked amazing!
I just got it back about a week ago and decided I might as well do a complete strip and repaint on the lathe. I have yet to decide on the cabinet yet, but knowing myself, I'll at least do a paint over to make it match. I can always re-do the cabinet later.
Here's a few photos of what it looked like before!