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Strange? Attachment for 9" SBL.

radial1951

Plastic
Joined
Jun 3, 2011
Location
Richmond NSW Australia
A friend has this gadget and we have no idea what it is for. It is definitely to suit a 9" SB with the circular dovetail mount as per the standard SB cross slide. But what is it for, and how is it mounted?
 

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Part of a Boxford milling attatchment?

Thank you Jaddamasa! You have a sharp eye! Yes, it is very similar to one of the Boxford accessories I have now found on the lathes.co.uk website, thanks to you. But some of the features look more South Bend than Boxford eg the mounting of the feed screw bearing and the casting shape of the carriage is elaborate compared to the square-ish Boxford design. Yet the graduated dial looks to be a friction type (fine knurl on corner) which is not typically South Bend to my knowledge. I wonder if one of the other SB clones made a similar milling attachment.
 
Almost certainly the earliest version of the Boxford milling attachment. Basically the one shown on the lathes.co.uk site in the first "mounted on the machine" picture below the one showing all the parts.

So far as I'm aware there are three variants. Primarily to accommodate different dial and feed handle arrangements but casting shape also changed. As I recall it the feed screw, dial and handle are essentially the same as that used on the the non power feed (model C) Boxford cross slide.

Yours appears to have the earlier short, screw in dial carrier rather like that shown in the first photograph of a Model C on the lathes.co.uk site. Later versions of that screw in dial mount were longer allowing greater cross slide travel on the lathe. The large dial Boxfords have an even longer dial carrier, further extending cross slide travel, with a two screw fixing rather than the SouthBend style screw in fitting. By far the most common.

The milling attachment followed these changes but, I suspect, not immediately allowing stocks of older style dial units to be used up. The one I had was a late type but I've seen the other styles of dial on attachments that weren't as old as they ought to have been if the fitment followed the lathe use on similar years. However it was always a very expensive unit so odds are batches were made which then sat on the stockroom shelf for some time.

Pretty sure none of the SouthBend clone makers produced anything so inherently costly. Even Smart & Brown went for something a little less expensive.

Clive
 
Does it fit the South Bend mount? Is the bore straight or tapered? Bore dimensions?

There are obviously parts missing now that I have had a chance to read up on it and also seeing Jaddamasa's photo of the South Bend attachment. I don't recall the details of the bore, but I guess with a drawbar from the top, and an adapter fitted in the lower end, it could be mounted on almost any machine. Even the table of a mill, now that I think about it. My friend has a 9" SB so we assumed it also has the standard cross slide mount on it's carriage, although we didn't actually try it. The device is at my friends place about an hour away and with Covid rampant, I won't be going anywhere for a while.
 
Almost certainly the earliest version of the Boxford milling attachment. Basically the one shown on the lathes.co.uk site in the first "mounted on the machine" picture below the one showing all the parts.

So far as I'm aware there are three variants. Primarily to accommodate different dial and feed handle arrangements but casting shape also changed. As I recall it the feed screw, dial and handle are essentially the same as that used on the the non power feed (model C) Boxford cross slide.

Yours appears to have the earlier short, screw in dial carrier rather like that shown in the first photograph of a Model C on the lathes.co.uk site. Later versions of that screw in dial mount were longer allowing greater cross slide travel on the lathe. The large dial Boxfords have an even longer dial carrier, further extending cross slide travel, with a two screw fixing rather than the SouthBend style screw in fitting. By far the most common.

The milling attachment followed these changes but, I suspect, not immediately allowing stocks of older style dial units to be used up. The one I had was a late type but I've seen the other styles of dial on attachments that weren't as old as they ought to have been if the fitment followed the lathe use on similar years. However it was always a very expensive unit so odds are batches were made which then sat on the stockroom shelf for some time.

Pretty sure none of the SouthBend clone makers produced anything so inherently costly. Even Smart & Brown went for something a little less expensive.

Clive


Thank you for your comments, Clive. If it is indeed a Boxford attachment, you are correct about it being an early version with the screw-in dial mount. When seeing the photo on lathes.co.uk with the dividing head set up to cut a gear, I can only wonder at the lack of rigidity. Having used a standard vertical slide direct mounted to the cross slide of my SB Heavy 10, I can attest to the rather flexible setup. Still, it's better than no milling or dividing ability...
 








 
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