My 1959 Heavy 10 Toolroom

[Canuck75]

Here's some pictures of my 1959 South Bend Heavy 10 Toolroom Lathe. Spent almost 3 months working everyday after work and all day on the weekends to restore it. Completely disassembled, repainted, replaced some bearings and gears, and then reassembled. Wear on bed is only .0015" at it's worst so I didn't bother to scrape it. I'll probably rescrape the cross slide and compound eventually, but wanted to get it together and see how she works first. I still need to install the belt, but I had shoulder surgery last Thursday and I'm going to be in a sling for 2 months so that's going to have to wait.

Beautiful rebuild. Just like my 1963 except for the turned vice cast tailstock clamp. lamp, and control switch. Believe SB started flame hardening the bed ways in 1965.

Canuck75

 

[karlsangree]

I just picked up a '42 ex-military 10 heavy. Your flawless restoration gives me something to aspire to!

 

[Lucas E]

Beautiful rebuild. Just like my 1963 except for the turned vice cast tailstock clamp. lamp, and control switch. Believe SB started flame hardening the bed ways in 1965.

Canuck75

Great looking machine, did you restore it or if sporting original paint?

I just picked up a '42 ex-military 10 heavy. Your flawless restoration gives me something to aspire to!

You can do it, I 100% recommend getting a solid process set up for painting. I even built a gun cleaning station using an old stainless steel sink and painted with exterior house paint so I could leave it set up outside. It really helped with cleaning the gun since I was spraying small amounts of paint or primer a couple times a week and needed to make sure the gun was always cleaned properly.

 

[Janderso]

Let me just wipe this drool off my chin.
Beautiful machine tool!
I love how South Bend sold this beautiful yet very capable lathe/bench with storage all in a clean package.

 

[Lucas E]

Let me just wipe this drool off my chin.
Beautiful machine tool!
I love how South Bend sold this beautiful yet very capable lathe/bench with storage all in a clean package.

Thanks! Me too. I was looking really hard for a smaller but fully featured new lathe and couldn't find anything on the market. You have to get up to a 13x40 size to get all the features. It has a crazy 70 position quick change gear box. The ability to run 5c collets without a long collet chuck, and a telescoping taper attachment. I realized I was better off putting my efforts into restoring one of these as opposed to buying a new Taiwan lathe and trying to modify it to be more capable while still also dealing with lesser quality than these were built to.

 

[Janderso]

I realized I was better off putting my efforts into restoring one of these

You did well my friend.

 

[Canuck75]

Thanks! Me too. I was looking really hard for a smaller but fully featured new lathe and couldn't find anything on the market. You have to get up to a 13x40 size to get all the features. It has a crazy 70 position quick change gear box. The ability to run 5c collets without a long collet chuck, and a telescoping taper attachment. I realized I was better off putting my efforts into restoring one of these as opposed to buying a new Taiwan lathe and trying to modify it to be more capable while still also dealing with lesser quality than these were built to.

Great looking machine, did you restore it or if sporting original paint?

You can do it, I 100% recommend getting a solid process set up for painting. I even built a gun cleaning station using an old stainless steel sink and painted with exterior house paint so I could leave it set up outside. It really helped with cleaning the gun since I was spraying small amounts of paint or primer a couple times a week and needed to make sure the gun was always cleaned properly.

Lucas E,-
Lathe was painted navy grey which was fairly dark and looked brushed on. Got a SB parts book so I knew what I was doing, took it completely apart, stripped the paint and started over. It had 3ph 440v or 550v electrics. The solenoid contactor blocks in the Westinghouse electrical panel amazingly were 110v 60 cycle so switched out the motor so everything was on 110v. I was in the military, moved a lot and would never have 3ph power so made sense to switch. Hope I don't insult any SB owners but I used Tremclad grey as I liked the look of it and has served me well for 46 years.

Canuck75

 

[Lucas E]

Lucas E,-
Lathe was painted navy grey which was fairly dark and looked brushed on. Got a SB parts book so I knew what I was doing, took it completely apart, stripped the paint and started over. It had 3ph 440v or 550v electrics. The solenoid contactor blocks in the Westinghouse electrical panel amazingly were 110v 60 cycle so switched out the motor so everything was on 110v. I was in the military, moved a lot and would never have 3ph power so made sense to switch. Hope I don't insult any SB owners but I used Tremclad grey as I liked the look of it and has served me well for 46 years.

Canuck75

Very nice. I took the side cover off my lathe as it was in good shape and bright it to the local auto paint dealer. He hand matched it to the original color.

 

[Canuck75]

Lucas E,-
Just conversation but what has also been a lot of fun is improving (in my view) a few things on the lathe. During rebuild I shortened the belt tightening shaft to move the crank closer to the cabinet, and, also made the handle to fold. Getting away from knocking my knee on that handle "improved my machining experience" greatly (smile). Adding a DRO also made a world of difference and is highly recommended. Original "glued in place" belt was cut disassembling the machine by Crown Assets so now use a laced belt. New one is about $108 CDN. Does yours have the skived synthetic belt or leather?

Canuck75

 

[Lucas E]

I purchased one of these rubber coated nylon belt kits from eBay.

New! ● 1" Premium Flat Drive Belt ● For All South Bend Lathe 10L & 10R Heavy 10 | eBay

Premium Nylon Core Flat Drive Belts for all Heavy 10 (10L and 10R) South Bend Lathe. Wider belts for the larger 13" to 16" lathes are also coming soon. We are always happy to help. The belt has a textured SBR rubber face on both sided of the belt and is reinforced by overlapping nylon fabric...

www.ebay.com

It seems to be high quality, although I haven't tried any deep cuts yet. I made this belt gluing jig out of some aluminum plate to assist with gluing it straight. It worked well.