- Joined
- Apr 20, 2011
- Messages
- 430
This SB seems to be pretty odd as I've only found one other in the states. Was apparently in the waning days of South Bends death throes (the 90's?) they were grasping at anything to stay afloat and contracted out to Taiwan for some models - this is one.
Another odd twist to it is that it went through hurricane Katrina. The guy had an extensive home shop and it was all completely submerged. Having been through 2 previous hurricanes, he said enough was enough and moved to Longview, Tex bringing several of the damaged machines/tools with him. We met and he really pushed my buying the SB (and a couple other tools I'll try to post on later), needless to say I was VERY leery of buying a lathe that had been taking a bath in salt water. Obviously I did buy it - and I took many pics of the process of bringing it back to life.
It was - and wasn't - as bad as I thought... The ways were a big concern, but they were hardened and showed only the slightest pitting, the carriage/apron assy and tailstock were undamaged. The headstock gearing/bearings and the speed/feed box gearing/bearings were the challenge! However, though the gears were somewhat pitted, they appeared to be useable, but the bearings (about 20 of them in assorted sizes)--- they were worse than toast! But, bearings are easily found and relatively inexpensive, so that also worked out OK.
With a good cleaning and some fresh paint it has turned out to be a pretty nice lathe. The head stock gearing is a bit noisier than it probably should be, but isnt really all that bad. I use it pretty extensively.
A teaser pic of the lathe as it is now -- click on the link to see all of them.
https://picasaweb.google.com/pace8bellsouth.net/SouthBendLathe#
Another odd twist to it is that it went through hurricane Katrina. The guy had an extensive home shop and it was all completely submerged. Having been through 2 previous hurricanes, he said enough was enough and moved to Longview, Tex bringing several of the damaged machines/tools with him. We met and he really pushed my buying the SB (and a couple other tools I'll try to post on later), needless to say I was VERY leery of buying a lathe that had been taking a bath in salt water. Obviously I did buy it - and I took many pics of the process of bringing it back to life.
It was - and wasn't - as bad as I thought... The ways were a big concern, but they were hardened and showed only the slightest pitting, the carriage/apron assy and tailstock were undamaged. The headstock gearing/bearings and the speed/feed box gearing/bearings were the challenge! However, though the gears were somewhat pitted, they appeared to be useable, but the bearings (about 20 of them in assorted sizes)--- they were worse than toast! But, bearings are easily found and relatively inexpensive, so that also worked out OK.
With a good cleaning and some fresh paint it has turned out to be a pretty nice lathe. The head stock gearing is a bit noisier than it probably should be, but isnt really all that bad. I use it pretty extensively.
A teaser pic of the lathe as it is now -- click on the link to see all of them.
https://picasaweb.google.com/pace8bellsouth.net/SouthBendLathe#