South Bend 9a Restoration (pic Heavy)

next question, when you put in your new bearings how are you going to keep oil in there, if you line bore the countershaft holes and press in the bushing there wont be a keyway for the felt to set in, will you just cut a keyway into your countershaft? I am going through this right now, I am having mine line bored now. I was planning on just cutting a keyway into the shaft and hoping that would work. I am also going to mount oil drip cups on the top of each side
 
Good observation on that motor mount. Actually, I hadn't given any thought to it, but checking some reference photos- that does appear to be an interesting mount. I'm not sure if it's an original SB part or not. It's cast aluminum, and not much on this lathe is aluminum- so perhaps it isn't. Then again, the bull gear guard is cast aluminum, so SB did do some aluminum parts anyway. I guess the answer is: I'm not sure.

Regarding the oilite bearings, I have more research to do there. The bearings don't have a slot cut in them, and when pressed in there is still a gap between the two, presumably directly below the gits oilers. I'm not sure if any modification needs done other than perhaps filling the old felts slot with JB Weld. I don't believe that felts are used in the newer countershaft versions with the oilite bearings. I could be wrong... This is a project for much further down the road. I'm not even sure if line boring is the appropriate method here since the bore bar could only be .750" diameter anyway. Too much flex in the boring bar itself? No idea... I just embraced the opportunity to pick up the parts at a cheap price for a future project.
 
Threading Nameplate Restoration

I decided I wanted to try my hand at restoring the brass threading nameplate. I know that you can get reproduction ones on ebay, but they are just screen printed. I liked the raised brass letters better. This wasn't a particularly easy project because the panel was a bit beat up in the first place. But here's how I tackled it. Overall, there's some places I wish it turned out better, but I'm really proud of the results anyway. Kind of cool to restore the original plate!

The real key to success here is liquid mask, which you can pick up at a hobby/craft store. The details are far to fine to be able to mask with masking tape. The liquid mask is clear when dry:
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I masked off the areas I wanted black so that I wouldn't get too thick a layer of paint on the background. Then I sprayed the plate red:IMG_6650_zpsjtmdgfpi.jpg

After the paint dried, I removed the masking:
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...and wet sanded with 1000 grit paper. I started by putting the paper on glass, and rubbing the plate on it. But since the plate wasn't smooth and flat, I ended up sanding too far in some areas and not far enough in others. I found that it was far better to put the plate down and sand with the paper in my hand. This was my first time doing this, so live & learn.
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I then masked the areas that I just painted red. Again, note the liquid mask over the S:
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...and sprayed black on the black areas:
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Prior to wet sanding, it looked like this:
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After sanding, the plate looked like this. To be honest, I was pretty disappointed in the results. The lower left area where I sanded too far bothered me. And the black background was pretty messed up in the name box area. I thought about stopping here, but just couldn't bring myself to admit defeat:139_zpsim1al5g7.jpg

So I masked of the raised lettering and resprayed both colors:141_zpsfl52edoj.jpg

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After that things were MUCH better. I still had a couple exposed areas of brass in the background. For the black, I colored them in with a black sharpie which worked really well. For the red I used a red sharpie, but the color is off. I think it's still probably better than the brass splotches all over. Finally I sprayed a flat clear coat over it to try to dull the shine of the sharpie marker with the sanded color paint. Here is my final result, which (besides the red sharpie) I'm really happy with!
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Collet Rack Restoration

I picked up a SB collet rack off ebay which was full of extra holes. It still wasn't cheap, but it was cheaper than normal since it had a ton of holes all over. I figured I could fill the holes with JB Weld, which worked just fine. I also used a little bondo to smooth the transition from the cast aluminum to JB Weld in some areas. This one turned out nice as well!

Here is the rack as I received it. Tons of extra holes all over:
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I filled the holes with JB Weld. The large slot in the tray area required a little bondo to get the transition smooth. I didn't take a photo of that:
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Here it is painted to match the lathe:
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I painted the mount as well. I kind of polished the vertical shaft, but it's pretty old and gnarly. It looks fine like this:
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Quick Change Gearbox

My final project for the weekend was wrapping up the quick change gearbox. I started this a couple weeks ago, but there was a lot to this thing. I guess I didn't really take a before pic, but it was absolutely filthy, grimy, disgusting, and greasy inside. Everything got degreased and scrubbed. The casting was paint stripped and repainted:
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I found a thread while researching how to restore the threading nameplate that indicated that this was a good time to do some machining on the gearbox casting to better the oiling system. The restoration manual did cover part of this, but not all of it. So I was glad to find that thread. The biggest thing was to drill out both sides of the oil galley so that you could really get in there and clean everything. So to start, I drilled out the factory plug on the right side:
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Then I was able to use the galley itself as a guide for a really long 1/4" drill bit in order to drill out the left side of the galley. The longest bit I had was 6" which was just long enough:
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Now the oil galley goes all the way through the casting:
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...and the oil passages on the left side of the casting can actually be cleaned:
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I also replaced both of the bronze bearings in the gearbox with bronze oilite bearings. The needle bearings in the tumblers were replaced as well, though I didn't take a picture of that:
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Both the right and left side of the oil galley were drilled to letter F and tapped 5/16-18. Set screws were fixed in place with a careful application of loctite. The set screw on the right side had to be shortened to just shy of 1/4" while the set screw on the left side had to end up a very small 1/8". To make the set screw this short, I had to grind material off of both the top side and the thread side. This was to ensure the oil passages weren't blocked. I also drilled out a new hole for a right-side Gits oiler, and replaced the old oiler with a matching new one. Now the oil galley doesn't need to supply both sides of oil passages quite as efficiently since I can put oil in on either side.IMG_6851_zpsftifcybs.jpg

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The gearbox was reassembled taking care to set the proper clearances on the top shaft:
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And finally the gearbox is complete:
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Next up, I can finalize the position on the bench where I want the lathe, mount the countershaft assembly, measure for the drive belt length, and then finish assembling the head. After that all that's left is the carriage, which is still a grimy mess:
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Almost 300 new views on this thread since I posted the update last Sunday. I have to say- I really thought that name plate restoration would draw some comments. I am really proud of how well that thing turned out!

I did get the saddle and apron torn all apart, degreased, and paint stripped throughout last week and this weekend, but I haven't had chance to move further on them. I think that the saddle is kind of rough in the casting, so I plan on smoothing it just a bit with some bondo. Otherwise, just lots of masking and paint. All the gears seem to be in OK shape, but I did notice that the worm gear moved around quite a bit in the retaining sleeve. I'm not sure if that's ok, as the restoration guide made no mention of this in the disassembly section. I haven't read the apron assembly section yet, so perhaps it'll mention it in there.

I did replace the compound lead screw nut, and the cross slide one seemed to be on OK shape. The half nut threads were still square (acme) and didn't seem to be worn to points. So overall, I think I've purchased the last of what I need to finish this thing off.
 
Hey, your nameplate/ threading chart looks nice! For a first time restore. In fact it's nicer than I would have done. The name plate on my 9" SBL is pretty beat up, not worth restoring. I can still read the numbers, that's all that counts on my lathe. I'll let my next generation of kids worry about restoring it, if they don't sell it first!
 
Hey, your nameplate/ threading chart looks nice! For a first time restore. In fact it's nicer than I would have done. The name plate on my 9" SBL is pretty beat up, not worth restoring. I can still read the numbers, that's all that counts on my lathe. I'll let my next generation of kids worry about restoring it, if they don't sell it first!

Thanks for the comment! I was surprised nobody really said much about it. I know I'm pretty damn proud of how it turned out, ESPECIALLY because it's the first time I've done it.
 
wildo,

I'd be proud too! You did a very nice job there restoring your 9"SBL.

I have my dad's that I learned on years ago. It started out as a 9"C, born in 1949. Later in life, I bought a worn out QCGB and apron to make it a 9"A. Recondition the entire lathe 12 years ago, but didn't paint it. I like the way your paint job came out. What type of paint did you use? Ken

Edit: Just found your earlier post on the type of paint you used. B. M. brand.
Your lathe has the same bed length on it as mine 42". There's very little changes on these lathes from about 1939 and later. I bought a 1943 model A for my brother a couple years back that was in mint shape for its age. In comparison with mine, I could not find any differences. Ken
 
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