# 13" South Bend turret lathe project



## dwall174 (Feb 12, 2022)

I bought a 13" South Bend turret lathe a little while back & I'm in the process of restoring it.


Currently it's all disassembled & the majority of the smaller manageable sized parts I moved into my basement so I can work on cleaning them up & rebuilding them.



I took the base / bed / chip-tray / & a few other larger parts to a local shop that does sandblasting to get the 60 years of caked-on grease & coolant off.



I had a couple days of somewhat warmer weather here in Michigan, so I was able to get a quick coat of primmer on the parts so hopefully they won't start to rust before the weather starts to warm up here a little. 




Doug


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## Shootymacshootface (Feb 12, 2022)

Looking good!
How are the ways on that? I have a Heavy 10 that has a groove worn into the v-ways. My plan is to take the bed somewhere to be ground straight again.


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## dwall174 (Feb 12, 2022)

The lathe wasn't connected to power when I looked at it, but the owner said that it ran on 240V 3 phase. 
Looking over the wiring a little better once I got it home, I decided just to strip it all out! The wiring was all black wires & there wasn't any type of labels on any of them. Besides the lack of labeling, the wiring & control boxes were coated in a greasy coolant film.


Once I opened-up the disconnect box I was kind of glad it wasn't under power 




Doug


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## dwall174 (Feb 12, 2022)

Shootymacshootface said:


> How are the ways on that? I have a Heavy 10 that has a groove worn into the v-ways. My plan is to take the bed somewhere to be ground straight again.


They seem to be in fairly good shape for a 60-year-old machine, no deep grooves or excessive wear.  



I may look into having the ways ground while I'm waiting on the weather to get warmer, but seeing this lathe is going to be just for home hobby use I think they will be fine as is.

Doug


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## dwall174 (Feb 12, 2022)

After seeing the mess in the power disconnect-box I was a little skeptical on the motor running ok?  
Once I got the motor out of the cabinet, I noticed that it didn't have any type of nameplate or wiring diagram. Doing some testing to see which wires had continuity with each other I came up with conclusion that this was a two-speed dual winding 3PH motor. I connected it to my RPC to see if it ran & it seemed to run good on each speed. 





Being I wasn't 100% sure that this was a 240V motor I took it to a local motor repair shop & had them bench test it to make sure there wasn't any other possible problems. They got back to me a few days later & confirmed that it was 240V & it passed all their bench tests. I asked them how much they would charge me to clean it up & replace the bearings. They quoted me $100 which I thought was pretty good, so I told them to go ahead & do the work. It took them a few weeks to get it done since they were pretty busy & short on staff like everyone else out there.  
I was quite happy when I picked it up, I didn't know they were going to paint it also! 







Doug


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## dwall174 (Feb 12, 2022)

dwall174 said:


> Once I got the motor out of the cabinet,


Getting that 80lb.+ motor out of the cabinet on a fully assembled lathe would be a PITA. 
Here's a couple of pic's of the motor next to a regular sized spray paint can for size comparison. 



Being it's mounted from the bottom up, there's not too much room to maneuver it around inside the cabinet. 



Being I had the lathe disassembled I used my shop crane to lift the base & motor assembly up onto a heavy-duty stand. From there I disconnect the motor from the mount & used a method I seen on YouTube, I lifted the base up high enough to slide the motor out from the bottom. 




Doug


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## Shootymacshootface (Feb 12, 2022)

This is what I am the most amazed at so far....


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## dwall174 (Feb 12, 2022)

Yeah, that surprised me also! To make things even a little stranger, they had a 10 /15 /& 20-amp fuse in the slots? 

The motor repair shop told me that the motor was also loaded with chips! 
He also mentioned that it was probably a good thing that I decided to let them do the cleaning. They have a special dry-ice blaster that they use for cleaning the insides of the motors. 

I haven't got around to checking out the coolant pump & motor that also came with the lathe. However, judging by its appearance! I'm guessing that the pump would be loaded with debris also. The motor should be an enclosed fan cooled model, so the windings shouldn't be clogged with debris.



Doug


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## FOMOGO (Feb 12, 2022)

That control box is pretty scary looking. Kind of amazing nothing shorted out. That should be a real useful machine. Mike


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## dwall174 (Feb 12, 2022)

FOMOGO said:


> That control box is pretty scary looking. Kind of amazing nothing shorted out.


Once I seen that mess, I was convinced that I would just disconnect all the wiring & start from scratch.
Even the reversing switch that was mounted up high, had a light coating of oily coolant on the contacts?




FOMOGO said:


> That should be a real useful machine. Mike


Yeah, I took a chance on the motor not running seeing it wasn't connected to any power! But everything moved nice & freely including the turret's rotating assembly. The only part that was somewhat stiff was the upper tool holder section of the cross slide. 

I only paid $500 for the lathe, so I figured it was worth the chance  
It does need a few parts & new bearings/bushings but considering what a 13" SB lathe in really good condition would go for, I think I made the right decision.  

Doug


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## seasicksteve (Feb 12, 2022)

Shootymacshootface said:


> This is what I am the most amazed at so far....
> View attachment 396116


Could you imagine if they turned magnesium 
Holy Fire Hazard Batman
That’s just crazy


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## dwall174 (Feb 24, 2022)

We had another little break in the weather here where the temperature didn't go below freezing for a couple nights. 
I have a RV/Camper style furnace that I use for heat while I'm out working in the garage, but I don't leave it on while I'm not out there.   
With the outside temperature above 30 degrees the RV furnace can heat the garage to around 65 which was good enough for me to paint the larger parts.







Doug


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## finsruskw (Feb 24, 2022)

WOW!!
THAT is going to be one super nice looking lathe!!
OUTSTANDING!!!


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## Winegrower (Feb 24, 2022)

dwall174 said:


> They have a special dry-ice blaster that they use for cleaning the insides of the motors.


Now that is something I didn’t know about.   Very clever!


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## dwall174 (Feb 24, 2022)

Winegrower said:


> Now that is something I didn’t know about.   Very clever!


The units are kind of pricey for the occasional user, but their great for motor & electronic shops because they don't leave any residue & they don't get the parts wet.










Doug


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## dwall174 (Feb 24, 2022)

finsruskw said:


> WOW!!
> OUTSTANDING!!!


Thanks!

And thanks everyone else for all the other LIKES!

Doug


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## dwall174 (May 8, 2022)

After a couple of unexpected delays, I'm finally getting back to working on the 13" South Bend lathe.

I reassembled the under-drive motor & drive section on a heavy-duty stand so that I didn't have to try assembling it laying on the garage floor.
With the motor & under-drive section all assembled, I used my shop crane to lift the under-drive cabinet up & lower it down over the under-drive unit.




I still need to get the correct size drive pulleys, but with the base unit back together I was able to move the base into place along the wall where I wanted to put the lathe.  





After the base was in-place, I was able to assemble the bed/legs/ and chip-pan.




Doug


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## dwall174 (Nov 28, 2022)

Due to some health-related issues I had to put this lathe project on hold for several months, but I'm slowly getting back to working on it.

My last post shows the lathe up against the wall where I plan on keeping it & I was thinking I would not need to move it from there.
Well, that plan kind of took a U-turn!

Back when I placed it up against the wall, I didn't have the correct size pulleys & not having the large pulley that goes on the counter shaft I never gave it a thought about installing it.  
As it turns out that pulley will not clear the top of the cabinet opening enough to fit on the shaft without removing the motor or lowering the whole assembly down off of the pivot shaft.



To make things more interesting I just placed this Powermatic 1200HD I recently picked-up & my 20" Walker Turner drill press in front of the lathe! This gives me a roughly three-foot-wide area in-between the lathe & the drill presses which is enough room to use the machines, but not enough to get my shop-crane in there.  This led me to come up with a "Plan-B" option.

I braced some scrap aluminum blocks in-between the bed & the chip pan then I used a small scissor-jack to lift up the bed just enough to get the base out. Once I got the base out, I attached a ratchet-strap to a rafter just as a back-up for the scissor-jack.


With the base clear of the lathe, I was able to use a heavy-duty appliance dolly to move the base around the Powermatic where I have the room needed to work on the base. I basically reversed the previous process of installing the motor & drive assembly.




I just ordered the motor pulley & belts I'll need, so I'm going to wait until I get them installed before reassembling the drive assembly in the base. 

Doug


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## dwall174 (Dec 20, 2022)

I finally got the new larger width style "B" pulley installed & the drive assembly remounted in the base! 
Due to the wider B pulley I needed to grind a couple non-critical areas of the motor-mount & the bases rear pivot casting to allow clearance of the new pulley. When I got my late it had a smaller not original pulley on it, and I wasn't able to find an original!  Being that the original pulley was held in-place with a tapper-pin, the shaft didn't have a keyway groove in it. I drilled & tapped two additional set screws in the pulley to help hold it in-place.









I'm going to be leaving the underdrive base up on the stand for now so I can work on wiring the motor up once I get the control panel & starters figured out. 






Doug


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## SLK001 (Dec 20, 2022)

When they sandblasted your bed, they didn't hit the ways, did they?


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## dwall174 (Dec 21, 2022)

SLK001 said:


> When they sandblasted your bed, they didn't hit the ways, did they?


No, they put some type of heavy-duty tape over the ways to protect them.
I'm not sure what kind of tape they used, but I had to use mineral spirits to get most of it off. 

Doug


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## Ben17484 (Dec 21, 2022)

Nice project  I look forward to following your updates 


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