# 9C for beginner.



## DavidR8 (Oct 20, 2019)

Hello all, 
I’m a beginner metal worker on the hunt for a lathe. 
I’ve been looking at small imports up to 8x16 but South Bend was a brand recommended to me. 
There’s a NC9R for sale nearby. 








						south bend lathe
					

south bend lathe.  baldor motor 3&4 jaw chuck, faceplate, change gears.




					r.used.ca
				




Fellow is asking $1100 which seems rather steep to me. 

Thoughts on this lathe as a first lathe?




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## benmychree (Oct 20, 2019)

For a non quick change lathe with not a lot of tooling, it seems a bit much.


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## woodtickgreg (Oct 20, 2019)

Seems steep to me as well. I would keep looking, take your time. Southbends are nice, I restored and own one. But there are a lot of other nice vintage lathes out there as well. Try and find one with a gearbox so you can cut various threads if need be. A southbend 9A or even better yet a southbend heavy 10. You have to be carefull when looking at any older lathe, sometimes when they are low cost the are also significantly worn out, especially the beds. Just take your time when looking at them. Try and see them running if you can to make sure everything works and see how the sound.


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## francist (Oct 20, 2019)

As a first lathe I don’t know if I’d recommend that one. Actually, not necessarily that particular one but rather any lathe in pieces on the floor. You may do ok with it and it might turn out great, but there’s an equal chance that there’s a reason it’s not up and running. The change gears are a bit of a downer too, not just for threading (it’s not like you thread every single time you turn on the machine) but more so for the power feed. Not as easy to change your carriage feeds so you end up feeding by hand to save the hassle. On a small machine it’s not so bad, but bigger machine usually means bigger parts, so that can be a lot of hand cranking.

Trouble is, Victoria is an awful market for machines. Vancouver is better, but it costs 200 bucks to get off and on the Island again to go and look at anything! The worst position to be in Victoria is without any machine because it could be months before another one shows up.Way better to have one that you may not want forever but that can get you in the door while you discover what your needs are. Then, when the over-expectant Victoria pricing kicks in you are more prepared to jump or pass.

Having said all that, if I had the room and didn’t already have two lathes I’d probably offer the guy 750 and see what happened. But that’s just me — I’m impatient and a sucker for old iron!

Good luck in the hunt!

-frank


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## DavidR8 (Oct 20, 2019)

Thanks for your perspectives!

I’m really on the fence about it. 
It does seem like the seller is asking too much. It’s been for sale since May so there’s got to be something up.

I didn’t think about the change gears and feed rate. That would be a drag to to switch gears out to change feed rate. 

On the other hand like @francist said maybe lowball the seller and see what happens. 
I can order a 7x14 import for $750 and if I could get the SB for the same price I might be in a better situation. 


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## DavidR8 (Oct 20, 2019)

@francist very cool to meet someone local on HM!


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## jwmay (Oct 20, 2019)

I guess I’ll be the devils advocate on this one and say that if you’re new to all this, I’d recommend against buying some old piece of junk that used to be nice, when you can get a complete import machine brand new delivered to your doorstep, with two chucks, and all the accessories...and a warranty.  You want to learn machining, or learn machine rebuilding?  If the answer is both, I’d suggest learning machining first, and machine rebuilding second. Buy new. 

Full disclosure: I didn’t even look at the machine you’re thinking about. I just read the comments. 

Good luck no matter what you decide.  Even if you buy something (used or new) that doesn’t end up being exactly what you were hoping for, this hobby kinda sticks to you. You’ll sort it all out eventually.


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## jwmay (Oct 20, 2019)

Ok I looked at it. It’s  at least worth a visit. Unless you have to pay 200 dollars to go see it. In which case, I still say you’d be better off with a new mini lathe.


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## DavidR8 (Oct 21, 2019)

Thank you for your wise words everyone.
I am an old tool fan, I have a1965 Unisaw, 1960's Beaver 12" bandsaw and a 1976 Kira 13" drill press.
But I admit that an older metal lathe is a completely different animal from older woodworking machinery.
I might get in touch with the guy with the South Bend but I'm more inclined to order a new 7x14 mini.


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## SLK001 (Oct 21, 2019)

francist said:


> Trouble is, Victoria is an awful market for machines. Vancouver is better, but it costs 200 bucks to get off and on the Island again to go and look at anything!



Why is this, are they holding you people hostage?


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## DavidR8 (Oct 21, 2019)

First challenge is that it doesn’t have a large industrial sector like Chicago or Detroit. 
Second is that to get to a large to a large industrial city requires $200 in ferry tickets and minimum of four hours of travel time to get to and from the edge of that city. That’s not including travel time once you get there. 


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## Janderso (Oct 21, 2019)

Change gears are a PITA


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## matthewsx (Oct 21, 2019)

DavidR8 said:


> First challenge is that it doesn’t have a large industrial sector like Chicago or Detroit.
> Second is that to get to a large to a large industrial city requires $200 in ferry tickets and minimum of four hours of travel time to get to and from the edge of that city. That’s not including travel time once you get there.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



But it's a very beautiful place


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## DavidR8 (Oct 21, 2019)

matthewsx said:


> But it's a very beautiful place



It’s all about lifestyle man 
Seriously though. It is a stunning place to live if one can accept certain limitations. 


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## matthewsx (Oct 21, 2019)

Elk Rapids is a beautiful place too, also 4 hours from civilization though....
Ok, 2.5 if you count Grand Rapids 

So even though it's in Michigan, Detroit might as well be in another state. Originally being from the SF Bay area I'm not convinced you have to be that far away to have a good lifestyle and beautiful scenery. I'm headed back soon so will get to see for myself.

Cheers,

John


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## francist (Oct 21, 2019)

SLK001 said:


> Why is this, are they holding you people hostage?



I'm sure many would say so....   

It's the ferries, fondly known as "the boats" to get on and off. It's a massive chunk of rock in the ocean with lots of real estate, but no land link to the mainland thirty miles away. The ferry system, although somewhat costly, is superb though compared to the old days when we moved here from the North. It was the holiday weekend in July, we were coming down with a loaded UHaul and trailer, and we made it to the mainland terminal at around noon. There was an 8-hour wait to board the next vessel. Yup, eight hours. Then two hours on the crossing and an hour into the city. Those days were bad.

Now they run pretty much every hour although on a few runs you need to reserve in order to get a spot. The vessels are some of the largest in the world, but we have a lot of traffic to and from with freight. You get used to it -- after a while you just don't leave without a really good reason... 

-frank


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## DavidR8 (Oct 21, 2019)

When we travel off-island we mostly take our motorcycle as we get to load at the front of the cars and we never have to wait. 

But obviously that’s not going to work to buy a lathe. 


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## matthewsx (Oct 21, 2019)

I will have to get back over to Victoria some day. I've been to Vancouver a few times for work (Ok, not really work - just supervising the people doing the work I normally do stateside ).

Last time I was in Victoria was back in school days with a YMCA trip. We sailed on and off and were trying to beat a storm heading back to the San Juan's. Weather forecasts were in the newspapers in those days and we didn't beat the storm....

When the main blew out and we were still making 8 knots with just a storm jib, and it was only myself and the skipper topsides was when I discovered how much I love sailing.

Cheers,

John


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## DavidR8 (Oct 22, 2019)

Well I now have a 7x14 on it’s way to me!


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## francist (Oct 22, 2019)

Sweet! Was that the one on UsedVic? Seemed to have a nice smattering of tooling to come with it as well. 
Have fun!

-frank


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## DavidR8 (Oct 22, 2019)

No, I decided to go with a brand new mini lathe for better or worse. 

The Myford ML7 was way out of my price range. But it looked amazing. 

If I find that I need something larger I’ll move up at that point. 
I’m rather excited!
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## matthewsx (Oct 22, 2019)

DavidR8 said:


> If  When I find that I need something larger I’ll move up at that point.



Fixed it for you


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## DavidR8 (Oct 22, 2019)

matthewsx said:


> Fixed it for you



Hah! Too good 


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