# I bought my first Lathe



## MARVIN GARDENS (Jan 10, 2015)

Hi.

I'm Bob and live in Central California. This area doesn't seem to be a "equipment rich" environment and I don't seem to find any bargains.

I recently bought my first piece of metalworking equipment.

Here she is, a South Bend Heavy 10 with a D1-3 Spindle. The lathe has a four foot bed, taper attachment, and marked "U.S. PROPERTY." The serial number is 4704RKX12.





















These photos show the lathe as I found it in a Craigslist ad and the tooling on my tailgate when I got it home. I've got it in the garage but got the flu soon after and haven't started the cleaning process yet.

Regards.

Bob


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## Micke S (Jan 10, 2015)

Very nice find, congrats !


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## herbet999 (Jan 10, 2015)

Looks nice, Congrats! That is a lot of tool holders.


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## Ski (Jan 10, 2015)

WOW !


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## Uglydog (Jan 10, 2015)

Good work.
Take care of her and she will be good to you!!

Daryl
MN


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## rafe (Jan 10, 2015)

Nice machine. Lots of tools .Clean it up a little oil it up a lot and put it through its paces....


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## fastback (Jan 11, 2015)

Hard to beat a Heavy 10, this is a nice heavy duty machine and will do some real nice work.

Good luck, Oh, you may want to address all of the felts and oil passages in this machine especially the spindle felts.  You do not want to run this machine dry.

Paul


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## woodtickgreg (Jan 11, 2015)

Nice find and with lots of tooling too! I agree with fastback, spend a little time and rewick it, especially the spindle felts. Making sure it gets plenty of oil will ensure that the machine will out last you with out any troubles.


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## old_dave (Jan 11, 2015)

Very nice find! According to my serial number list, 4704R would have been built between 1950 and 1955. A cam lock spindle nose is a plus, and rare on a South Bend of this vintage. Could you please check the spindle nose size? The diameter of the section that has the cams would be 3 5/8 inch for a D1-3 and 4 5/8 inch for a D1-4. The D1-4 became standard on the heavy 10, the 13 and the 16 (and 16/24) inch South Bends by 1977 and according to my literature (going back to 1966) was available as an option before that. I see it has a taper attachment and maybe the "wide-range" gear box. 

Plus it looks like you got a spare, albeit rusty, apron.

David


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## MARVIN GARDENS (Jan 11, 2015)

Thanks for the advice and comments.

There is particularly nasty bug going around and I came down with it the day after I got the lathe home.  It's been out in the garage and yesterday was the first day I really went back out to look at it.  With all of the tooling that came with the machine, I did discover when I got home that there weren't any keys included.  I bought a couple of 5/16" keys off eBay which arrived Friday.  I went out yesterday and removed the three jaw chuck in order to get a spindle length measurement as I am hoping to get a collet closer.  This lathe has a D1-3 (3 5/8") cam.

The lathe also came with a phase converter.



I don't have 220 in my garage and my electrician is tied up on a big job for about three more weeks.  It has been three or four years since the search for a Heavy 10 started so a few more weeks isn't going to hurt.  I've ordered a lubricant kit as well as a rebuild book and kit from eBay and plan on going through the lathe as best I can before running it.

Better safe than sorry, I'll take some time on this and will probably be back asking many questions.  I'd like to end up with as complete of a set-up as possible.  The machine also came with a steady rest but in time, I'd like to get a follower rest, collet rack, and milling attachment for it.  The ways are nice, no real wear or damage is apparent anywhere.  I am going to start cleaning it up next week.  Maybe someday I'll tear it down for new paint and "restoration."

I just ordered a copy of the build card from Grizzly.

I haven't run a lathe since high school and don't know what I'm doing here.  I've been reading and watching videos and am signed up for a basic machine shop class at my local junior college.  I've always been fairly mechanical and hope there is not anything here that I can't handle with some help and advice.

Thanks again everyone.

Bob


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## old_dave (Jan 11, 2015)

Thank you very much for confirming the spindle nose size. Given that the lathe was "U.S. PROPERTY", I'm not incredulous. My hunch is that for whatever reason The Government wanted the D1-3" spindle nose and South Bend was happy to accommodate a special order (at a price). I wonder how many were made? I've seen on the internet Hardinge HLV toolroom lathes with the D1-3" spindle nose rather than the standard Hardinge taper or threaded 2 3/8-10 (I think). I'm pretty sure these were specials too.

Wild guess here, maybe these were going to shops that already had Monarch 10EE's and they wanted to be able to interchange spindle nose tooling .

David


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## MARVIN GARDENS (Jan 11, 2015)

David.

From what I've been reading, the "X" in the serial number indicates the lathe is a "special."  This could be the D1-3 cam, a flame hardened bed, and specially hardened leadscrew, or a combination of the above.  I'll post the results of my $25 inquiry when I get the e-mail from Grizzly.

I've been watching for the right machine for years with no luck.  I got a call this morning from a friend telling me about a nice (and local) South Bend 13 with a six foot bed and large spindle hole.

Short story long is as my wife winds her business down, more storage is available here.  She says as long as she can park her car inside, I can have all of our deep garage for shop space.

I guess I'll be looking at a lathe tomorrow.

Regards.

Bob


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## MARVIN GARDENS (Jan 12, 2015)

I received the e-mail from Grizzly today with the build card for my lathe.  I had to tweak colors in order to read the typing on the front of the card.  This lathe apparently was ordered by the USAF and shipped to a performance test facility.  I am not familiar with most of the terminology and the card refers to “government specifications.”








Any input is as always appreciated.

Thanks

Bob


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## MARVIN GARDENS (Mar 21, 2015)

old_dave said:


> Thank you very much for confirming the spindle nose size. Given that the lathe was "U.S. PROPERTY", I'm not incredulous. My hunch is that for whatever reason The Government wanted the D1-3" spindle nose and South Bend was happy to accommodate a special order (at a price). I wonder how many were made? I've seen on the internet Hardinge HLV toolroom lathes with the D1-3" spindle nose rather than the standard Hardinge taper or threaded 2 3/8-10 (I think). I'm pretty sure these were specials too.
> 
> Wild guess here, maybe these were going to shops that already had Monarch 10EE's and they wanted to be able to interchange spindle nose tooling .
> 
> David


Hi David.

Sorry to be so long getting back to you.  That is a very good thought about being able to switch chucks with the 10EE's.  I went to look at "a lathe for sale" today about thirty minutes from the house.  It was a Monarch 10EE.  Nice lathe but hadn't been run in ten years.  The price was cheap enough that I figured it was a good buy even if I had to install a new drive system.  It didn't come with any chucks but while standing there it occurred to me that I could use my chucks and plates from my Heavy 10.  (-:

In the time since my last post, I also picked up a South Bend 13" with a six foot bed.  It is in decent shape, nice bed, and QC gearbox.  It is also squeezed into the garage until it becomes my next project.  I've already started gathering parts for the upgrades I plan on doing when I go through it.

Regards.

Bob


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## old_dave (Mar 21, 2015)

Yes, I saw elsewhere that you just got a very early 10EE. Congratulations, and as something of a 10EE freak, thank you for saving it. And for the benefit of others following this thread I want to add some correcting information regarding my earlier post. On another forum an individual who used to work for South Bend Lathe indicated that the D1-3 inch spindle nose was available as an option on the heavy 10 back in the 1950's. And in that same thread another individual reported that he had a heavy 10 with a D1-3" spindle nose. At some later point, by 1966 judging from my SB catalogue from that year, the D1-4" became the option. Incidentally if you  wade through the fine print in the ANSI/ASME publication "Spindle Noses for Tool Room Lathes, Engine Lathes, Turret Lathes and Automatic Lathes" you'll find that the "correct" spindle nose size for the South Bend heavy 10 is the 3 inch type D1 and for the Monarch 10EE the "correct" size is the 4 inch type D1. There's nothing regulatory about the ANSI standards and clearly the D1-3" spindle nose worked and still works for Monarch for the 10EE just as the D1-4" spindle nose worked on the later South Bend heavy 10's.
David


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## MARVIN GARDENS (Mar 21, 2015)

Hi David.

I don't want to press my luck here as far as discussing Monarchs in the South Bend section.  It was kind of funny how things worked out after my brother in law said he saw an eBay auction for a "lathe for Sale" in Delano.  I hadn't seen it as my saved searches are for South Bend lathes.  With my Heavy 10 running and the 13" in the bull pen, I wasn't out looking or have the room for another project.

My Heavy 10 has turned out great.  I cleaned it up and oiled it, new felts.  Everything runs fine.  It is really pretty tight and backlash is minimal.  Ted helped me out with a few items so I now have a collet closer and rack on the lathe as well as large dials.  I would still like to know what exactly the "government specifications" were for the USAF Heavy 10's.  I am going to change out the spindle on the 13" for a NOS D1-4 spindle.

Take care.

Bob


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## Dean Segovis (Mar 30, 2015)

Getting something that comes with that much tooling is awesome. Good find!


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## Ulma Doctor (Mar 30, 2015)

sweet score on the lathe!
very interesting card!
i wonder if it came from Vandenburg or Edwards AFB????


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## MARVIN GARDENS (Mar 31, 2015)

I don't know where it was surplused from.  Wherever it was, it doesn't appear that they used it much.  The person I purchased it from owned it for eight years intending to learn to us it but never did so.  He didn't know where the person he bought it from purchased it.

I was very happy to see the amount of tooling that was included when I went to pick it up.  There is really more there than I will likely use with the tool holder I am using.  I have since purchasing the machine, upgraded it with a lever type collet attachment, steady rest, and a collet rack.

Life is good.

Regards.

Bob


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