# South Bend Special Lathe



## drom68 (Jan 7, 2014)

I came across a South Bend Special, see link: http://www.lathes.co.uk/southbendspecials    It is an extended height model with an 8' bed.  

It appears to be in great condition, a little dirty from sitting for some time unused.   

A couple of questions, 
- The center extensions are bolt on parts, any issues with removing these and making the lathe a normal height version? 
- Who would want / use this lathe with the extended height?  

Any comments greatly appreciated.  

Thanks,


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## David Kirtley (Jan 7, 2014)

My first thought as to the use would be for patternmaking or machining castings. Generally the castings don't need that much heavy machining but might be way too big for most normal metal lathes. It would make a wonderful lathe for a home machinist that didn't have space for a large lathe but wanted lots of capacity.


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## 4GSR (Jan 7, 2014)

Back in the 1930's and 40's, south bend offered this lathe for turning brake drums on large truck tires.  Apparently, you took off tires and all and mounted it up in this lathe just to bore out the brake drums.  There are copies of some of the old catalogs out there on the web with these listed.


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## GK1918 (Jan 8, 2014)

Oh boy 8 foot bed South Bend with that option.  Please leave it alone, there will always be the day you will need that kind of swing.
You can do small stuff on that.  You never will know whats in the future commin thru the door...  rare find....


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## drom68 (Jan 8, 2014)

GK1918 said:


> Oh boy 8 foot bed South Bend with that option.  Please leave it alone, there will always be the day you will need that kind of swing.
> You can do small stuff on that.  You never will know whats in the future commin thru the door...  rare find....




Hard decision to leave it alone or reduce the height, but I agree that it would be great to have it as is.  

Thanks for the other comments.


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