1934 South Bend

[Richard D]

I got this machine about six years ago from a newspaper ad. Guy had a Chinese mill-drill for sale; he said,"I'll throw that junky old lathe in for free." It looked like a South Bend, but had no markings. I gave away the mill-drill. Tha lathe turned out to be a 1934 model, the first year of the 9". It had a reverse thread lead screw, and an odd spindle nose thread. I changed them out for later model pieces so I could use more commonly availible chucks. I then restored the lathe.

Before:



Cleaning and painting:

After:



Works great now. I had a Chinese lathe I bought before restoring this one. I used it about 15 minuites and gave it away as well. No offense to anyone who uses those tools, they will get the job done, but if you can find some vintage machinery at an affordable price, treat yourself. This was my first lathe restoration project; I had never even touched a metal lathe before I got it.

 

[Richard D]

Funny story, in photo #2, see the cowboy belt, with "Robert" printed on it? according to the man I bouth the lathe from, the old man who sold it to him, was trying to finish a job on a weekend when the belt broke. So he took his belt off, cut it to lenght, and stapled it together(with proper lathe belt staples), just to get the job out on time. The cowboy belt lasted 7 years! I cheated and used an automotive serpentine belt to replace it.

 

[12bolts]

Veerry nice restoration!

Cheers Phil

 

[Richard D]

I have the change gears, I just have never used them, as I don't know how! I plan to learn how to properly operate and get a lot more use out of this machine in the next year.

I remember it being a 405 now that you mention it. I changed the parts to the more modern stuff, i.e. headstock/spindle, lead screw, half nuts, etc. I don't remember exactly what all I changed. Dennis Turk, a fellow who restores all manner of old machine tools, supplied me with the parts.

 

[ScrapMetal]

Nice work on the SB. As for learning more about lathe operation, if you don't have it yet, get or download the book, "How to Run a Lathe" produced by SB. Here's a link to a pdf of it (it's 148Mb so it may take a while) http://68.227.91.247/shovelhead/howtorunalathe.pdf It's a great resource for learning all the lathe "basics".

-Ron

 

[Tony Wells]

Looks pretty good for a "...junky old lathe...". You should be proud of it. I would be.

 

[12bolts]

Surprisingly enough it seems I am going to be doing one of these soon too.

Cheers phil

 

[Richard D]

Is there any way to put a gear box on mine to do away with change gears for threading?

 

[Richard D]

As I understand it the 1934 is a sort of "pre production model"

Yes, it was the first year for the 9".

 

[lazyLathe]

That junky old lathe turned into a great lathe!!

What kind of paint did you use??

Andrew