Southbend 9 x 48 - How worn is too worn?

1946 Southbend 9" Model A Restoration

Chad, those bare castings are really nice. Did you clean them up with a wire whee, or a buff? They look too good to cover them up with paint!
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Thanks! I think so too, but I imagine that the chemical gods have some oxidizing punishment in store for those who don't paint!

There was too much paint to do all in one step. 3 colors, starting with what looked like army green (we'll see who purchased it when I get my serial card). I started with a spray on chemical stripper. It's a thick powerful and fast formula so I don't have to worry about dripping onto surfaces I don't want to etch. Then scraped/brushed off what I could. Castings are hard to clean completely, especially in these complex shapes, so I used a combination of 3 different shapes of extra fine wire wheels on 1/4" arbor with my die grinder (also known as the big rotozip) at a low speed so as not to remove any metal. There's a 3" wheel, a 2" cone, and a densely packed 1" brass bulb shape I like. All castings apart from the bed took less than an hour to clean like that.

The last step hasn't been done on those parts yet. Paint doesn't stick too well to polished metal, and i hate doing things twice that should only be done once, so I'll etch it before painting.

I'll clean first with warm water and TSP. Then wipe down with alcohol. Then mix up a pint of 90/10, maybe 80/20, water/phosphoric acid, and mist it onto the surfaces to be painted. Usually about 15min or so is enough to give the paint something to grab onto.

!!!ACID SAFETY NOTE!!!!

REMEMBER YOUR 3 A'S WHEN MIXING ACID!! ALWAYS ADD ACID TO WATER! They have a synergistic effect when mixed and generate heat, that is to say, the mixture heats the water, and the ratio of acid to water dictates how much! If you poor water into acid it can boil the water and splatter you with hot acid! Not a good day in the shop! Also never poor live acids down the drain. You can use baking sodas to alter the PH, baking soda is probably safer, but amonia will work too. Add slowly and check with pool test strips to ensure its balanced before pooring.


Does anybody know the correct V-Belt size to use from the countershaft to spindle on a horizontal drive bench model SB9".
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I have mine back at the shop still, it's cut but I'll measure when I get back if nobody else has answered. I've read that correct belt length is important to these lathes running vibe free.


PS: I just accidentally figured out how the parser interprets a code comment LOL
Chad
 
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Goodbye to my fellow New Mexicans, and hello to my fellow Oklahomans... Back to my home and shop today!
 
Taz, what is this felt and wick kit you and others talk about for the 9". I have a recdently purchased 1958 9" southbend that works well and looks good but given the age; I think it would be good preventative maintenance to disassemble and check these components before "putting it to work". Would rather spend some time and money to preserve what I have then to spend more time and money to repair what I didn't maintain.
Larry
 
Taz, what is this felt and wick kit you and others talk about for the 9". I have a recdently purchased 1958 9" southbend that works well and looks good but given the age; I think it would be good preventative maintenance to disassemble and check these components before "putting it to work". Would rather spend some time and money to preserve what I have then to spend more time and money to repair what I didn't maintain.
Larry
The wick kits and rebuild manuals are available on ebay, if you buy both at the same time there is a discount. The books are well written and lots of photo's. If I remember correctly the seller is ilion industries. I used them on my heavy 10L and they where good quality and very complete.
 
Greg said it. Very good quality, and very good seller. The oil delivery in these isn't handled by pumps, it's handled by felt and wicks. Bad felt/wick is like a car with no oil pump... soon to be scrap yard fodder. I can tell you as clean as mine was, the felts were stable but useless. So filled with decades of fine metal particles they may as well have been stone, still wet on the outside, but nothing going in or out for sure. After a complete disassembly on the road to restoration (my first lathe), I wouldn't think of using a lathe this old without it.

This is the 9" Model A kit as I received it.

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I read a poem in one of the old Southbend docs about a thin film of oil being the reason the war was lost. I love the irony that 1000lbs of iron is turned to garbage without the thin film of oil the little fuzzy pieces of felt deliver.

In other news, look what I found in my robot parts bin...
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A little quick math makes me think I can safely squeeze about 1HP, out of it. The speed controller is not only ready for a simple speed selection, but has breaking, reversing, and safety cutoff circuits too.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to help myself! Poor thing is going to look funny without the motor mount hanging off the back.

Chad
 
Spindle wicks as they came out of the headstock... This is exactly how they were, sitting in their pockets, I did not pull the wool/felt out during removal.

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Not pretty. The southbend oiling chart, and "how to run a lathe" book recommends monthly flush, clean and change for the spindle oil. I would imagine one could extrapolate the hours in a duty machines month and use that figure instead. I promise it was never done on this one... Just add when it gets hot right?

I was actually laughing with my companies owners the other day. I have the oldest truck in the fleet, by quite a few years. It has the second highest mileage. I use the best oil, and only top quality parts, and my maintenance cost is 2-3 times higher than anyone else's. My repair cost just crept over $0.00 for the first time in 150,000mi. Which puts my maintenance and repair cost combined less than any other vehicles repair cost alone. Something to be said for proper care.
 
Hi Everyone,

I attached Leveling / Alignment and 2 Collar Test instructions in my Machine Scraping and Restoration forum and I downloaded it to the Download section too.
 
Hi Everyone,

I attached Leveling / Alignment and 2 Collar Test instructions in my Machine Scraping and Restoration forum and I downloaded it to the Download section too.

Thanks for the heads up! Richard is giving away freebies!


Chad
 
By the way Greg, I found a good set of small-medium cylinder hones. I took the sharp edges off the long stones and two manual passes did exactly what I needed. Thanks for the idea!
 
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