I bought a 9X41/2 Southbend lathe about a month ago. It had a great price $150.00. But it was a mess. Along the way in it's life it was painted with a paint brush and the paint plugged up a lot of the oil holes so as you can imagine it was starved for oil to the point one of the gears had seized onto it's shaft. So after a complete tear down, cleaning, polishing and painting it'a now a nice little lathe with one odd part the threading dial on it is not SB but some thing that works but is divided by three instead of the usual four lines. will this set up index right on all three points? or do you need to engage the half nuts on the same number all the time? The gear on the thread dial has 24 teeth and of course the lead screw is 8 TPI.
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threading dial??
- Thread starter 1eleven
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2010
- Messages
- 1,600
No question, what a deal especially a 4.5 bed. Lets see, thoughts on the thread dial, from memory I
believe a SB dial is 32 teeth. And I think a SB has four lines & four numbers. I too always wanted a
genuine dial but most are around $100 dont know why but a 10Heavy goes under &50 on ebay, so my
son bid on one, an Atlas for $10 couple yrs ago. It does work, not perfectly and only has four divisons
so what I do is to eng. 1/2 and run machine a little (get rid of backlash) stop machine, then I tighten
thread dial as to mesh with the witness mark. Lets say I meshed it on #1 thats what I have to use, it
will not engage on "any line or no" because I doesnt have the 32 teeth. I almost think you also have
an Atlas a lot smaller than SB thread dial. Some day I will find a real one.
believe a SB dial is 32 teeth. And I think a SB has four lines & four numbers. I too always wanted a
genuine dial but most are around $100 dont know why but a 10Heavy goes under &50 on ebay, so my
son bid on one, an Atlas for $10 couple yrs ago. It does work, not perfectly and only has four divisons
so what I do is to eng. 1/2 and run machine a little (get rid of backlash) stop machine, then I tighten
thread dial as to mesh with the witness mark. Lets say I meshed it on #1 thats what I have to use, it
will not engage on "any line or no" because I doesnt have the 32 teeth. I almost think you also have
an Atlas a lot smaller than SB thread dial. Some day I will find a real one.
This dial actually has 6 lines on it 3 numbered and 3 not numbered. I also have an Atlas TH54 and as stated the thread dial has 4 line 2numbered and 2 not it also has a 16 tooth gear on it with a a 8 TPI lead screw I guess if math means anything if you divide 16 by 8 you get 2 so the Atlas indicator is good to cut on any line but of course if you divide 24 by 8 you get 3 so maybe any line will work on the SB. ?? I guess one thing it leaves me with is the thought that I can still screw it up some how.