South Bend 11x54 For Beginner?

Serial no. 78157

It seems to be in perfect shape! I did the slide test and couldn't feel it bind. It was clean of all chips or sign of use. The man I got it from was a very nice man! He used it to polish crankshafts and never did much cutting, if any. I pressure washed it and then soaked it in WD-40. I will wipe it down and re-soak it. I have to figure out mounting the motor. I would LOVE to know any history or how to find it!!
I looked the serial number up and it's in the 1937 range if I'm reading it right.

nice lathe. do you have the tailstock?

Pretty amazing that you got the taper attachment with it, those alone hold their value! Congratulations on your new lathe. First thing I would do is change the oil in the apron and re wick the spindle and change the oil in that too!

It has the tailstock with live center, drill bit center, Jacobs Chuck center. There is the steady rest and a follow rest. A whole mess of tipped cutters. Has the taper attachment and threading unit. 3 and 4 jaw chucks. It even came with a book by Atlas on "how to use a lathe". The motor is single phase 220, freshly factory rebuilt. It has the leather belt and an extra. No chipped gears and nothing is rusted up. It even has a tank for oiling the work/lathe!
I drenched it in wd40 and cutting oil. Pressure washing it might not have been a brilliant idea. I uscrewed the slide lock too much and found the piece that fits up under the ways was originally painted a dull greyish white paint. It had the only real greasy gunk on it that I've found. The previous owner kept his tools in good condition so I'm satisfied that it was taken care of while he had it.

wish I could have found a deal like that for my first lathe. friend of mine would like to find one like that for his gunsmithing business. you did real good . all except for the pressure washing. that was not a good idea. but get it in a heated room use wd 40. you should be ok.

Its catalog # 11-B.

You did very well, what now? Learn everything you can about its use and care ....oil it up real well and use it!

The very first thing you should do is to find a copy of South Bend's "How to Run a Lathe" Here are a couple of links to the book -

Part 1: http://campkahler.com/files/How_to_Run_a_Lathe_SB_1of2.pdf

Part 2: [URL='http://campkahler.com/files/How_to_Run_a_Lathe_SB_2of2.pdf']http://campkahler.com/files/How_to_Run_a_Lathe_SB_1of2.pdf [/URL]

Hey thanks, ScrapMetal! That'll be the first thing I do before trying to do anything!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=south bend rebuild manual&ssPageName=GSTL
Follow the link above and look at all the different manuals that are offered here. Your gear box and apron look very similar to a heavy 10L, a rebuild kit and manual may be very helpful with your lath. Most south bends where very similar in their construction and the manual for the 10L would be invaluable in trying to figure out how to re wick and disassemble your lathe or for any future repairs. I purchased one of these manuals and it was a huge help for me, I consider it an owners manual on steroids. Not exact to our lathes but damn close. It will explain the taper pins that south bend uses to assemble their lathes and how to work with them. Looking at the pics of your lathe I am not sure if there is an oil reservoir in the head stock, it may be the older style cast iron headstock with constant loss oilers mounted on top and non replaceable bearing surfaces. So most of the wicks and felts in the 10L kit may work for you and then maybe have to make what is not in the kit. An old 11" like yours is kinda rare and there is not a lot of stuff available for it directly so you have to do your homework to source or make parts. But it is still a very good capable lathe and a great buy for a first lathe, especially with all the tooling you got with it.