9A project completed

Great job! I did mine about the same time as you were doing yours. I didn't polish and powder coat. Kind of wish i had it looks so nice.
 
Riverlandrobo said:
When I was starting out..."
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Great post; sad story. When I was about 13 there was an old guy close to our place of residence who repaired cars .... in a very old dilapidated shed at the side of the road. It was dark, run down, with heavy timber wooden benches, chain hoists and smelled on petroleum produces of every variety. The shed was at the top of a knoll with a drop off at the back. He drove cars through the open front doors, parked them over a large hole in the floor and walked to the back of the shed and under the floor. The hole in the floor under the car was his "lift". I asked him if I could watch and maybe, just maybe, learn how to fix cars. His response, "pick up those tools and follow me". So I held tools and watched him work. Time after time I'd hold the drop light to illuminate whatever he was working on and hand him tools. One time he asked me if I could see the work well and, when I responded that I could, he said "then you're not holding the light right because you're supposed to be holding it so the I can see to work, not so you can see the work". I got my basic understanding of mechanics from that old guy ... I don't even remember his name. But, although it's been seventy years since that period in my life, I will never forget him.
 
You are doing a great job on that lathe! My 9a is basically in the same condition as the day I bought it from an 85 year old guy in my neighborhood. I added a taper attachment and a thread dial. That’s about it. I should take it down and try to do what you’ve done. Well done
 
You do beautiful work. Thank you for sharing it. Seeing work like this inspires me for my own projects.
 
Wow. Now I need to start doing some upgrades to my South Bend! What have you just gotten me into??? LOL
 
derf said:
Some of you guys may remember this little crudball I acquired back in April...
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I had just completed the last project, the Seneca Falls #30 resto-mod,(project of the month) when this lathe found it's way to me via a friend of a friend. My friend, who is also a tool salesman, showed me a pic of this on his phone, which came from his friend, the seller, who now is a retired tool room supervisor. He had this in his back building just taking up space and wanted the room for some of his restoration projects.
I told him I would take it, and explained to him what my mission was. With the lack of training facilities and instructors to teach skilled trades these days, my mission is to educate a passionate individual some skills that seems to be disappearing more every day, if I have to do it one student at a time!
I already had a student lined up to not only learn, but to eventually purchase this lathe once we got it up to date. He thought this was a noble plan, and let me have this machine for a very obscene low price.
He also done the research and got the pick card from South Bend. This model was made in 1945. It left South Bend in March of '45 and went to Reynolds Machinery in Cleveland. In April, it went to Neil Machine of Lima, Oh. Neil Machine was a defense contractor that had a Navy contract to build tow targets for aerial gunners to practice on.
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I don't know how long it stayed there, but it changed hands a few times and it was at a local school for awhile, until he purchased it.

Although quite filthy, everything seemed to be there with no missing parts on the lathe itself. But it didn't have much tooling. It has a 6" Union 3 jaw chuck, but with only the large diameter outside jaws. The chuck is actually pretty tight with little wear, but the killer is it only has the one set of jaws. Other than that, it came with a #2 morse dead center and an Armstrong lantern tool post, with one holder and 3 pieces of hss tool bits....almost bare essentials.

When I acquired this, I thought it would make another winter project, but I was wrong.....since this butted right up to the completion of the Seneca Falls project, I couldn't stop.....like Lays potato chips, can't eat just one! So I started in right away. more to come.
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Great job on restoring the Lathe , teaching others to operate a lathe . The schools use to have adult education, woodworking ,crafts etc.......
 
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