9x30 lathe imperial threading questions

I am going to repeat what I said before. Look for the highest quality lathe you can find within your budget. If that lathe requires you to turn between centers. So be it. It will be much easier to learn on and work with a quality lathe than to have to rebuild, modify or do whatever to some piece of junk that you bought just because it has a large spindle bore.

I am not saying that you should only buy old American made lathes. If buying new buy from a reputable company that stands behind their product. If buying used take some DI's and mag bases with you to check for run out. A long straight edge to check for bed wear. Look closely for anything that looks damaged.

When I bought my lathe my budget was way less then yours. I concentrated on estate sales where they were selling off grandpa's junk. I looked for a good year before I found my lathe only a couple of miles from my house. Paid way more than my budget but the lathe had only been used by hobby machinists and came with every accessory in the craftsman catalog except for a taper attachment. Some of the stuff was still new in its original boxes.

As for threading you will be threading towards the headstock. I did a lot of practice on pvc pipe to get the process down. Then practiced on steel. Didn't take long to get the hang of threading.

Be patient. You will find what works for you.


This is just my two centovos.
 
Took a look on Craigslist in your area and saw several lathes that could possibly suit your needs. This lathe stood out. https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/tls/d/gloucester-south-bend-lathe-model-ce3455/7221739040.html. Looks to be an estate sale. It is a South Bend 9" Model A workshop lathe. Comes with lots of tooling. You can easily spend more on tooling for a lathe than the cost of the lathe. If it is in as good of condition as it appears to be in the pictures and if the bed is long enough it would be a decent buy.
 
mickri said:
Took a look on Craigslist in your area and saw several lathes that could possibly suit your needs. This lathe stood out. https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/tls/d/gloucester-south-bend-lathe-model-ce3455/7221739040.html. Looks to be an estate sale. It is a South Bend 9" Model A workshop lathe. Comes with lots of tooling. You can easily spend more on tooling for a lathe than the cost of the lathe. If it is in as good of condition as it appears to be in the pictures and if the bed is long enough it would be a decent buy.
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Thanks for the link, I guess you searched at the right time, i've been scouring CL for the past few months and found NOTHING as far as bench lathes. I also searched Facebook market place and mostly complete junk lathes, but did find a couple 9" SB lathes but both looked rusted to crap and been sitting for ages. I'm hesitant to buy a fixer-upper as I know zip about south bend lathes. How's the market for finding replacement parts for these lathes ? (I did inquire about the lathe, looks pretty clean to me )
 
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Replacement parts can be found on Ebay. Here is a link to the current South Bend website. Claims to have some parts available. https://www.southbendlathe.com/products/catalog-numbers/9-inch-lathes. I found this link by searching for south bend ce3455 lathe. These lathes are very well made and when used in a home shop seem to last for ever. But you still have check it out and ask lots of questions like anything you might buy off CL. There are user groups for SB lathes and this forum is the best on the web for helping people out. The people on here will bend over backwards to help you solve any problems that you might run into with a used or new lathe.
 
mickri said:
Replacement parts can be found on Ebay. Here is a link to the current South Bend website. Claims to have some parts available. https://www.southbendlathe.com/products/catalog-numbers/9-inch-lathes. I found this link by searching for south bend ce3455 lathe. These lathes are very well made and when used in a home shop seem to last for ever. But you still have check it out and ask lots of questions like anything you might buy off CL. There are user groups for SB lathes and this forum is the best on the web for helping people out. The people on here will bend over backwards to help you solve any problems that you might run into with a used or new lathe.
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Unfortunately if I pursue this lathe i'm going at it alone and uneducated. The guy in the ad clearly states he knows nothing about the lathe, it was an inheritance.
 
Road Clam, Look @ Joe Pie's videos on threading. Short travels are no problem if you don't thread towards the shoulder. Now comes the problem with SB lathes, they have threaded spindles. Turning them in reverse is very risky.
You can get almost anything down a set of stairs. Strip the lathe, bolt a wooden carriage to the bottom that fits over a plank, let it down with a come along. Raise it with a jack and blocking, bricks, old pallet parts, scrap 2x4's from a construction site, old set of encyclopedias.
 
While he may not know anything about the condition of the lathe or how to operate it he should have some info on how long the deceased owned the lathe and what the deceased used it for. I would plan on spending some time not so much to inspect the lathe but to go through everything around the lathe and demand that everything that you find be included. Who knows what is in the drawers in the bench. My guess is the seller just wants it gone.

That lathe is clean. No rust to be seen and no chips either. Even the leather belt looks to be in good condition. I doubt that somebody cleaned the lathe after the deceased passed away. The cleanliness of the lathe is a good indication that it was well cared for.

And you are not alone. The people on the forum will help you solve any problems that may arise if you decide to buy this lathe.

I think the biggest issue is if there is enough distance between centers for you to do the barrel work you want to do. These lathes came with 4 bed lengths. 36", 42", 48" & 54". The 48" bed is 28" between centers whereas the 54" bed is 34" between centers. This lathe looks to have either the 48" or 54" bed.

Can't hurt to go look at it. Let us know what you find out.
 
mickri said:
While he may not know anything about the condition of the lathe or how to operate it he should have some info on how long the deceased owned the lathe and what the deceased used it for. I would plan on spending some time not so much to inspect the lathe but to go through everything around the lathe and demand that everything that you find be included. Who knows what is in the drawers in the bench. My guess is the seller just wants it gone.

That lathe is clean. No rust to be seen and no chips either. Even the leather belt looks to be in good condition. I doubt that somebody cleaned the lathe after the deceased passed away. The cleanliness of the lathe is a good indication that it was well cared for.

And you are not alone. The people on the forum will help you solve any problems that may arise if you decide to buy this lathe.

I think the biggest issue is if there is enough distance between centers for you to do the barrel work you want to do. These lathes came with 4 bed lengths. 36", 42", 48" & 54". The 48" bed is 28" between centers whereas the 54" bed is 34" between centers. This lathe looks to have either the 48" or 54" bed.

Can't hurt to go look at it. Let us know what you find out.
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mickri, do you know if the lathe in the CL ad uses "change gears" for threading ? Should there be a set of gears to go with this lathe?
 
It has a QCGB. The QCGB looks to be different from the OEM QCGB. Might be an aftermarket product. So you shouldn't need any change gears for threading. There may be change gears tucked away in one of the drawers along with who knows what else. I enlarged the photo's. There are 2 keyed chucks and 2 keyless chucks. There are a bunch of end mills. Wouldn't be surprised if there is a milling attachment. There is a complete set of collets. There is a small 4 jaw chuck. It has a QCTP and at least 5 or 6 tool holders in the pictures. Probably more in the drawers. Most people have 10 to 20 tool holders for their QCTP. I have 12 for mine.

This lathe is worth going to look at.
 
The 8X16 or the 38mm big bore lathes will need work to get them ready to use. The 1100w one you listed I hope they improved on the 8x16 as it needed some work to get it ready to use. You can cut any thread pitch with the right gears. Imperial is easiest to cut on a lathe with an imperial lead screw and metric is easiest with a metric lead screw. I find it faster to cut disengage the lead screw and reset for another pass with the lathe running all the time. You can't do this when cutting metric on imperial or imperial on a metric. You have to Cut then stop then reverse then stop then reset for another cut. The 38mm bore lathes you need to construct a lathe spider on the pass thru side to center barrel if working on the chamber, or center the chamber when threading the barrel. Never use the outside to center a barrel, use the bore. Number40fan has some videos on youtube and has threaded several barrels with the 8x16 38mm big bore lathe. These are project lathes not ready to go purchases in my opinion. I am thinking of adding an electronic closed loop lead screw motor for turning so I can set a start point an end point and a cut and return to start point button. For cutting threads the 3d printed gears I made work perfect for me. I added a magnetic mounted Shahe DRO and a clamped mounted one with Touch DRO installed on a tablet, works awesome. You can store workspace profiles of your cuts to make repeat parts. Just line up the the x with the targets and away you go.

If you have the space best to go bigger :)
I have limited space and 8x16 fit what I needed.
I started out on a 7x14 mini lathe so the 8x16 is a monster.
Many of these out there so any problems you will see have already been resolved by others before you.
Just a matter of some work to get it right.
 
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