Classic 9" South Bend vs. Asian 9 x 20

S

skogkatt007

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Looking to hear from people who have extensively used both.

Here I'm talking about the old venerable model C say. Or B or A. It's not so much about features (an A has QC gears), but about overall accuracy and such. Granted a Asian 9 x 20 has higher speeds in it's favor. Each has it's plusses and minusses. Yeah all that. Please discuss.

It might be that 9 x 18s are more in vogue, don't know. I'm interested in the grizzly/enco/Harbor Fright 9 x 20 though.

Ok looked it up. Grizzly is selling the G4000 9 x 19 for about 1700 usd. Not sure if it's different from thw previous green ones.
 
I had a 9” Jet for several years. I now have a SB9A. Both are very capable machines. The Jet needed upgrades to get the cross slide and compound to be more rigid. The SB9 needed a full tear down to clean out 75 years of crud. Mind you the SB was in very good condition. Nothing was worn and sloppy

For me it boils down to what you prefer. I like old school iron. So my choice was simple.


Cutting oil is my blood.
 
The 9A also has power cross feed and backgears which many import lathes lack.
I think the SB apron was/is one of the best- very intuitive and easy to use. Ditto for the Logan
 
I have a SB9A. The only issue I have with it is the spindle does not use roller bearings except for a thrust bearing. Wished it used tapered roller bearings.
 
I've never used an Asian 9x20, but I suspect they are not much different than their smaller siblings, the 7x 1Xs, which I had for several years. I definitely traded up when I got a SB9A, in many ways. I never minded the lower top speed. I found the SB9A almost magical to work on and use. I made a lot of nice stuff with it.

Maybe the Asian lathes are different now, but when I had them (1999-2005), I spent as much time fixing up and improving them as making things on them. But... one has to know a bit about what they are getting when buying older, American iron as they can be heavily used and abused and require a lot of restoration. If you aren't into that, might be better to get a new machine.

Rick
 
Beginner here, only ever used my Logan 9, basically the same as a SB9c with roller bearings. I use back gears a LOT. Only point of comparison is watching Blondihacks. Her Asian machine seems to work well, but struggle with torque at low spindle speeds because it relies on a variable speed motor. Seems like a huge design flaw to me, but I could easily be missing something.
 
I also use backgears a fair amount, even just to lock the spindle for tightening collets or cutting a workpiece off with a hacksaw
Brushed DC motors with a good controller like KB have good torque at very low speeds if the "I/R" trimpot is adjusted correctly
The 1/3 HP PM motor on my Atlas would break your arm at 120 RPM- it's the brushless systems that are often weak IIRC
 
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So what's the difference between a gear head lathe, presumably a Grizzly G4000, and a lathe with back gears? I assumed they were functionally equivalent.
 
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