Thanks Jerry! Please do post your work! Do not be humbled by anyone elses work, there are guys way more talented than me, and if I did not work on things and try new stuff I wouldn't learn anything. Be proud of what you learn and accomplish. Some guys would never restore a lathe to the level that myself or others do, but that's ok too. Some guys would just change the wicks and put it back together and call it a done, that's ok also. I take pride in my tools weather they are for wood working, machining, or mechanics. This lathe is special to me for many reasons, I never thought I would be able to own a south bend, it is rich in history and a piece of america's industrial revolution, it was made by american craftsman at a time when quality meant something. A friend called my restore a.i.r., that means american iron restoration.
Yeah I thought I would leave it as south bend made it, I like the way it looks too. This lathe is going to be a user, not a museum piece. The whole point of the restore was to change the wicks and inspect and repair any damaged or missing parts, the wicks where very hard and packed with crud! But I am one of those people that just can't take something apart and not put it back together better than it was, which led to the whole painting and restore thing. It's not perfect, but way better than it was when I got it. It should be easier to keep clean too.
Here's a few pics of last weeks and today's progress. A shot of the headstock awaiting the gears, painted and cleaned parts to be assembled. My reversing gear assembly was not exactly like the one in the rebuild book. This is one of the many variations that you may run into, South Bend continuosly made changes and improvements to their lathes over the years. mine did not have all the oil passages and wicks that where shown in the book. The 2 small gears at the top of the assembly had round felt wicks in them feed by gravity through holes in the shafts. when reassembling the reverser and pressing the gears in make sure the holes are at the top. A pic of the completed reverser assembly
Here you can see the reverser installed on the lathe. In the second pic you can see the spindle drive gear has been driven home, I waited to do this until the reverse gears where installed so I could center it up with the gears. There is plenty of room between the spindle take up nut for adjustment if needed. A couple of pics of the Hi-lo range gear assembly. I also made sure the oil holes where at the top of this assembly when pressing the shafts in..
Here's a couple of pics of all the gears installed, everything turns freely by hand. The little bronze reverser lever really polished up well, I hand sanded some nicks and dings out of it and then buffed it. I think it is my favorite piece on the lathe! I took care to make sure all the gears had full engagement and where centered as best as possible. Next I gathered up all the covers as seen in the pic. I was missing the bull gear flip cover and I found a set of bull gear/back gear covers with the flipper on ebay. The new/used covers are cast iron, mine where aluminum. I then washed them in the parts washer to degrease them. I am going to take this to a media stripper by me to have them glass beaded to remove the paint and make ready for repainting. The reason I degreased them is so they didn't get grease in the strippers blast cabinet, little things like this are appreciated by vendors and you usually get better service in the long run.
