Is it restorable?

[Dinwoodie Cutlery Concepts]

So when I moved into my new shop my landlord informed me that he had moved a bunch of machinery out of the way when he bought the building a few years prior. Among some of the machines was this South Bend 11” lathe I almost started crying when I saw that he just moved them outside and left in the weather. I was wondering if any of you would attempt to restore something like this or is it just scrap?

 

[eugene13]

What a crying shame, I would put it in front of my shop and display potted plants on it.

 

[Dinwoodie Cutlery Concepts]

What a crying shame, I would put it in front of my shop and display potted plants on it.

I know! I walk by it often and it makes me sad Seeing it there.

 

[Superburban]

I would not try to restore it, But I see many doors, knobs, guards, id plates, that might sell good on ebay. That Gorton engraver in the background of some pics looks to have made out well.

 

[Old Mud]

Well i would try to bring it back. The most i would loose is time and right now that's all i have. I would first try to derust it all before getting into the mechanical part of it. Then at least you could say you tried. / I tried. All the castings are there just have to clean it up. You would have a good display piece for a Machinery dealer,Sell good clean parts etc.

 

[Dinwoodie Cutlery Concepts]

I might try the old Johnny Cash method “ one piece at a time “ I’ll try a couple smaller pieces and see how it goes. According to my calculations I should only need 152.75 gallons of evaporust and a pallet of scotchbrite pads.

 

[Old Mud]

Good call.

 

[WCraig]

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Craig
(I believe the chemistry of these solutions isn't that exotic.)

 

[matthewsx]

If you were British, and it was a car, it would be a fine restoration candidate.

Honestly, unless you need a lathe like this one I would disassemble, de-rust the valuable bits and sell them on to someone who is restoring one in better shape.

If you start with the bed I guess you could figure out how much wear there is and make your decision based on that but parts have to come from somewhere and in classic car circles this would be considered a "donor"....


john

 

[randyjaco]

It is Yard Art.