Moody lathe.... South bend clone made in canada ...

[Brain Coral]

Hello all,

I bought this lathe today which turns out to be a South bend clone of a 9" lathe. It's an awful dirty looking mess at the moment, but I think that it will clean up nicely. It didn't come with much, but the original bracket and cone pulley drive is intact ( removed for moving ) and it came with a 4-jaw chuck and steady rest as well as a threading dial and change gears.

It was manufactured by Matthew Moody and sons in Terribone Quebec, but I have no idea of how early it is. The serial number is #198 and the model number is #1125.

Here's a few pics...

The former owner and son in the background and my brother with his head chopped off...

As you can see by the threading chart, this lathe has an 11" swing. It also looks like it has a 1" spindle hole. I have already begun dismantling the lathe and have managed to remove the apron, cross-slide, top slide and saddle. I could see that there was a definate "frosting on the ways and after some cleaning with mineral spirits, I am happy to note that nearly all of the frosting is like new, with little wear near the head-stock. I believe that this lathe is fairly old but the threading chart doesn't look to be all that old.

If any of you out there have a Moody lathe, I'd like to hear about yours. There seems to be very little info on these lathes.

I am having some difficulty in dismantling the top slide. Any of you who have a 9" South Bend and have taken it apart might be able to help me.

Here's a pic...



I can remove the nut, the ball crank, the micrometer dial, but I can't get any further. I assume that the last bit with the line to zero out the micrometer dial can be removed and then the feed scew and nut can be removed.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers....

Brian

 

[Chuck K]

If you look at the bottom of the "dial collar" (I don't know what the actual name is) you should find a whole for a spanner wrench. It's probably all buggered up from someone previously using a punch instead of a wrench on it. The collar needs to be unscrewed and then you can remove the screw assembly. Good luck.

Chuck

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Looks like a 9 or 10K clone? I wonder why they would clone it when you could buy one only a few miles away? Were customs so stringent back when that was made?

I like the nice single knob under the compound for adjusting the angle... A slight pet peeve for me with the South Bends (and most machines like this).

I have been seeing people discussing entirely different machine suppliers like Busy Bee that I don't believe would deliver to the US either...


Bernie

 

[Brain Coral]

If you look at the bottom of the "dial collar" (I don't know what the actual name is) you should find a whole for a spanner wrench. It's probably all buggered up from someone previously using a punch instead of a wrench on it. The collar needs to be unscrewed and then you can remove the screw assembly. Good luck.

Chuck

Thank you so much, Chuck. I'll have a look and try that. That makes sense to me. I knew that it had to come out of there to remove the scew, but wasn't sure how.

Brian

 

[Brain Coral]

Hello Bernie,

Yes, it's a South Bend 9 clone, although the swing is 11". Moody was but one of many manufacturers cloning South Bend lathes, trying to get to ride on the massive wave of success that South Bend experienced. There must have been patents expiring and so on. I'm not sure what the climate was like with importing and exporting, but don't think that it was a major factor at the time.

That thing with Busy Bee and Grizzly was a family affair and an arrangement between family to not export between the two countries. Word is, there was a falling out, so the gloves are off and both companies will ship accross the border.

"(I like the nice single knob under the compound for adjusting the angle... A slight pet peeve for me with the South Bends (and most machines like this)."

I am not sure what you are referring to here... are you referring to the square bolt that tightens the compound after adjusting to the angle ? If so, early South Bends had but one bolt, but later on a second one was added to provide better holding power. This particular lathe has two bolts.

Cheers...

Brian

 

[Brain Coral]

Hello again Chuck,

It was threaded in but on this particular lathe, there isn't a drilled hole for a spanner wrench, so I lightly tightened it in a vise with a cloth on the jaws and it came loose without much effort.



Thanks again...

Brian

- - - Updated - - -

Here's a few pics of the ways after a light cleaning with mineral spirits. The photos don't do the frosting justice, but the ways are in really great shape with almost no wear at all.









Cheers...

Brian

 

[Chuck K]

Brian, The ways look great. I would use some oil and a scotchbrite pad on them and shine them up. I know people will tell you not to use abrasives on your ways, but I think if I needed to remove .0001 off my ways with scotchbrite I would probably still be scrubbing on them a year from now. It's kind of surprising that the collar didn't have pipe wrench marks on it. I'm thinking that it probably has been taken off before. As long as you have that collar off, it would be a good time to mill or drill a hole in it so you can use a spanner next time. Just mill it opposite the hash mark so it will be out of site on the bottom of the collar.

Chuck

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Here's a pic...



I can remove the nut, the ball crank, the micrometer dial, but I can't get any further. I assume that the last bit with the line to zero out the micrometer dial can be removed and then the feed scew and nut can be removed.

Brian

I see my confusion... I saw your Allen key, and the ball for your compound handle aligned with the angled end of the key in the pic.. So I thought it was a dedicated compound handle, handily placed under the compound!
Maybe that's a good modification!



Bernie

 

[Brain Coral]

Brian, The ways look great. I would use some oil and a scotchbrite pad on them and shine them up. I know people will tell you not to use abrasives on your ways, but I think if I needed to remove .0001 off my ways with scotchbrite I would probably still be scrubbing on them a year from now. It's kind of surprising that the collar didn't have pipe wrench marks on it. I'm thinking that it probably has been taken off before. As long as you have that collar off, it would be a good time to mill or drill a hole in it so you can use a spanner next time. Just mill it opposite the hash mark so it will be out of site on the bottom of the collar.

Chuck

Hello Chuck,

I'm with you on scotchbriting the ways. As long as you use a lubricant with it ( Varsol is also good to use ), no harm done. I'm sure that you're correct that the collar has never been removed. Great idea about providing a hole for future use of a spanner wrench.

I am itching to get to the shop to work on the lathe. I should be taking a 3-day weekend coming up, but work is so piled up for me that I'll end up working part of Saturday and part of Monday.... *sigh* ... the life of a self-employed carpenter... But... that means that I have all day Sunday to play in the shop...

Cheers...

Brian

- - - Updated - - -

I see my confusion... I saw your Allen key, and the ball for your compound handle aligned with the angled end of the key in the pic.. So I thought it was a dedicated compound handle, handily placed under the compound!
Maybe that's a good modification!



Bernie

Hello Bernie,

Oh, that's what you were referring to... Hahaha... yeah, I guess that the pic is a little misleading, especially when the thread is about a "clone" .

Brian

 

[Brain Coral]

Hello all,

I had a couple of hours this afternoon to play in the shop, so I started to tear down the lathe further. Before I started into it, I noticed a faded and dirty decal on the front leg at the headstock end. It's difficult to read from the photograph, but the top section simply says the location of the business... "Terribone, Quebec". The bottom section says... " Better In 1845... Still Better Today " ...

Mind you, South Bend had the market for sure and still enjoys a lot of enthusiasm and allegiance, but it sure looks like Moody was making an attempt to break into South Bend's market. I do think that they made a decent lathe, but with the scarcity of information and examples, I don't think that they were very successful in gaining a foothold.

Here's a pic of the decal...



I am going to try to preserve the decal. I daubed at it very carefully with mineral spirits just to see what it said, but feel that mild soap and water with a q-tip would be less apt to destroy the decal. I may put a coat of varnish over it to seal it in.

I just thought that it was rather interesting...

Brian