Opinions needed on many used lathes from Facebook Marketplace.

[Unix]

Alright, I have found many used lathes and taken notes on them, spoken with the sellers about it.

I will start with the lowest price one first, which I think seems to be a good deal, wonder what everyone's thoughts are on it, if its a safe buy. I also don't mind rebuilding/scraping it so long not too expensive.

1) $550 - South Bend - Model A - 9" swing x 32" bed length.
Needs a belt and comes with manual, book and tooling. 120 volt. Bench is not included.
Not operational without belt. Has the original belt but needs to be laced back together.

Pictures are below:

I will post more later on.

Thanks for advice.

 

[mac1911]

Im very hesitant on anything that cant be powered up and at least run. This is all dependent on level of know how on particular equipment .

 

[Jim F]

I would be leary of the SB, too many red flags.
Flat belt for motor,
wrong tailstock hand wheel,
wrong motor pulley,
gears look awfully dry.
not much tooling,
no steady rest,

 

[Ischgl99]

In your surface grinder post, you mentioned you want to turn this into a business. The first question is what parts are you expecting to make? If this is just a learner lathe, then that doesn’t matter, but if you intend to use what you buy to start the business, that becomes very important. Another issue, if you are making parts for customers, you will need to make metric threads at some point. If you have a lathe that can’t do metric, then you will have to turn down that customer. I’m not familiar with South Bend lathes, can this lathe thread metric?

 

[OTmachine]

In your surface grinder post, you mentioned you want to turn this into a business. The first question is what parts are you expecting to make? If this is just a learner lathe, then that doesn’t matter, but if you intend to use what you buy to start the business, that becomes very important. Another issue, if you are making parts for customers, you will need to make metric threads at some point. If you have a lathe that can’t do metric, then you will have to turn down that customer. I’m not familiar with South Bend lathes, can this lathe thread metric?

With the correct change gears, ($150 for 3D printed set on Ebay), you can do metric threading.

 

[OTmachine]

If you are intent on buying this SB9, have someone with knowledge of machine tools look at it for you. Lathe looks pretty used, but repairable. I have 2 SB9’s, both running on flat belts.

 

[markba633csi]

I don't see anything especially terrible about that SB 9A
The flat belt motor pulley is unusual- you could easily change that one to a V-belt pulley
V-belts were commonly run on large flat pulleys back in the day. My mill has them. It works.

I see a little wear on the bedways. No idea of the spindle wear. You would want to chuck up a piece of pipe and give it
a tug to get a rough idea of the bearing wear; most sellers won't let you take the spindle apart to check the bearings
For the price it seems like a deal if all the gears are intact

 

[Eddyde]

Thats a great price, the tooling alone would cost more than that if bought new.

 

[Unix]

In your surface grinder post, you mentioned you want to turn this into a business. The first question is what parts are you expecting to make? If this is just a learner lathe, then that doesn’t matter, but if you intend to use what you buy to start the business, that becomes very important. Another issue, if you are making parts for customers, you will need to make metric threads at some point. If you have a lathe that can’t do metric, then you will have to turn down that customer. I’m not familiar with South Bend lathes, can this lathe thread metric?

Thanks for the reply.
I plan on learn and use it to do business for the parts I make and sell it.
One of the parts I plan to make and sell are vacuum feedthroughs. I completely agree, metric threads will be required to make some point.
Not sure if this lathe can do it. However I do plan on converting this lathe into 100% CNC controlled if it makes sense.

 

[Unix]

With the correct change gears, ($150 for 3D printed set on Ebay), you can do metric threading.

Thanks for the reply.
So this solves the metric threading issue. Can SB lathes of 9" swings make nice smooth clean cuts and finishes?

Or should I look into Logons or Hardinge lathes? I know Hardinge is professional lathe and used in commercial applications, however they don't have chucks and not sure if I can buy them. I found a Hardinge DSM lathe for $1,000 from Facebook marketplace., no chuck.

I also want a lathe that can make 5" master cylinder just for fun.