Hello ,I'm a Beginner, I have a SB 9"#57574NAR .Been sitting quite a while .Just started to check out things and the larger Gib is missing on the cross feed is this something that can be bought new, or is it something that has to be made? How to "change" the oil on the spindle ? Thanks in advance!
There's experts here, and they'll be along. In the mean time, poking a stick at the internet, that looks like a 9A Workshop lathe from about 1968. Cool.
You've already got all of the advice I could give you about the gib.
As for changing the oil in the headstock reservoirs, that's not really accessible. If it saw a lot of use though, it's probably due for wicks anyway, that project will get you access to the inlet (the oil cup) and the outlet (the hole where the wick wipes against the spindle). It might or might not be graceful, but you could probably do something with that.... The oil cups for those bearings go into a cast in reservoir, so in theory you could remove those and drain some of the oil out... In practice though, it's mostly in the wick. Just changing the wicks will change most of it.
You can make your own wiper wicks, but there's kits on ebay that are insanely expensive for what they are, but at the same time, by the time you buy an available lot of a couple of things to do your own... The kits aren't that much. And they already know what types of felt to buy on the first go. And on that note, if you were to get the complete kit, for the whole lathe, you might be really ahead. You don't have to overhaul the whole lathe, you could certainly address it in chunks of that kit. If you are distrusting of the spindle oil right now, you're going to have the spindle out to truly put that one to bed. The drive (I think you have the horizontal drive, with the motor and a second cone pulley in the back?) If so, in my mind, I'd kind of group those together. You'd have those felts in the kit too. At that point, (judgement call, future intentions...), you'd only have the backgear to take out to install a one piece belt if you were inclined to go that route. You wouldn't really be obligated to go any further at that point, but (again, if you got the whole kit), you'd be prepared, if you notice that ALL of quick change gears aren't getting fresh oil on them at some point, you'd be ready. Or if the way wipers look like they may have petrified themselves into little steel impregnated felt scotch brite bricks, those could be updated easy enough.
Ebay and Amazon can get you those kits pretty easy, with or without a book. Search either for "South Bend Lathe 9" model A rebuild kit", that's close enough to get you there either place. There are others I can not vouch for, but stevewb on ebay has sent me probably five different things at different times, all of them as pictured and on time.
