Show us your South Bend Lathe

I'm pretty new to machining, and I'm almost ashamed to show my lathe (compared to the rest of the machines on here, that are so clean that they look like they were just uncrated from the factory), but what the heck. I love the old girl.

It's a 1947 South Bend 9" X 54" "C" model. I've acquired a milling attachment for it, made a ball-turning attachment, and it's now sporting a QCTP. The old girl (my wife calls it my mistress) is unrestored - the paint is original. When I got it, it had very little tooling beyond a 3-jaw and 4-jaw, and most of its change gears were missing (I have them all now), but there was absolutely zero measurable spindle runout, and the bed ways were good except for the odd ding near the chuck (closer to the chuck, though, than I'm likely to cut), and most of the scrape marks still clear.

There have been several improvements made since the pictures were taken (stainless steel chip pan now, instead of the Tupperware container lid in the picture, nicer lamp, overhead radiant heater for those cold nights in the shop, Phase II toolpost, etc.)

One day I'll probably restore it...but since I use it pretty much daily, I hate to take it out of service...

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My SB 11" circa 1939 Model 411A



I really have to take a pic of how I've got it set up now. :eek:

-Ron
 
Ran accross this thread and have to chime in..Im a newbie from Ohio and am just starting on going thru my 1941 south bend lathe..It's a model 183-B 14-1/2 with a 1.5HP 3 phase motor...Has a few issues and in the process of tearing it down and repainting and fixing the issues...I will post more pict's as it progresses along...
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I got this off ebay for 600.00 a few months ago, The different color stuff is from another 13" I was working on. But the bad was well worn so when this one came along I went after it.

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Collet Closer stud and nut.

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Tool Cart I setting up for it Ya I know its a mess.

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Couldn't get it to take these 2 pictures of the cart.

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Paul

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I finally took some new pics! :biggrin:

Here is a copy of the card from SB/Grizzly...
Now, in all it's glory (and detail)...
-Ron
 
Hey South benders !

Is there a list or chart that tells what year a South bend was built by the serial Number???

I am looking for a 1942 lathe to restore as a :drink2:70th Birthday / Christmas gift to myself
:tiphat: thanks...joe diamond@easyliving.com
 
According to Steve Well's compilation: http://wswells.com/serial_number.html It looks like the '42 models started somewhere around serial #122000.

Once you find one that you like you can get a copy of the original factory index card for that lathe from Grizzly (who owns the rights to SB now) to verify the year. Here's the "card" from my '39...



As you can see, it has information that can be real useful if you want to restore it to how it came from the factory.

Hope that helps,

-Ron
 
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