South Bend 9" Cabinet Model Rebuild

Skowinski

Registered
Registered
Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Messages
222
Way back in late July I looked at a SB9 and asked a bunch of questions here. Thanks to everyone who helped me out. I ended up buying it and now that it's fully rebuilt and function thought I'd post up a bit of the history of the project. I spent about 6 months working an hour here or there in my spare time, and am pleased with the result. This lathe should serve me well for years to come.

As it arrived in my garage. Nasty old green cabinet covered with multiple layers of paint, grease and chips. Lathe in two colors (red tailstock for some reason), pretty nasty also.



I bought a 5 gallon pail of Chem-dip, some paint stripper, and a bunch of wire brushes and started...
 
But, getting to that photo above required some work. Here's the nasty cabinet as it arrived in my garage. After much effort with paint stripper I gave up and took it to a shop to be bead blasted. I think I counted 4 coats of paint, the last one put on with a brush, and done very poorly. And, yes, that is a household outlet box with a light switch on there for the on/off switch.



And, had to start working on undoing a few hillbilly repairs, like this. Someone had managed to break off the backgear lever, and had drilled, tapped and put in a long bolt with some fuel hose over it, makeshift handle. Man, some hacks out there for sure.

 
For some strange reason some think that once it's broken it doesn't warrant an elegant repair
To me it's a challenge to "fix it nice", make it look like it belongs there
mark
 
I think nice is very nice; I have niced up most of my machinery with the exception of my 9" Monarch, it is pretty nice in it's original condition, except for the legs that were nicked up badly, them I niced up.
 
Probably my OCD but I just can't leave anything looking cludgy and hacked up, it's gotta look nice....

Taking the cabinet to the blasting shop mean't I needed to pull the underdrive and motor assembly out. Turns out I needed to, as the wiring was quite poorly done (including no ground on the motor itself) and the countershaft assembly needed some cleaning up and adjusting.



The cabinet came back stripped bare, and I started preparing it for painting.



In the end 4 coats of Krylon enamel primer and then 3 coats of Krylon light industrial grey enamel, with some sanding between coats. That should last.
 
Back
Top