South bend 9a refurbished

[dmittz]

Hi everyone,

Thought I would share the refurbishment I did to my little south bend 9a last year.

I live on the Canadian west coast, which is a bit of a machinery desert. But I did manage to find this South bend 9a lathe (built 1953). It was used as a high school lathe, then given to the shop teacher upon his retirement, I bought it from a friend of his who inherited it.

Here's the day I brought it home:




The lathe was in working condition when I got it. I did one small project with it before tearing it down. Most inportant the ways were in really nice shape. Unfortunatly the chuck was REALLY stuck on the spindle. I also liked that it came with an original chip tray and cast iron stand.

 

[dmittz]

I had my phone die so unfortunatley I lost most of the restoration pictures. But I will share what I still have.

I tore the lathe down into its sub assemballies.

I removed 7 layers of paint from the bed and stand until it was down to bare metal.






Next I put 2 coats of expoy primer, followed by 2 coats of 2 part urethane automotive paint...



The ways had some dings near the chuck (being a school lathe) but the flaking was still faintly visible down the whole length so I will leave them be.

Here's the cast iron stand, I added a steel 2×4 (1/4 wall) between the two legs rigidity as well as a tray near the bottom, also made with a thick walled frame. I also put some vibration dampening feet on it (hockey pucks).


I most of the pictures of the rest of the restoration but I took apart each sub assembally clean, stripped and repainted them. I also replaced all the felts, wicks and wipers. Additionally, I replaced on gear with a chipped tooth and replaced the bronze nut on the cross slide and conpound. I also had to buy new oil cups to replace the broken ones To get the chuck off I made a tool that clamped the spindle along its hole length then built an attachment for the chuck back plate which had a large bar attached to it and I was able to get it off.

Gear box repainted with a NOS threading chart ready for for reassembally



Sorry guys no other pictures survived my phone dieing but here's the lathe all finished, works like a dream!


Thanks for looking!

 

[Norseman C.B.]

Nice job, thank you for the share...............

 

[francist]

That's sure a nice looking machine now.

-frank

 

[Skowinski]

Nice!

 

[woodtickgreg]

Very nicely done. Great looking machine now.

 

[dmittz]

Thanks everyone it was a fun project and has been a nice machine to use since its completion.

 

[thenrie]

Great to see it back in South Bend colors! Nice job.

 

[dmittz]

Thanks thenrie, Ya I quite like the colour. Seemed to be close to the original color that was barried under 7 layers of paint.

 

[Surprman]

Nice work! Love seeing restored SB9s.
Rick