South Bend 9a Restoration (pic Heavy)

I've never personally seen wear like that - I have *heard* it is possible, but oh my gosh! You can't hold to good tolerances with that much wear - so your idea of a PM lathe seems like a good approach.

Because I live in an oil town, we have several very large grinders that can grind the ways back to tolerance, but such a job is in the $1000 range, even here. Then you have an old lathe with old bearings, cross slide wear, etc. A machine that badly abused (by not oiling the ways) isn't worth the cost of making it 'right'. Selling it for a start on a better lathe sounds about right.
 
...but such a job is in the $1000 range, even here.

Unfortunately, I'm no longer certain that I can swing the cost of the PM lathe. At this point, a $1K regrind job is a fifth the price of a new lathe- and that I'd be willing to pay. As a hobbyist, I can't imagine I'd inflict too much damage over the course of my life on newly ground ways (assuming proper lubrication). So it really would make this an heirloom piece.

I have sent messages out to a few companies; waiting to hear back. One company responded that they would be happy to sell me a $16K Lagun instead. :)

"I wish we could help, but these machines are not feasible to rebuild. Replacements are too cheap. We can sell you a Republic Lagun lathe for $16K that is less than the rebuild cost. Although they are small, it take the same amount of steps and setups as a larger machines. Actually, the small one are harder to do. We thank you for the inquiry and ask to keep us in mind with other machines."
 
Wildo, perhaps you can find one of the more experienced members near you and go together to look at used lathes. If you are patient, you can find excellent buys on the used market. In some places in the U.S, you can find good lathes for about the cost of a grinding job. One of the guys here bought a 11X20 Standard Modern lathe in near perfect condition (out of a school) for 1300 Canadian pesos. (- is that about $2.70 in American?)

Take heart a great lathe is out there - and in the mean time, you an start on your current one!
 
I paid $250 for my SB 9a. It required a complete rebuild. But was well worth it. These days I wish I had a bigger machine as far as spindle throat size, and 5c capabililty.
but a 9A in decent shape is in you future. if you are willing to travel a little maybe 2 hours, I'll bet they are plentiful.
 
Wildo, note that for the normal working area of the lathe, setting the tool height correctly will give you about 10" of practically straight ways before you would need to compensate. It can make good work for shorter pieces (about 90% of the work I do!)
 
I am kind of late to this thread, I have been off this site for around a year. Let me give a little background, I have been a Tool & Moldmaker for 35+ years. I ran my first South Bend and Atlas lathe when I was about 14 years old, about 40 years ago. I currently own 2 South Bend 9" lathes, a very well worn 1943 that is a war production machine used under contract from Tocco heating and cooling to make gun sight parts during the war. This machine is worn heavily but I still make parts 10" long with it and hold it within .0005". It is adjusted to compensate for the wear. My other is a 1947 that is in good shape although it was in boxes when I got it and needed painted and put back together. If your tailstock end is not bolted down, get it bolt down and leveled good. Secondly of all the surfaces on your lathe to check the B and F in the above drawings are the only 2 surfaces that meant absolutely nothing. On war production machines this surface was not stoned polished or even scraped, they were simply planed. None of the carriage rides on this in any way shape or form so they are not a means of measuring the ways at all for wear.
To check for wear see if there is a ridge on the A,C, E or G surfaces, these would indicate wear and these are the only surfaces the carriage should ride on. If the carriage rides on B and F, the carriage itself is worn badly and not necessarily the ways.
 
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.................... Secondly of all the surfaces on your lathe to check the B and F in the above drawings are the only 2 surfaces that meant absolutely nothing. ...............................
I tend to disagree with you here. They can help in determining how much wear there is in the bed ways. The problem on the 9" SBL is this surface is only about .090" wide. And like you said, if the saddle has excessive wear, it can ride on the top of the ways on this surface, thus, causing it to wear.

The surfaces I prefer to reference from is the one's at the bottom of the vee's and flats. With that said, how do you check for wear on a LeBlond lathe bed?
 
Nice to hear your input McRuff! The South Bend lathes I have looked at all had B and F ground on the same setup as the V ways. I was unaware about the war machines being planed. It might be a great exercise to see if the planing was smooth enough to determine V way wear. I'd be happy to accept that matter as undecided.

-- in no way was I saying that the carriage was riding on B. The fact that it doesn't is why it is a good reference surface. On most SBs, B is virtually untouched except for some easily stoned out dings (from chucks or heavy parts). If there is any wear or long scratch/scrape marks on A,B, or C it is usually a bad sign needing extreme skepticism.

Secondly of all the surfaces on your lathe to check the B and F in the above drawings are the only 2 surfaces that meant absolutely nothing.
I love absolute quotes. We have to 'absolutely' disagree. Perhaps you misunderstand what is being measured and why.

4gsr: that is a great question! I'd have to look very hard at my friend's LeBlond - however his has no wear at all due to very low hours. Perhaps other LeBlond owners might weigh in on this question... (hint, hint) :eagerness:
 
Ok to address the Leblond lathe, most all of the Regals I have run from the early to mid 1950's to present machines you simply removed the bed ways, measured them and bolt new ones on or have them reground, the vast majority of them have hardened tool steel removable ways, and sometimes the bottom of the carriage is hard chromed.

As to the South Bend, unless you have a flame hardened bed all of the ways were planed, only hard beds were ground, ask Ted Phleuger on the South Bend forum, he worked there for more than 30 years as a toolroom foreman.
Now as to how to check your bed for wear, there are several ways but B and F surfaces are not part of it. Here is one way and probably the best way that I know of, remove your head stock and mount an indicator on your carriage perpendicular to A, C , E, G and D and H if you like. Now run your carriage up on the surface that is unused under your headstock "0" out the indicator, now watching your indicator run it back down the lathe bed to the other end, this will show you where the wear spots are. Like I said one of the other ways is to look for a wear ridge on the top edge of A, C, E or G surfaces, In my experience the flat ways seem to normally wear on the tailstock bottom and not the bed, don't know why but all of the flat ways I have seen wear there rather than the bed. You can also use a straight edge perpendicular to the ways and see if you can get shims under it or there is a lot of light showing under it. If there is short wear spots this usually stands out rather easily. On the B surface only being about .090" wide, thats why I said look for a ridge on A and C surfaces, cause the slot in the carriage is about .150" wide so if there is a bit of wear it causes a ridge on the sides of the V way a sit wears and settles lower on the ways.
 
Yeah, you are correct on the later Leblond lathes have replaceable way inserts. The few I've seen being rebuilt, they never did that. Put the entire bed up on the planer, with a Dumore grinder and reground the ways. Or send the bed out to a place that has a way grinder. Not sure about hard chrome on the underside of the saddle, have seen Turcite laid in place. I remember dad saying replacing the way inserts cost more than it did to put the entire lathe bed on the planer to regrind the ways did.

Anyways, getting off topic here.
 
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