Problem- Is it wrong morally to CNC a South Bend Fourteen?

[chimpera]

So here is my dilemma. I have a 1970's? South Bend 14 witch i have refurbished. Its fun to work with and runs pretty well now. The problem is I want a cnc lathe for my shop but it seems wrong morally to modify this classic machine. I only have room for one lathe and an import would cost twice what I paid. Should I sell it and pay another thousand for an import just to assuage my conscience? I don't see a great way to keep manual functionality.
comments?

[RotarySMP]

From my experience (I have only converted a Chinese 7x12, so there was no moral dilemma there), when you convert you replace a lot of parts, but do not change many. Just keep all the south bend parts in a box. You may have to drill and tap a few extra holes here an there, but it is no big deal.

[307startup]

I don't see it as an affront to the Gods of Machinery. I can see how some purists might retch, but that is their problem, not yours.

I guess it comes down to what you want/hope to achieve with the conversion.

Personally, I think for a HOME shop, or a high-end HOBBYIST shop, a CNC South Bend or Monarch would have a cool retro-funk vibe. It would go great with a CNC'd Cincinnati mill...kind of a Flash Gordon/SteamPunk thing.

Other than that...it's hard to see the point in converting to CNC, especially if you still want manual capability. Even Haas' tool room lathe with it's funky handwheels is a total miss in that capacity. No good can ever come from a compromise...you want a truck, the missus wants a car, so you get a mini-van. Let that one sink in...

Originally Posted by chimpera So here is my dilemma. I have a 1970's? South Bend 14 witch i have refurbished. Its fun to work with and runs pretty well now. The problem is I want a cnc lathe for my shop but it seems wrong morally to modify this classic machine. I only have room for one lathe and an import would cost twice what I paid. Should I sell it and pay another thousand for an import just to assuage my conscience? I don't see a great way to keep manual functionality. comments?

[Bubba]

if worst comes to worst, design you conversion so you can put it back to original state. That is what I am doing to my lathe now and I can't afford to buy a new one just to start taking it apart:})

[RotarySMP]

I wouldn't bother with manual functionality. I didn't on my lathe and don't miss it at all.

I never use my little CNC 7x for production runs. The most I ever seem to make of anything is two, so I use it like a manual tool room lathe, spending about 80% of the time in the MDI. Manual is no big deal, I just tell the thing where it should go rather than spin the wheels.

Removeing the manual functionality opens the door to one of CNC's greatest advantages - swarf controlling with an enclosure.

[Andre' B]

Two or three shows ago the South Bend booth at IMTS had one of the first lathes they built (they got started around 1906) was all polished and setup with the best digital readout and quick change tooling you could get. It still had to be powered by a flat belt to a line shaft.

[chimpera]

I guess the south bend has no defenders and is subject to my mercy.

[arizonavideo]

I have a old AI Hembrug (A 12" throw 2HP 1800LB lathe.) made in Holland and I bet there is not three of them in the states. I have not found a single picture on Google of my lathe so I would guess it is rare over here.

It is a second op lathe without threading or power feed.

I just couldn't bring myself to unbolting the ways and mounting LR so I just made a CNC compound slide. It is almost done.

If needed I can just remove it and replace the old compound.

The lathe is not as strong this way but for smaller parts it should be OK.

Perhaps someday I will mount 25mm rails to the bed but i just don't have the heart right now.

[slatsmith]

I've a 1946,SB 13 in mint condition ... I wouldn't mod it in any way ( then again I've lots of room for another machine)....If your ways are good put a couple of ball screws & servos on it .... If not, get out the hot drill and slap some rails on it ...You can clutch the hand wheels for manual ops ... do you plan on changing the spindle drive ? A CNC belt slaper ? In my neck of the woods there are alot of P.O.S. old (bigger than mine) lathes for sale $1k or less I wouldn't bat an eye at converting ...my machine could bring about $4k on my local market .. Do what ever works the best for you dollar wise ....
Sounds like your in for a fun project.

[BrassBuilder]

I have a 1940s Clausing Series 100 MK3a lathe that I debated quite awhile about CNCing with your same concerns. It finally came down to the price I paid for the lathe ($1000 which was a couple hundred too much) and the cost of buying a new Chinese lathe the comparable size ($2000+). I decided to CNC the Clausing. While I *could* put it back together as a manual lathe once I am done, that won't be possible as I am going to sell all the leftover parts on ebay. They should just about pay for the conversion.

Since I am using quality CNC parts in the conversion (thank god for ebay), the lathe should be worth considerably more as a CNC than as a manual. I also think it is sort of cool to have a 1940s lathe with 2000 electronics too.

Since I decided to CNC it, I haven't lost any sleep over it either.

Mike

[RotarySMP]

Do you have any photo's of that conversion Mike?

[BrassBuilder]

Originally Posted by RotarySMP Do you have any photo's of that conversion Mike?

I'm documenting it here on the zone:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101336

My job is keeping me on the road for the next couple of months though. I probably won't get back to the project until around the end of June.

Mike