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i worked a deal with my neighbor yesterday and now i have a south bent lathe in my garage. it's in great need of some tlc, but i'm hoping that it will all turn out functional. i've done a bunch of legwork over the last day to learn as much as i can, but i'm still looking for some advice and/or help. i know next to nothing about machine tools, so everything is new to me.
what i want to do is tear it apart as much as is easily possible to clean and lubricate everything. as it sits now, there's rusted metal filings and chips everywhere - both in it and on it. i'm looking for some online instruction books (or printed if i can find them) that can tell me what i can and can't remove for bolts and screws. i know that you can get a copy of the build information from south bend (grizzly now) for $25, but at this point i want to get the basics figured out (without spending anything else) to determine whether there are any major issues that will make this thing too much of a money pit, so i know whether to cut my losses now, or whether to continue with it.
from browsing here i found out about the south bend section on cnczone.com, so i made an account there. i can log in there, but i never got the mail link to get myself activated to be able to post threads. if anyone reading this has an account there and knows who to get in touch with there, could you see if it's possible to get my account activated to post? my account there is also lost_cause. i'm hoping that someone there can just send another mail to my account to get me the link to activate.
following are some shots of the lathe. my first order of business (after a general cleaning and condition assessment) is to try to get that extra leg on the motor mount bracket out of there. there's got to be another way to mount that so i only have the normal four legs. if any of you have any good info or links about dismantling various parts of this lathe, please let me know.
Serial No. 103930
Cat. No. 6577-A
Bed Length 4
Model B9W
That is a pretty nice looking 9B with some surface rust. If there is wear on the ways, it doesn't show in the pictures.
Anyway, check out http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Rebuild-Manu...item23068bc6f9
I am not affiliated with the seller, but seller has gotten some good revues in the South Bend Lathe Group.
Everything you want to know about Southbend lathes (and a few things you don't) is here:
http://www.wswells.com/
this is my first, so i really don't have much to base it on, but they don't seem to have any noticeable ridges grooved into the ways. there's a few gouges, but not anything that i would think to be a problem. there are (were) a lot of dings and dents in the ways in the first several inches from the spindle - looks like from dropping or storing too much on it over the last 15 years with no use as a lathe. i took the high spots off a little, and removed a layer of rust so i can see whether things work.Originally Posted by craigmx5
i took about a cup of rusty chips out of the chuck and carriage. i took apart all of the carriage and tailstock that i could and removed the hardened old oil and grease (and rust). i adjusted all the set screws for the carriage - amazing how smooth things seem to move now. there seems to be a lot of backlash in the cross feed screw, but i'll worry about that later. it also looks like the lead screw has noticeably more wear in the center than at the ends. no idea how big of an issue this will turn out to be either. there's also two chipped teeth on one of the gears in the back.
i need to figure out what to use for oil in all the different places next, and then try to figure out how to mount the motor. after that i'll do a little searching on how to actually use it
This is a very handy reference as well:
http://www.neme-s.org/Shaper%20Books...nual%2010K.pdf
More info here:
http://www.neme-s.org/Shaper%20Books/South%20Bend/
Still more:
http://www.wewilliams.net/SBLibrary.htm
A bit of history & resources:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/southbend9-inch/
Happy reading...
Keith
thanks for the information that everyone has provided so far. one more major thing i am looking for right now: lubrication information. i've seen plenty of charts and lists of oils for the different parts of the lathe, but they all look to be 50-80 years old. does anyone have any current brands and/or types of oil they use for theirs? i'm hoping to find something over the counter locally if possible.
I use 5-20 fully synthetic oil and way oil. Had to order way oil (mobil vectra #2) but have heard some use chainsaw bar oil which has the tactifiers to make it sticky. hope this helps. tommie
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