I need advice on lathe purchase

**jere** · Apr 20, 2015, 05:26 PM

Make sure to check that the bedways are good and flat, every part that turns, turns as it should, and make sure there is lots of tooling ,tool posts, chucks , tailstock, extra gears if it is not a quick change gear box. With any of the above missing it is going to be hard to find Parts for a machine that are no longer available. at that price being 1000- 500 dollars (at least around where i am) high i would expect a lot. i passed on a machine of similar size and area that was selling for $ 300. The seller was just waiting for a sucker to get rid of a hunk of negative value scrap metal for him.

There are some good deals out there to so don't be afraid to walk away. As soon as you buy the machine another better more complete cheaper one will show up.

**hardtail69** · Apr 21, 2015, 06:45 PM

I am sure you are right and in the end I had to pass this one up because I was too late to bid on it... Then the metal angels did me a real favor and a guy I know actually gave me a south bend 9A....for free. Sure I will have to repair a few things... but FREE! hell I will put a few hours and a few hundred into it for sure... but Free! Oh hell yea. Did i mention it was Free? ....... ( doing my happy dance) it ain't pretty but it's FREEEEEEEE!

Any of you south bend aficionados out there. I could use your advice on restoring this old American iron to it's former glory. So lay it on me. I already know it has one gear with missing teeth. not sure which one it is yet as i only saw a glimpse of it and that was a few weeks ago. I never thought the guy would just give it to me. I was at his home garage turning out some head tubes for him on his delta lathe and saw the old south bend sitting on the floor. Never thought it would be mine lol so I didn't exactly notice every little detail. I should get it this weekend though. I will want to go through it with a fine tooth comb.

**Dr Stan** · Apr 21, 2015, 10:07 PM

One huge advantage of the SB is the availability of parts. Also when (not if but when) you have a wreck parts are less expensive and there is usually less damage due to it being a belt drive and much lower HP. One of the first things to do is to convert it from a leather belt to a serpentine belt on the drive unit. Huge difference in the power transfer.

There are many sources including FleaBay and also good ones like Little Machine Shop and Tools For Cheap. They have some replicas such as threading dials and steady rests which are as good or better than the originals.

The first thing to do is buy a copy of the South Bend Lathe Manual. Numerous sources have them available as reprints and some originals are also out there.

There is a company called South Bend Lathe which bought the inventory, name, blue prints, etc of the bankrupt SB Lathe works. It now manufactures SB lathes in Taiwan and/or mainland China. The owner of Grizzly is also the owner of the new "SB Lathe" company. If you decide to do business with them I'll just say be careful. Some people think Grizzly is just great and others not. I happen to be in the latter category.

So congrats on the acquisition of a 9" SB which just happens to have been the very first lathe I ever ran in the Navy's Machinery Repairman Class A School located at that time in San Diego, CA. I had one until about 4 or 5 years ago when I traded for my Logan 14X30.