Southbend lathe questions.

[c2a4r3l]

So I am going Saturday to look at a 14.5” southbend lathe. It has only been used for home hobbyists by 2 older gentleman that pasted this spring. Hasn’t been used for about 15 years. Been sitting the house garage.

Wondering what I need to expect for on a old machine that’s been sitting for so long.
Cracked belts , rough bearings ?

It also has a d1-3 cam lock chuck system. I know nothing about that. Is this good or a bad thing ? It has a 3 jaw and 4 jaw from what I can tell in the pictures.

Little concerned that it’s only a 24” between centers machine. But I think it worth going to look at.
Thanks for any responses. Carl.

 

[jackson1]

You will love the cam lock system. Would look first for and signs of corrosion. Look any signs of crashes on the cross slide. This probably is not the case, as per your description, most wear on the ways occurs close to the chuck. Belts are perishable, if in doubt replace it. Would hate to be cutting threads when the belt fails. For gun smith work I like the 14.5" swing, because of the added rigidity over the 9" or 10" machines. Hope it meets your needs.

 

[Tim Singleton]

Are you planning to use it for barrel work?
Assuming so

How do you plan to chamber?
Thru head stock or between centers?

I didnt know how wide the headstock is on a SB14

 

[c2a4r3l]

The head stock is 1 3/8”. Just use on my own barrels and other projects I can use it for.
I would like to be able to set a barrel up in the head stock.

 

[butchlambert]

The head stock is 1 3/8”. Just use on my own barrels and other projects I can use it for.
I would like to be able to set a barrel up in the head stock.

Headstock is too wide to chamber in the headstock unless you find a way to hold one end of the barrel inside the spindle.

 

[urbanrifleman]

Headstock is too wide to chamber in the headstock unless you find a way to hold one end of the barrel inside the spindle.

The Viper fixture works just dandy.

 

[c2a4r3l]

I was hoping I could put a spider on the out bored side of the spindle. I can’t go look at it until Saturday.
I want To measure how long the through hole is from the front of the chuck to the back of spindle.

 

[butchlambert]

I was hoping I could put a spider on the out bored side of the spindle. I can’t go look at it until Saturday.
I want To measure how long the through hole is from the front of the chuck to the back of spindle.

If Bamban is looking, he can tell you. The Viper tool is neat, but I wouldn't want this much sticking out of my 4 jaw.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

The Viper fixture works just dandy.

You ever chambered with one?

 

[Dusty Stevens]

If Bamban is looking, he can tell you. The Viper tool is neat, but I wouldn't want this much sticking out of my 4 jaw.

At least it gets your apron out past the wear area. Looong way when you have a big chuck for sure

 

[tobnpr]

Hinnant's book describes a fixture to hold the muzzle end in the spindle.
Don't know the spindle length for the 14", but remember you can put a spider on a D-3 backplate which will significantly shorten length compared to a 4 or 6 jaw.

Whatever you do- these are total oil loss lathes- and since it's been sitting for 15 years don't even think about running it under power.
It will need a teardown and all felts replaced. If it's in as good a shape as you suspect, shouldn't need anything else.

If you don't know how to evaluate a used machine at least superficially, take someone that can.
You're at a disadvantage since you can't (or at least- you shouldn't) run under power- but South Bends are amazingly simple and reliable machines, which is why so many are still in service after 50-80 years and more.

 

[c2a4r3l]

Thanks for the all the replies. I had her send me a good picture of the lathe this afternoon. Other then the extra stuff around it looks pretty good

 

[Dusty Stevens]

If the spindle turns itll be fine. Only issue with that lathe is the friction knob for the feed instead of the lever. It kinda gets old turning stuff down

 

[tobnpr]

Looks to be in fine shape...
You'll want to join the Practical Machinist forum, there's a large sub-forum there for SB owners- wealth of knowledge including a guy that used to work at SB and bought most if not all of their parts inventory when they closed their doors. Still has some NOS parts available.

This, is a "must have":

New! ● South Bend Lathe 14-1/2" - Rebuild Manual and Parts Kit ● All Versions | eBay

As you will notice, this is not a fuzzy Xerox reprint of an older manual that you've probably seen before. The details include the sequence for disassembling, cleaning, reassembling and adjusting the critical components of the industrial series of lathes.

www.ebay.com

The manual itself is indispensable. After 15 years of non-use, the felts will be hard as rocks and useless- they will not wick oil as they need to in order to keep the parts lubricated- especially the headstock wicks.

Some guys will pick up an old, worn machine and not bother with re-wicking and just run it into the ground with what life it has left- but that one looks to be in exceptional condition save for the surface rust. It'll take a little time, but tear it down using the manual and know that it'll last another fifty years if you take care of it.

I looked for a long time for a 13" (heavy 10's are usually clapped out, AND overpriced) but lucked out and found a very nice Sheldon which is very similar in design and operation. The only downside to that one is the bed length- but for barrel work it'll be a non-issue.

If it's 3 phase, and you don't have that available just get an inverter.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

^^ very good advice

 

[STS]

Looks like it's been crashed into something solid during a move. The tailstock hand wheel shaft looks to be bent to me.

 

[spitfire_er]

Looks like it's been crashed into something solid during a move. The tailstock hand wheel shaft looks to be bent to me.

I agree, or something dropped on it.

I've owned a lot of SB lathes from 9" to 13". Probably 30-40. I use to buy and refurbish them. I still have a nice 10L in my shop. That machine has most likely been repainted so don't let the shiny paint fool you. Re-wicking is a good idea unless someone did that in the recent past. Belts usually don't crap out unless it's leather, than it's a crap shoot. They are cheap. Cross feed gib screw looks to be almost bottomed out which indicated quite a bit of wear in the cross slide and most likely loose in the middle and tight at the end ranges.

Most likely has bed wear which can be seen by a ridge near the top of the V-way. Looks like an aloris tool post set which is $500 or so used for one that size, half that for non aloris/dorian. Also has smaller dials on the hand cranks which you can work with, but larger is easier to work with. I see there's a 4 jaw there. Ide be looking for a steady rest and any other tooling.

If you want to learn a little about assessing a used lathe, search youtube, there's a ton of useful videos. Do the same about a 13 or 14" SB lathe to get familiar with how it works before you look at it. Those 14"+ machines don't bring as much as the 9-13" machines in good shape, but I've seen one like that go from $1200-2k. I would be on the lower end of that for that one. While a short bed takes less space, you can always cut smaller material on a longer bed, hard to lengthen or shorter bed. My 13" lathes i had i could usually fit down to a 19" barrel in there with spiders on both ends. The 14" is a little longer. If the price is right get it, if they are asking more for it, keep looking.

 

[c2a4r3l]

Thank you for all the help. Time will tell when I go look at it.

 

[SBLH10]

Looks like the lathe it's self to be in pretty good shape other then the tailstock crank. From what can be seen in the picture looks like it does have a harden ways as know scraping can be seen around the headstock. As for barrel work you could build a so called cats using the Grizzly Bald Eagle as pictured below.
Chet

 

[tobnpr]

I see you posted on the PM forum that it's the "CLC" model.
The CLC is the toolroom version of the machine (regular model is "CL").
Precision leadscrew, and other "goodies" like draw-in collet attachment and taper attachment.

The collet attachment may be missing or off to the side somewhere- but it doesn't look like it has the taper attachment from the picture. Hard to tell for sure from the angle of the picture- but I think we should be able to see it. If you don't see evidence of there being/or having been a taper attachment it would mean the cross-slide has been modified from original (or possibly even changed out, but I doubt that would be the case)

Be sure to look around for these items, as well as the steady, collet rack, and micrometer carriage stop which were all standard with that model. Also, came with both a 3-step and 4-step pulley setup- the 4 step gives you 8 ( or 16 if it has a two speed motor) speeds which is nice to have.