South Bend dilemna

Rex,

I had a 10" South Bend once with a badly worn bed. Won't go into the compounding stupidity that resulted in my buying it in the first place. Liked the lathe, very quiet, but impossible to do good work on. Best deal I found on grinding the bed was some old timer in Fremont, California. $900, and he'd do it when he "got around to it".

Ended up selling it to someone working out of the same building as Litton, as in Litton glass blowing lathes. I told them about the bed wear, they were sure they could talk the Littons into grinding it for them. Never heard back if they did or not.

Couple years later, I was given a perfect 10" SB bed. Couldn't GIVE the thing away! Go figure...

Anyway, if everything else is really really good, it probably would be worth it to have the bed ground. Do a lot of asking around and see if you can't track down an old timer like I did. (and sorry for Bay Area folks, I don't have that fellows contact info anymore).

But before coughing up for bed grinding, look at the mating surfaces of the saddle. If they're worn too, you will have to restore that as well. Moglice would work well and is certainly doable, you just want to factor in everything that needs to be done.

Jon

I guess you don't have it anymore.

This is a super-nice lathe, but no way I'd pay $900. At about $300 I'd consider it.

I don't have a clue who but I believe there's someone in the DFW area who does bed grinding. I remember talking to someone who had one done down there.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

Sorry, no. Posted here it was going to scrap metal pile if nobody came to get it, not even a single reply. I had no room inside for it, and outside it would have quickly rusted. Yeah, I could have prepped it for long term storage, but wasn't into the effort. It was bound for recycling when I got it, so the end result was the same.

Jon

It sounds like the wear isn't too bad. The fingernail test is about a thousandth, probably less than two. Certainly usable by my standards. A rough surface is usually pretty easy to clean up. You just need to stone the raised areas around the pits. As long as there is more surface area than pit area you should have all the bearing surface you need.

A perfect bed is nice but after all, it's a machine tool not jewelry. ;^)

Cheers,

Kelley

Consider the size. If small enough and ground out flat - they are oil holders. We - some of us - have ways that are ground in arcs to hold oil for general lube. So maybe it isn't so bad after all.

It might have been a massive machine that did a massive amount of cutoffs - each slinging into the ways...

Martin

Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Rex B wrote:

I know this isn't any help to Rex, but does anyone know if South Bend exported any Heavy 10s to the UK? Sometime I'd like to get a larger lathe, and I liked the look of John Ruth's Heavy 10. Looks like a solid, classic piece of kit.

Chris

Yes they did, changed the name and obliterated the markings. Read lathes.co.uk on the Heavy 10, there is mention of it. Just read that this morning.

Rex

Thanks for the information, Rex. Will do that. Good luck with your lathe project.

Chris