Support situation of old South Bend Lathes

Some people restore them like classic cars:

jsw

Mils? Millionths? .00001?

We generally use thousandths in machining most stuff in the US

.001...or tenths .0001

Fixable.

Id remove that unless you intend on winding coils.

Pay particular attention to the warnings about the wires.

Gunner

"The socialist movement takes great pains to circulate frequently new labels for its ideally constructed state. Each worn-out label is replaced by another which raises hopes of an ultimate solution of the insoluble basic problem of Socialism, until it becomes obvious that nothing has been changed but the name. The most recent slogan is "State Capitalism."[Fascism] It is not commonly realized that this covers nothing more than what used to be called Planned Economy and State Socialism, and that State Capitalism, Planned Economy, and State Socialism diverge only in non-essentials from the "classic" ideal of egalitarian Socialism. - Ludwig von Mises (1922)

This one is in the "usable" class, barely. The spindle's ok (half mil TIR at the headstock with a 3/8" tap in the collet) but the saddle lock loosens close to 20 mils from tightest to the low point. Likely the tailstock is down by little less.

Apart from the motor pulley (brazed back together) nothing seems broken. The lead screw end bearing is surprisingly sloppy, the countershaft bushings are worn vertically but not laterally.

The DC motor will run down to a slow crawl, there is a jig for winding rectangular coils of wire and some sort of turns counter which looks like it can stop the motor at a preset turns count.

The machine's no jewel, but it's still a better lathe than none.

Question for the ancients: The oiling instructions say to flush the spindle reservoirs every six months. I don't see any drain plugs, can anybody tell me (or point to a link) how it's done?

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Not in metalworking.

They work the same way. Simply suck it out, flush with kero..and refill

"The socialist movement takes great pains to circulate frequently new labels for its ideally constructed state. Each worn-out label is replaced by another which raises hopes of an ultimate solution of the insoluble basic problem of Socialism, until it becomes obvious that nothing has been changed but the name. The most recent slogan is "State Capitalism."[Fascism] It is not commonly realized that this covers nothing more than what used to be called Planned Economy and State Socialism, and that State Capitalism, Planned Economy, and State Socialism diverge only in non-essentials from the "classic" ideal of egalitarian Socialism. - Ludwig von Mises (1922)

This is an Army copy of the 9" SB manual:

The manual for my Heavy 10 gives more about testing and maintenance. I don't know how much of it applies to yours.

jsw

Yet mil is also correct:

David

Sorry, I thought the term was common. 1 mil is .001", as in one in a thousand.

Found that one, but it's a 10L, not a 10k. The suction scheme might be required anyway. I was hoping for more detail.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Depends on the field. In the electronics field, in particular in things like the lead spacing on ICs (e.g. your plain old 74LS00 quad nand gate IC -- 14 pin DIP) the spacing is given in "mils" which are thousandths of an inch. (Think "Mili-inch". :-) Look on the data sheest for these old ICs. I don't know *what* the lead spacing on those postage-stamp chips where all the leads are bent down and soldered flat to the circuit board. They might be still spec'd in mils, or may be in mm by now. The DIPs like above had the pins on "100 mil centers", and in two rows "300 mils apart". (Or was it "400 mils"? -- I should check sometime soon to refresh my memory.)

And you *know* that the EEs and such *never* talk to the machinists in the company. (Or if they talk, they don't listen. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Thank you, that promises to be a useful document!

bob prohaska

It is used around these parts (these parts being Oregon). Heck, they use it at the hardware store to describe the plastic sheeting as well.

Maybe it's a regional thing.

Jon

The extra material in the 10L book shows you what questions to research on the Model A, to the extent that they apply. You don't have the spindle bearing shim adjustment. Here's some discussion on pulling the spindle to get at the bearing surfaces:

jsw

The photos in the link no longer work, but the discussion is useful. It looks like there's something in the slot below the spindle pinch bolts on my 10k, if it's not a shim then I'm puzzled.

For the moment I'm in "look but don't touch" mode. The spindle feels fine and I'm trying to figure out what the dominant errors in the lathe are. The saddle bed is worn about .020", the tailstock center is visibly below the axis of the spindle, maybe .020". It would be interesting to know the skew between headstock and tailstock axes, but it's not obvious to me how to measure it.

Seems like the first step is make a few parts; if they're good enough it may be wisest to just oil the machine and use it.

Thanks to all for reading and your advice!

bob prohaska

Mili-inch is probably it. I picked up the term from my father, who worked in the rubber industry starting in about 1940. It seemed very` common both in academic circles and in the aerospace industry through the early

Apologies for the confusion,

bob prohaska