Hi all

Is anyone ells besides me having problems with post that do not make
it on to the list or take one to two days to get there???? I sent one
two days ago and it never made it. The second one I sent took a full
24 hours to show up. The one sent a day ago has not made it either.
Something is rotten in Denmark I am afraid.

Turk

Warning - long winded narrative ahead.

There were two South Bend lathes being scrapped at a local shop, and I
was able to see them a few weeks ago. One was a 13" and one a 14".
Both had been stripped of tail stocks, QC boxes, cross slide control
levers, etc. All that was left were the main castings (bed,
underdrive, headstock, etc). The 13 had a lot of play in the spindle
bearings, though the 14 was good and tight. Well, I wasn't able to
pick them up for lack of shop space, but the recent converstation
about abrasives and spindle bearings got me thinking about getting a
beater headstock, so I enquired again about the lathes.

The 14" had already been scrapped out (what a crime!), but the 13" was
still there. When I arrived, the lathe had been completely
disassembled and dragged to the edge of a loading dock. The
"disassembler" had done his best to remove every possible bolt,
appearantly with a pipe wrench. Parts where everywhere, including the
headstock shims, but at least they were all in one general vicinity.

I picked up the headstock parts and thanked them, and as I was leaving
thought it might be good to take the underdrive cone pulley as well.
As I began pulling apart the drive, it dawned on me that I might be
able to mount the headstock directly onto the base, using a short
belt. Well, that idea didn't fly, and then I noticed the bed sitting
there, and also noticed my Sawzall.

It took about 30 minutes to cut the short section of bed. The picture
shows the final result, which I think is going to work very well for
polishing and straightening shafts. Maybe I'll do some metal spinning
as well, or aircraft propeller testing ;) My greatest fear is that
this was some rare lathe, but it was in such terrible shape that there
wasn't much else to do with it. The serial number is 84733, for those
able to decifer it. It will be restamped on the bed once I have cut
it to final length. At least posterity will be able to discover what
it once was.

If anyone has a beater 6" or 8" three jaw chuck good for rough
service, I'm interested. Spindle thread appears to be 1 7/8" x 8tpi.

That's the irony of it all. I usually procrastinate terribly, and I
live in a machinery wasteland to boot. It was just my lucky day.

----- Original Message -----

From: Dennis Turk

To: southbendlathe@...

Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 3:55 PM

Subject: [southbendlathe] Yahoo problems

Hi all

Is anyone ells besides me having problems with post that do not make
it on to the list or take one to two days to get there???? I sent one
two days ago and it never made it. The second one I sent took a full
24 hours to show up. The one sent a day ago has not made it either.
Something is rotten in Denmark I am afraid.

Turk

----- Original Message -----

From: Mike Town

To: southbendlathe@...

Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 9:00 PM

Subject: [southbendlathe] Re: 1931 8 Jr. is here

Hi Dennis,
Thank you for posting the handle of the ebay seller that messed up
your 8". Word of mouth is so important for us ebay buyers.

I have just posted some photos of my 1933 8" junior in the
Southbendlathepix2 group under "Tinman's 8" Junior.

http://finance.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/southbendlathe2/photos/browse
/e9c0?c

My lathe was originally blue-gray, but someone in my family spray
painted it black. I suspect that the old timers thought that all
South Bend lathe should be black like the 1920's machines that they
were used to. Luckily for me, most of the black has worn off, and I
helped it along in some places by scraping with a hard wood stick.
Some day when I have a second lathe for regular use, I'd like to
disassemble this one and repaint it with the original color.

Mike

Are many home shop people using 3/16 inch square tooling these days?
How about 5/16 inch square tooling?
What is the most popular square tooling size?
Thanks
TimQ

Are many home shop people using 3/16 inch square tooling these days?
How about 5/16 inch square tooling?
What is the most popular square tooling size?
Thanks
TimQ

-----Original Message-----
From: southbendlathe@... [mailto:southbendlathe@...]On Behalf Of Dennis Turk
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 4:54 PM
To: southbendlathe@...
Subject: [southbendlathe] Re: Extra oil holes in South Bend lathe bearing caps -- don't do it

Hi John

OK the bearing you are talking about is called the segmented
bearing. Your comment about all the slots letting the oil leak out
its actually the opposite that happens. These slots are always
being replenished with oil and if you look at it another way your
spindle is receiving a fresh supply of oil about every 3/8 of an
inch around its circumference. The segmented bearings in the 9 inch
workshop lathe can withstand much higher rpm than the plane bore
bearing as has been explained in earlier post on this subject.

One other thing to consider in your war duty heavy ten lathes was
that there was in fact a war going on and brass and copper were in
very short supply. I have always figured that is why you see so
little bronze and copper on war time machines. This was also true
in England at the same time. Think how many bearings for war
machines could be made from just the bearing material used in a
heavy then.

We have found over time that the cast iron segmented bearing will
outlast the bronze plane bore bearing hands down. The only negative
feature of them is they can not be replaced. But on the other hand
how many 40's vintage heavy tens are out there still running with an
excellent spindle but the rest of the lathe is just total junk. One
I know of because I rebuilt it."-))) Just some more thoughts on
bronze versus cast iron bearings.

Turk