All my Polish tooling (6" 3 jaw, height gage, etc) have been outstanding good. My experience with Chinesium on the other hand has been terrible, and some of this was obtained through supposedly 'good'

+1 for the 5/8" (or bigger!) chuck recommendation. My 13" has a Jacobs Super Chuck 18N (1/8" to 3/4") on the tail stock's MT3. Of course you'll need something for the under 1/8" but it hasn't been a p

Niels, I couldn't find a photo of my wrench and it's up at the cabin, so I grabbed this one off the 'net. Mine is hardwood and can grab pretty good. Aluminum is good also; I made some aluminum clamp b

N Jen, No, don't tighten up your expanders! You can damage the bearings by over-tightening these. Make up a barrel wrench like shown here (mine is a 2" x 2" hardwood handle 3 feet long with another 4"

Like Webb, I also had to come up with a way to close 5C collets on my 13". I have a Royal lever closer but find the manual wheel type draw tube much easier on onesie twosies. For a handwheel I used a

Guenther Paul wrote: Nov 28 #102143 "Why would one waist all the this time to convert. I bean in machining over 50 years never had a chuck come of in reverse. Yes i machined in reverse many times neve

On the 9" with factory taper attachment, the connecting bar is integral to the cross slide. John

South Bend calls the 'Cross-Feed Tailpiece' the 'connecting bar'. It's this part (at least on a 13"): John

Yes, the Home Shop Machinist article would have a very active copyright! I have scanned it, but file is 18MB (I guess I could do it again at lower resolution). PM me and I can send it. My Canon 9000 s

Thanks Guy for the reality check, I can do better than 2 thou with what I have... John

Mike (animal), I could put a standoff to protect the scale. Plenty of clearance when tool post is in any usable position. On the tailstock side, I frequently need to butt it right up against the saddl

Guy, could you explain about the inaccuracies? I have the large dial but even between that and back lash, I think I would be ahead of the game with the DRO... John

At the Little Machine Shop open house last week I got a good deal on an iGaging DRO for Bridgeport type mill quills. This got me thinking about one for my lathes. My 9" CL644A has a flat milled on the

Jim, yes, bring the Heavy 10's over either here or separately if convenient It bugged me that some guys were still posting over at Yahoo where I couldn't seem to make a post with photo attachment. Gro

Mike Zinn is Lee's Machinery on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LeesMachinery68/

Big Al and others, this is what the OP asked about, not Loctite thread lockers but Loctite Form-A-Thread Stripped Repair Kit. https://www.amazon.com/Loctite-442-28654-4-80ml-Thread-Stripped/dp/B000WSE

Machine Tool Reconditioning is advertised in every issue of the Home Shop Machinist. Yes, expensive at $ 92.95 per copy plus $6.00 US shipping and $20 foreign. http://www.machinetoolpublications.com/

On the South Bend Lube Chart, the reverse gears are supposed to be oiled daily. On my 13", you have to remove the top guard over the spindle by removing two 1/4"-20 screws (the long one on mine has a

Here's a method that doesn't require a precision level... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qIdsnl5vpg John

Mike Allen, it started out as a CL644A shipped in April of 1956 with a standard bolted type reverse tumbler. I bought an 'adapter' that sandwiches between the quick change reverser and the old head st