Never heard of a factory South Bend with anything but bronze bearings
and a back gear. I think they did away with the bronze bearings in
the last 20 years.

Yea, an that's got me kind of confused. Timken roller bearings are cool, but
where did they come from? Could I have a non-original headstock? When I
receive what is supposed to be the manual for this lathe I might learn
something. I'm thinking, though, that the parts diagram I got from James
Early might be all I get, and that DOES NOT show my HS configuration.
Strange but wonderful.

I also have yet to see any mention of "Precision" in the lathe title e.g.
mine is "South Bend Precision Lathe Model A" without"Workshop" as some of
the lower-end ones were. Also, since my serial number (101025) is in the
range of:

"The earliest records show that lathes were numbered sequentially, beginning
with 700, in July, 1910, and ending with 186,514 March, 1947" -- (from SBL
web site)

SBL must be correct in saying that my lathe was first shipped in January of
1941.

Paul R. Hvidston
Upland, CA