Help with SB lathe info?

[Doc Nickel]

Somebody posted this lathe here on the board a few days ago- it's a 14" South Bend and it's here in Alaska less than 180 road miles away. (Whoever posted it, you're a sadistic bastard, you know that? )

I don't need another lathe at the moment (I have two Logans that run well) but it does have a couple of features I'd like, such as the Camlok chuck, slightly larger thru-hole, variable speed and almost certainly improved rigidity over the 11" Logan.

I'm hurtin' for money at the moment, and have more important things to purchase, but this is very tempting. It's American, for one, and it's about the same cost as a 12" or 14" import but already close enough I can drive over and pick it up.

Anyone know what kind of speed ranges this thing has? Number of feeds? Can it take a 5C closer? MT2 or 3 on the tailstock? Gearhead or belt drive? About what would it weigh?

And alkso, what do you think that Brown & Sharpe surface grinder in the backkground is worth?

Doc.

[ERBenoit]

Identical to the lathes we had in shop in trade school. It has been some time (14 years), here is what I can recall. I hope it is right. If I remeber correctly:
1) It is belt drive.
2) #3 M/T in the tailstock.
3) The spindle taper I beleive was propritary. Needed an adapter for centers.
4)Threads/feeds many, don't recall exacly how many. If I recall correctly you could cut between 4-244 T.P.I. I remember one time having to re-arrange two gears in the gear train for some reason, can't remember why though. Maybe to obtain such a wide range of threads.
5)Thru-hole is about 1 1/2" or 1 5/8".
6)They were variable speed drives, spindle speeds about 30 or 50 to 2200 or 2400 R.P.M. The hole in the lower left of the cabinet SHOULD have a handle sticking out of it, that was to select high/low speed range. I would find out why it is not there. (Maybe I should have READ the info with the picture BEFORE I typed this statement!!!)
7)The knob in the center of the headstock is for forward reverse direction of the leadscrew.
8)The ones we had in school did not have collet closers on them. I would suspect they are availiable though.
9)Weight, not sure maybe 1,500#.

They were nice lathes, I liked them.

[precisionworks]

Doc,

It's a gearhead. Spec on current SBL G-26-T 13" lathe look almost identical:

http://www.southbendlathe.com/g26t.htm

You might want to call SBL at 1-800-245-2843, they are really good at digging out info on any of the machines they've made during the past 20 to 30 years.



------------------
Barry Milton

[precisionworks]

ER, saw your reply after I posted. I stated gearhead only because current machine is...

[Doc Nickel]

Thanks for the info.

ERB- Is it a fairly rigid machine, in your experience? About how large is it, physically speaking? (I have an 11" Logan, that's roughly comparable to the older 9" Southbends in overall physical volume, but with a shorter bed.)

Doc.

[Dee]

Hey Doc
I traded up from a model 922 11x36 Logan to a 13x40 South Bend and I was very impressed with the difference!

[ERBenoit]

Doc,
If I remember correctly, overall size, (cabinet floor space), was about 6'x3' stood about 4'high. Rigidity, as I had said they were in a school shop, they were rugged enough for the use they had gotten there. The lathes did anyting the school shop exposed them to. I believe they would stand up to light industrial use. My opinion, unless the lathe is "used", they are not junk, you would probably not want to take a 1/2" DOC in steel. Not saying they couldn't, I never tried to. The bed was well made, had some mass to it. I had made a wood working vice while in school. I was easily able to turn the screw for the vice between centers. If I recall correctly, the screw was 24" long. I think they were capable of 36" or 40" between centers. I had went back to the school about three years after I had graduated to have some gears made. I figured someone let me learn, I will let someone else learn, that is a different story. Anyhow, ALL of the shop equipment that was there when I graduated was GONE. Replaced with imported junk. Easy to tell it was junk, most of it in some state of disassembly for repair. I do not know where the machinery went. If it was storaged or auctioned, who knows. I would have wanted to get one of the SB fourteen's, in particular one with a taper attachment. The lathe in the picture does not have one.