Shran
Junk Collector
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V8 Engine Swap
Solid Axle Swap
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I've sorta been looking for a lathe. My requirements were pretty specific - no Chinese junk, single phase power, small enough that I can move it but big enough to be useful... I found this yesterday for $1200:
I haven't looked up the manufacture date yet but I'm guessing late 1950's maybe, early 50's and prior had no belt guard. It is a South Bend Model A with (I believe) a 3' bed. Pretty cool little machine, it has a quick change gear box for threading plus power feed and crossfeed. It came with 3 and 4 jaw chucks, brand new live center & drill chuck, 5 brand new tool holders and a couple carbide tools. I have some HSS tooling for it already. I got it from a guy who is moving across the country and didn't want to take it - he said he got it from a friend in Minnesota who got a bunch of these from a school and rebuilt the good ones from parts from the broken ones and I guess this was one of the good ones.
I ran it a bit yesterday and it seems to work pretty well. It has definitely seen some use and needed some cleaning & oiling but for my purposes it'll be fine. I'm not a huge fan of how the motor is mounted off the back as that makes it hard to find a spot in my shop for it so it ended up at an angle. I'll live with it - I think it's happy there.
I haven't looked up the manufacture date yet but I'm guessing late 1950's maybe, early 50's and prior had no belt guard. It is a South Bend Model A with (I believe) a 3' bed. Pretty cool little machine, it has a quick change gear box for threading plus power feed and crossfeed. It came with 3 and 4 jaw chucks, brand new live center & drill chuck, 5 brand new tool holders and a couple carbide tools. I have some HSS tooling for it already. I got it from a guy who is moving across the country and didn't want to take it - he said he got it from a friend in Minnesota who got a bunch of these from a school and rebuilt the good ones from parts from the broken ones and I guess this was one of the good ones.
I ran it a bit yesterday and it seems to work pretty well. It has definitely seen some use and needed some cleaning & oiling but for my purposes it'll be fine. I'm not a huge fan of how the motor is mounted off the back as that makes it hard to find a spot in my shop for it so it ended up at an angle. I'll live with it - I think it's happy there.