New tools you've bought recently?

[Shran]

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.

 

[Rick W]

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:
View attachment 110239

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.
View attachment 110240

Would it be hard to move the motor underneath? Maybe by adding an an idler shaft/pulley to loop the belt up close behind?

 

[Shran]

Would it be hard to move the motor underneath? Maybe by adding an an idler shaft/pulley to loop the belt up close behind?

I'm sure there's a way to do it, and in fact they sold this lathe mounted to a cabinet and the motor was mounted below and somehow the belt ran down there. How that was accomplished, I have no idea. I'm sure I could figure out out but the motor is on a pivot with a lever for belt tension and it all works pretty well... at the moment I think I'll just leave it alone and think about it before I try to reinvent the machine. I may have an epiphany sometime in the future of how to make it work well. The belt tension feature has to work perfectly because switching pulleys is how you change speeds.

 

[Sharky]

my buddy the gunsmith has 1 just like that for years. he uses it a lot

 

[Rick W]

I'm sure there's a way to do it, and in fact they sold this lathe mounted to a cabinet and the motor was mounted below and somehow the belt ran down there. How that was accomplished, I have no idea. I'm sure I could figure out out but the motor is on a pivot with a lever for belt tension and it all works pretty well... at the moment I think I'll just leave it alone and think about it before I try to reinvent the machine. I may have an epiphany sometime in the future of how to make it work well. The belt tension feature has to work perfectly because switching pulleys is how you change speeds.

i’m not joking on this, but is that a cinderblock wall? What’s behind the wall? Can you take out two or three blocks so the motor nests in there?

As always, hope it helps,

EDIT: or move the motor above it? What about putting it 90° from the wall, where it sticks out into the room, but you could get closer to the wall when operating it? Would it fit better in a corner, swap it with something else? Just blue skying….

 

[Rick W]

Another afterthought. When I built my shop, I have a stick welder. I mounted it about six or 7 feet off the floor, and I had some longer than usual leads (20’ neg, 50’ pos?). I have to step on a stool to operate it, but I don’t change the settings/use it that much typically.

I was going to do the same thing with my air compressor, mount it up in the air, but I coincidentally had a dead spot under one of my work benches, and it fits in there.

Point being, don’t forget to consider vertical spaces for whatever. I’m not talking about taking stuff up and down, but does it have to sit on the floor? Or maybe there are bulky items that you only used once in a blue moon, put them on a high shelf.

Again, just blue skying…

 

[mikkelstuff]

I'm jealous. I've wanted a 10" Logan lathe forever. Just need to convince the wife that I really need it!

What swing is that South Bend? Dad had an 8" South Bend. Rebuilt it and ran it for years.

 

[Shran]

i’m not joking on this, but is that a cinderblock wall? What’s behind the wall? Can you take out two or three blocks so the motor nests in there?

As always, hope it helps,

EDIT: or move the motor above it? What about putting it 90° from the wall, where it sticks out into the room, but you could get closer to the wall when operating it? Would it fit better in a corner, swap it with something else? Just blue skying….

Nope it's a 2x6 wall full of insulation & sheathed with OSB. I'm sure I'll come up with a better place for it... I would really like to tear my shed down and use that space for an addition to the shop - would be my machine shop room/reloading spot... but I like the shed... and then I'd have to find a place for all the junk in the shed.

Where it's at will work OK until I figure out something better. I just need to stare at it for a while and it'll work itself out.

I'm jealous. I've wanted a 10" Logan lathe forever. Just need to convince the wife that I really need it!

What swing is that South Bend? Dad had an 8" South Bend. Rebuilt it and ran it for years.

I bet his was pretty similar, this one is a 9".

 

[Shran]

I also just bought the "How to Run a Lathe" book that was written by the guys who designed my machine. Looking forward to reading that, it's supposed to be one of the best resources out there.

Fun fact - I watched a couple videos where a guy was running a lathe like mine at super low speeds for threading purposes. I was bummed because his had 4 steps on the main pulley shaft and mine only has three. Well, as it turns out, mine has two steps on the motor and idler that are hidden by the belt guard. I just happened to see that last night so I tried it and it does run way slower - nice to know! I think I have also figured out most of the controls now too.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Welding wire showed up today

 

[Curious Hound]

I also just bought the "How to Run a Lathe" book that was written by the guys who designed my machine. Looking forward to reading that, it's supposed to be one of the best resources out there.

Fun fact - I watched a couple videos where a guy was running a lathe like mine at super low speeds for threading purposes. I was bummed because his had 4 steps on the main pulley shaft and mine only has three. Well, as it turns out, mine has two steps on the motor and idler that are hidden by the belt guard. I just happened to see that last night so I tried it and it does run way slower - nice to know! I think I have also figured out most of the controls now too.

I’m jealous

 

[RobbieD]

Dude; you're pretty wired.

Be careful!

 

[Curious Hound]

Dude; you're pretty wired.

Be careful!

Bad pun! Penalty in the forum!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Dude; you're pretty wired.

Be careful!

That’s only a drop in the bucket. These are the smallest rolls my big welder will take without running a spool gun. They’re the biggest rolls my small welder will take. The big welder had a 44# spool in it that just ran out the other day, all four of these rolls are still 4# short of that…

 

[pjtoledo]

I also just bought the "How to Run a Lathe" book that was written by the guys who designed my machine. Looking forward to reading that, it's supposed to be one of the best resources out there.

Fun fact - I watched a couple videos where a guy was running a lathe like mine at super low speeds for threading purposes. I was bummed because his had 4 steps on the main pulley shaft and mine only has three. Well, as it turns out, mine has two steps on the motor and idler that are hidden by the belt guard. I just happened to see that last night so I tried it and it does run way slower - nice to know! I think I have also figured out most of the controls now too.

youtubes "this old Tony" has some good lathe videos, including grinding tool bits