I bet there's more people than me that acquire old vintage machinery. There is no better way to make parts for your jalopy than using a vintage machine. This could be considered a gloat thread in some cases, cause old machinery always shows up at pennies on the dollar. I just found another lathe at a local online auction. It's a South Bend 10L, or what is referred to as a Heavy 10. These are kind of cool machines to make parts and most people have enough space for one as well as being able to adapt easily to 120v. This is a 3 phase machine as it sits. I will run a VFD on it most likely. These are pretty desirable for home shops. I think this is from the 1958, the same year I was born! Cabinet might be a different year, that's not clear...but the difference in color makes me believe the cabinet and lathe might be from different years. (the is the crappy pic from the auction) Here's some shots I took. It came with metric transposition gears, which are hard to find. This is nice if your jalopy has metric on it...that $#!T happens, DAMHIKT. This doesn't have a tailstock. Has a camlock spindle, toggle clutch, hardened bed, a steady rest, a couple D1-4 backplates, face plate, dog plate, taper attachment, and all in all in pretty decent shape and will clean up nicely. I'll need to get a tailstock, but have one for another Heavy 10 taken apart. This one will stay together just as it is. I won't bore you with machinery I already own, but if you're interested I have a page over on VintageMachinery.org with my machines. http://vintagemachinery.org/members/detail.aspx?id=3052 That said, SHOW ME YOUR VINTAGE MACHINERY!
I like old machinery. I still have & use the lathe often, but I donated the mill to The Museum ofTransportation in Rochester, NY. Brainard horizontal mill, circa 1908: mill1 by TagMan, on Flickr 1947 SouthBend 13"x60": SBL3 by TagMan, on Flickr
TagMan, I like that mill, it's very interesting. Those 13" South Bends are good machines, no doubt. In many ways the South Bend lathes are simplistic technology, but it works. That's a good size, my main lathe is a Rivett 1020 which has a 13-1/2" swing. I only have 20" center to center though...this new 10L will get 27" though. The 13" chews up a bit more space for the headstock but you can still get almost 30" between centers as I recall, but haven't checked that out in a while. South Bends are pretty practical, you can make many of the parts on the lathe itself.
That South Bend lathe is a twin to mine that I bought over 30 years ago for $500 and it has not cost me a penny in repairs. I use it all the time, them things are bulletproof. I also have a Milwaukee 2H vertical mill that was made in the early forties.
Those 2H mills are nice also. I have 2 horizontal mills with vertical heads, one is a Nichols from the 40s. Another is a Deckel from the 60s. Not as big as your 2H, but both are pretty capable mills. I use the Deckel mostly, a much nicer machine. Can't go wrong with a South Bend, possibly the most popular metalworking lathe produced on the planet! (I did say most popular not the best )
I have a SB heavy 10 with the taper attachment, but it also has the gap-bed option. I did 2 & 1/2 hours very minor body/paint work on a guys Durango and he swapped me the lathe. I also have a 40s-50s? horizontal milling machine that I got for $75 and spent 75 more for a phase convertor. I'll take a look at the brand name, I thought it starts with a N.. maybe not.... lol EDIT, I did look and it is a Nichols
Forgot to add a pic of my circa 1950 Craftsman bandsaw I bought from a garage sale for $10.00 and the cabinet for $15 at another garage sale. Can't remember where I got the motor. The bandsaw was missing the guide/blade back-up block, so I made one for it. I've had it for 20-years and it works great. 0317191322 (2) by TagMan, on Flickr
Must be a larger lathe, the gap beds were on the larger 14-1/2" and 16" lathes as I recall, but I could certainly be wrong. That sounds like it was a great deal for you! I have some extra parts if you're missing anything. I don't have a lot, but do have a few things as I parted a Nichols out a few years back. I have a vertical head for mine also, it's a great little machine, pretty stout, and doesn't take up very much footprint. The motors are what goes out most commonly, they had a Mastergear motor that stepped down the speed with gearing. Very interesting how they designed the mill, the head pivots with the motor. Good little mills.
I do have a newer 18" Jet Bandsaw, and it works well, but I always keep my eyes open in the wild for a Yates-American 30" or 36" bandsaw. I love those old C-frame saws. Really good machines. I have several Yates-American machines, but those "snowflake" bandsaws are some of the best in class. I have a Yates-American G-89 table saw, it has a 5HP direct drive motor and will spin an 18" blade! A machine to respect!
TTW, you don’t happen to have any parts for a Small Clausing Radial arm drill do you? I bought one several years ago and the guy though he’d help me by trying to slide it out of his shop and tipped it over bending the lead screw and dial. Still took it, but was pissed, haven’t used it because of that. Bones
That I don't, but that sounds like a machine I'd like to have...but some of them get pretty big. I'm getting low on space, like EVERYWHERE...I had to put a tarp over the South Bend I just got until I can shuffle some stuff around and make some space under cover...it's probably time to get rid of some stuff... You might be able to fix that lead screw. Keith Fenner has some great YouTube videos of straightening lead screws and similar. Those radial drills are very top heavy.
Thanks, Allan, this one I have is a table top model, rather small, that’s why I went ahead and took it. I got it and a 12 inch Clausing lath and a pick up truck full of tooling. It was a package deal. I do have a large ( to me ) Cincinnati Radial arm drill for sale. Works good, just have no use for it.
Too bad you're not closer, I'd probably try to get that radial arm drill...but alas it's too far, too heavy, too much work...(I guess I'm getting old! LOL) That looks like a nice machine.
That’s the breaks! Seems like everything I want or any bargin is 2000 miles away. An old machinist here in town bought this machine for one big job, used it, smeared grease all over the column and the ways to preserve it. I got it in a package deal and have never used it. I got three lathes, three milling machines, two Radial arm drills, one Swedish gear drive drill press, two presses, and a truck load of tooling. I gathered all this over the years, thinking I would put in a backyard machine shop when I retired. I worked as a machinist back in the seventies and loved it. But now that I’m retired, I don’t do much of anything but travel. Bones
I have a band saw like that. It's so loud the local airport called to complain they can't hear their jets landing when I turn this on.
I just bought this Dalton lathe. It was built in the early 20's. I had never heard of Dalton but found a great Yahoo group dedicated to the brand and learned a lot more about them.
The Dalton lathes were very similar to function and feature as the old South Bend lathes. There are many types of lathes that fall into this category. Just in case you haven't been here, the U.K. Lathe site has some pages dedicated to the Dalthon lathes. Is your lathe a Type B ? http://www.lathes.co.uk/dalton/index.html
I have a DeWalt 735 porta-potty planer. I like to say that machine is so loud it clears animals and pets out of a 2 mile radius when I turn it on...That porta-potty planer and DeWalt sliding miter saw are without a doubt the 2 noisiest machines I own. Do NOT use them without hearing protection, period.
Here’s a picture of a mill I converted and modified to sharpen lawn blades. After you sharpen one side, back it off, remembering your setting, spin the blade to the other side, grind to the previous setting..... matched and balanced blade! And you can choose your angle of cut by raising or lowering the blade! Used it in my lawn mower sales and service business. Bones
That's pretty cool. I own quite a bit of Foley equipment, as I make handsaws and the retoother is something I couldn't do without, unless I found another way to stamp teeth in spring steel. However, they had several different machines that would sharpen lawnmower blades as I recall. I like yours though, nothing like DIY!
I remember Dennis Turk restoring some Daltons that were really nice. He is mostly known for his South Bend restorations, but has done a few Daltons as well. Nice lathes, that apron is nice!
Many of the Best old manufacturing companies that made woodworking equipment went out of business not because of being profitable but because of their equipment not having the correct type of guards and shut offs to meet the OS-HA regulations for safety. Once they went out of business they were no longer the liability problems of getting sued. Many of the Best old companies changed their name and the way their equipment was manufactured to meet the new OSHA guidelines and went back into production. I can remember going into mill working shops and seeing the live axle running the length ceiling in the building with the belt coming down from the ceiling running table saws, molding head cutters, sanders and many other types of equipment and thinking I would not want to be in this shop when the belt broke! Back in those day's the equipment did not have any guards or cages around the belt or anything else. Back in the mid 60's the shops door was always kept locked and you had to knock first and then someone would open the door a small crack to see it was there first before letting anyone in because they did not want to get closed down. The old equipment simply did not have many safety features back in those days. Jimbo
Don’t get me wrong, I’m for safety and guards on chains and pulleys, etc. But there comes a time you need to lookout for yourself. There is no way practical to put a guard on, say a spinning lathe chuck and a cutting tool or the working end of a sawall. Folks need to pay attention to what they’re doing. I think in the past workers did that more than we do today. I think sometimes “they”take it a little too far..... I hate those trigger locks on a ton of stuff ,now that you have to flip before you can pull the trigger. Bones
This is all deja vu for me. I have several Yates-American machines, some of the best woodworking machines built, IMO. I have a G-89 Table saw, it's an industrial 5HP direct drive table saw that will spin an 18" blade, although the manual cautions against it as the motor spins at 3600 RPM, they suggested to use a 16" blade. I just called up YA as they do still exist in Beloit, WI...I was able to track down a lady that was in charge of all of the old marketing material, I guess they kept it in file cabinets. It was really hard to get a hold of her, took me a couple months of continual calling, but I finally got a hold of her. She was really nice and sent me a copy of the brochure for the G-89 table saw (I posted it on VintageMachinery.org). Some of the folks over on what was owwm.com, notably the Snelling Bros who lived in WI were dumbfounded how I had got that brochure. So everyone started to call "Sarah", trying to track down old info for their YA machines...the next thing I knew a cease and desist letter arrived for both my YA table saw and my YA jointer informing me that my machines no long met OSHA regulations. It also stated that YA no longer supported the machines as they didn't meet currant OSHA regulations, blah-blah-blah... That machine is a beast, it is a machine to respect. The Government used them to build airplanes during WWII. Most of the interior was done with wood in those days. They also built a lot of boat interiors also with them. The motor is direct connect so the blade attaches to the motor arbor shaft. The saw originally had a large heavy metal blade guard that had a large support holding it over the blade, allowing for adjustment. All the parts were big and heavy, I have them off the saw. However, the actual guard itself was all gnawed up from the blade, so the guard had fallen on the blade many times and you could tell that shrapnel had flown off the guard...I didn't think it was even safe to use...it had come from the Navy origially, they bought it April 26, 1944. This was 1 year before the war ended, and the machine weighs 1600 lbs. of mostly cast iron. Amazing that America could scrounge up metal like that during the war...
Old woodworking machines were great they just did not have all the new safety protection that is required under law today. OHSA has a field day when they find someone using old woodworking tools in a business. A two prong extension cord on a commercial job for the first offense will cost you $3,500 dollars. I have seen this happen to a good friend of mine. Jimbo
On my SB lathe ID... I called it a heavy 10 in this thread only because it was ID'd by somebody on hamb a few years ago. But it may not be. What numbers do I need to post here to know what it really is. I looked a few days ago and I think the "model" shows just an A stamped in the spot on the tag, listed as "Model".. there were other things stamped on that tag, mostly numbers I think, but not for a model number. .
The Jalopy Journal
