Overhaul of a 9" SB model "A"

steamer · 05-08-2011, 10:55 AM

Good Morning,

I've begun the excercise in overhauling and modifying a 9" Southbend Model "A" long bed for use with small engine parts and clocks. This will be a long thread I am sure.
The lathe came to me as a "freeby" from a family member. It looks ugly at the moment, but underneath it really is in pretty good shape.

Changes and additions will include:

New "T" slotted cross slide and leadscrew nut
Full set of 3C collets ( I have most, but need a few)
Albreicht Drill chuck
Vertical milling slide
High speed mill/drill spindle using 8mm WW collets
Spindle indexing plate
AXA tool mount to share tooling I have already with my "Big" lathe,
Custom Faceplate
Steady rest
Fusee Cutting Jig
New roll around bench of proper height for the work to be done
All new lubrication wicks.
Auxillary spindle drive for high speed spindle for "wheel cutting" and drilling.
Complete tear down , refurbish and paint.

Here's a couple of happy hours worth of work ona MLA cross slide casting....it's begun!

Dave

steamer · 05-08-2011, 11:07 AM

Andy's castings machine "like buttah"...

NICE iron!

Dave

BillC · 05-08-2011, 11:29 AM

I always thought that the MLA cross slide was a very good addition to a lathe. Seems that the far side of the 'normal' cross slide was sort of a waste of good usable space for additional tooling or fixturing. It makes the machine so much more versatile. The back cutoff set-up is one of the benefits...

An old 12" Atlas Craftsman became available a few years ago (no comparison to a SB) so I bought it and began setting it up. I noticed right away that machining toward the headstock was not quite the same as machining away from the headstock. The saddle was removed and scrutinized this way and that, and I found that the saddle wings had warped. The four legged stool syndrome - teeter totter - by about .050" as I recall. Never could understand why except that there were loose slide clamps to free it up - in one direction...So, Atlas used green castings! I believe the reasons for a company's demise will eventually surface - they were producing lathes to a price rather than any sign of quality....I repaired it, put needle bearings in the jockey clutch shaft (underdrive) so lubrication did some good, fixed some other things on the machine, used it for a while and sold it!

You'll have a good stout lathe when you're finished with it - a lathe with a pedigree and then some!

BillC.

steamer · 05-08-2011, 11:32 AM

Thanks Bill,

I'm counting on it. I have a few lathes, My 12" Logan is my "go to" lathe for just about everything, but I'd like one that is set up for small work....this one came to me, so SB it is!

Dave

Oh and yea...gotta put the compound lock screws in too....

BillC · 05-08-2011, 11:52 AM

I like cast iron! I finally gathered up what I would need to 'graduate' to cast iron in my foundry and it was the best thing I ever did. The only thing is that it takes a bit more intestinal fortitude to step up to a seething white hot crucible of 40 lbs of cast iron! I melt a little less frequently nowadays but I made use of cast iron for many, many projects and replacement parts. I made a taper attachment for that 12" Atlas...of (green) cast iron but it machined very nicely... I used radiator and boiler iron scrap - it pours like aluminum....just a darned site hotter!

BillC

steamer · 05-14-2011, 06:46 PM

All done except for the dovetails...those come next, but I need to take the existing table off first and measure it....I'll need some good dowel pins first.

After that I'll scrape the bottom of the dovetail to the surface plate and the guiding parts to the saddle.

Dave

Groomengineering · 05-16-2011, 03:18 AM

Looks good Dave! I have the same cross-slide and it's handy, handy, handy.

Cheers

Jeff

steamer · 05-17-2011, 01:11 AM

Thanks for the interest and support Jeff!

I am having an issue with my Mill. It would appear that the table has a bit of a hump in it. This happens with old mills as the T-slots have been repeatedly reefed on, it compresses the iron in the T slots facing the wings of the T-nuts. When this happens , the metal has no where to go by sideways. If you don't believe it, take a Ruby red block eraser and draw a grid on the side of it with a pen. Then squeeze it, and watch it grow in the other direction.

Anyway, my cross slide has about .002" bow to it now. I am currently scraping the bottom to my surface plate to correct that. Then I will scrape the top flat and parallel to the bottom at the ends only.

Next I'll mount the cross slide back on the mill resting on parallels and writing paper strips as packing to bridge the hump and minimize the distortion. Then, I'll cut the dovetails. Any distortion left will be scraped out during fitting to the saddle of the lathe.

Dave

Groomengineering · 05-17-2011, 04:26 AM

Not to get too far off topic, but it could be worse...

The planer vise that came with my shaper

Ouch!

A bigger hammer never does t-slots any good

I'll post a repair thread if I ever get it done

Cheers

Jeff

peatoluser · 05-17-2011, 04:32 PM

Much as i love reading the model building threads, I have a great admiration for craftsman with the skill and patience to restore old machine tools.
I look forward to following your progress. from the pictures of your waltham lathe restoration, you certainly have some skill with a scraper.
one question tho, what is a fusee cutting jig?

yours

peter