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Wesley, I will measure my SB tomorrow, I just got one that was built in 1955 and it is a 13 1/2" swing with 5" riser blocks, got the steady rest, follow rest, milling attachment, tool post grinder, face plate, large and small and several chucks, look at the gears there is no wear on them, told it was sitting in a shop since 1960 because of a lathe miss hap, they put in don't even touch in that shop, I have a reamer but It might be a #5 Morse Taper if that will work we will make arrangements to get it to you, Joe
 
Update ,have made the taper for the spindle and am very pleased with it,now l was going to put a mt3 taper in to it but as l am going to make a collet chuck ( read in the other post collets ) as well for the lathe , l have had a straight shank centre for ages just sitting ,so l drilled an reamed the taper sleave then fitted the centre in ,works a treat,have also marked it so the taper is fitted in the same place each time plus made a draw bar to hold it in the right place,also have now got hold of a face plate that l have never had before ,but will need to re thread it 2 1/4" x 6 tpi ,so will now be able to turn between centres and use the face plate as a drive plate as well.
So am off to start making a dummy spindle and a test plug for the register ,and to think its come off from help from this forum and the bodge from norm
wes
 
Just a comment on turning between centers. Even though I have the spindle adapter, hardened centers and both face and dog driving plates, more often than not I will just keep my 3 or 4 jaw chuck on and chuck up/true up a soft center with a straight shank and use the chuck jaws to drive the lathe dog. It works great and runs perfectly true since I touch up the 60 degree point each time I do it. And it might even be quicker than removing the chuck, installing the dog driving plate, installing the center, etc. Just pointing out there is more than one way to skin a cat.

YMMV,
Ted
 
After seeing your photos of your lathe it is much older than the SBL catalog 14 1/2" I looked up but did show #3 taper.
The catalog I looked at was from the 50s or 60s..what year do you think your lathe is from.?
 
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Not sure where Wesley is located but Busy Bee Tools in Canada list a set of 11 #3 Morse taper collets for $199 Canadian. Their product number is B360 with free shipping, presumably in Canada. Sizes are 1/8" to 3/4" in 1/16" steps. Individual sizes are $20 each.
 
That was nice of you ron,l am in the uk ,l have a box of 24 mt3 collets now ,so next step is make a collet chuck that screws on the spindle ,so am making a dummy spindle so l get the thread right.
 
Packrat, I have the originally sales receipt and I would be the third owner it was built in 1955, South Bend sold it with the 5" riser blocks and ever attachment that was offered, now to get her looking good again.
 
You did a beautiful job cleaning up those gears. How did you achieve such a great result.

Is there some magic snake oil involved?
 
All use made South Bend lathes are more taper
The size I think is #4 Morse sleeve to #3 Morse
Not to make or buy I use a sleeve 2 to 3 morse from shars.com on my 9SB

Some spindle and or tail stocks need the Morse clean too.

If looking for a 5 C adapter for that let me know I still have one from 16sb
I also have the South Bend How to Run a Lathe too. When I had shop I would buy the books by the box to give to new employees running lathes.

Dave


Hi all am in need of help with my southbend lathe a 14 1/2" - 16" my problem is the taper in the spindle nose ,want to fit mt tooling in it ie collet chuck can any one help out here with the size etc or is a member willing to make me one ,more than happy to cover costs,there was a firm in the states selling them at one point but the cost when they had one was very high,am happy to do the internal mt taper in fact if l could get blanks would do one in mt2 and mt3, hope a member can help me out ,even had a look to se if there was a gauge that you put in the bore then you could copy that if that makes sense but am still learning this game.

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The taper should be Morse #3, but larger than a typical MT3 tool shank. This was standard practice for SB going at least back to our 1914 16" gap-bed. Early O-series machines had some other odd dimensions which were standardized after WW1. I'm faced with 14DP change gears, and a 2-3/8" 8 TPI spindle thread for instance.
 

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