Detailed South Bend 9 inch Lathe Drawings and Information?

[arborpress]

I'm currently working on piecing together a South Bend 9a Lathe from individual parts I've been collecting. I've been getting parts whenever I see them go for cheap on ebay (because I'm a poor college kid).
Anyway, my biggest difficulty thus far has been locating a bed that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. My initial idea is to cast my own out of aluminum. I know it won't be nearly as strong as the cast iron, and I will probably make it shorter than the full 3 foot bed length, but I think it is doable. I can machine the casting in the machine shop at my school.
I have found that there are no goo dimensional drawings of these old lathes. Can anybody help me out with some dimensions or sketches?

 

[Mosey]

No, but there are many old 9"SB lathes floating around, cheap. The trick is to find one with some ways left.
Mosey

 

[Wizard69]

I'm currently working on piecing together a South Bend 9a Lathe from individual parts I've been collecting. I've been getting parts whenever I see them go for cheap on ebay (because I'm a poor college kid).
Anyway, my biggest difficulty thus far has been locating a bed that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. My initial idea is to cast my own out of aluminum. I know it won't be nearly as strong as the cast iron, and I will probably make it shorter than the full 3 foot bed length, but I think it is doable. I can machine the casting in the machine shop at my school.
I have found that there are no goo dimensional drawings of these old lathes. Can anybody help me out with some dimensions or sketches?

Sadly I must admit to having no idea just how big a 9A might be. You can of course cast your own bed from Aluminum. In case you haven't heard of them there are a entire series of machines built from cast aluminum. Look up Gingery machines to see some interesting works. As far as strength goes you can do just as well as iron if you out enough metal in the right places. Lets face it cast iron isn't exactly one of the strongest materials known to man.

That being said you might consider making a mold for a commercial foundry to cast in iron. Why? No need to attach ways for one. Better vibration damping for another. An iron casting won't be cheap though but it would give you a base to build on that would last. Since you have access to a shop machining the casting shouldn't be a problem.

Another option is steel tubing filled with epoxy granite.

***********

The biggest problem with pouring your own bed is that it is a lot of metal. Volume and weight wise you would need help even with Aluminum. More so you will want to keep the bed length as a common problem on small lathes is not having enough distance between centers.

 

[arborpress]

Thanks for the tips. I looked at the gingery a little. I'll have too look further into it. The 9c has a bed that is 9 by 36 inches btw. I'm not sure how big a gingery is, but even that looks like a lot of metal.

I saw an instructables post that somebody made while building a gingery. They used an alloy of Zinc and Aluminum. I think that would be a lot easier for me to do than just aluminum. Stronger too. Does anybody have any experience or opinions regarding this alloy?

 

[drysdam]

I don't think a single person could safely lift and pour that big a crucible.

However, you can find complete junk SB lathes on craigslist all the time. I've seen rusty piles go for as low as $100. You aren't going to pour a bed for less than twice that after building a furnace, getting a crucible, getting quality aluminum, etc.

You can probably salvage a bed and even more from one of these machines. Electrolysis and elbow grease...

Also, join the southbendlathe mailing list. I bet you can find people who would be willing to sell a bed from their own part heaps. I personally know a guy on there with at least 4 SB lathes at all times, in various states of repair.

 

[GWRdriver]

You aren't going to pour a bed for less than twice that after building a furnace, getting a crucible, getting quality aluminum, etc.

I absolutely agree with this . . and after you're done the machine won't perform nearly as well as you hope it would. If I was doing this I would be looking for an old bed and then to having it hardened and reground. Then (all else being equal) you would have superb little machine that will last you for decades, long after the momentary pain of bed cost has been forgotten.

 

[arborpress]

I've been searching craigslist constantly for the last couple months. Nothing really within 5 hours of me (akron, Ohio).
I'll check out that an site.

 

[GWRdriver]

Patience, Grasshopper. You and the bed you are destined to have will find each other in time.
I know THAT made you feel better, but I believe that's true. You are in a FAR more fertile area for machine tool bits than I am, so there have been a number of things I've had to wait quite a long time to find. But eventually patience paid off, very often with much better results than I ever hoped for.

My last such find was a NOS 2.75" column (in preservative) for a Rockwell 15-000 floor model drill press. I had been keeping my eye open for one for years, and I did find them, rusty and/or beaten up, or like-new (maybe) but ghastly expensive, and then finally there it was, in upstate NY, - New and ridiculously cheap.

 

[arborpress]

Patience, Grasshopper. You and the bed you are destined to have will find each other in time.

Good advice. I guess that's all I can do anyway. The bed just seems pretty rare at the moment. Only one on ebay and it's almost 300 bucks...
I registered on the South Bend yahoo group and I'll keep my eyes open on Craigslist.

 

[Tin Falcon]

The south bend 9" is a strange beast as far as value I purchased mine only to find out if I had been in the right place University of penn at the right time Two weeks before I called them I could had a couple for free. . be creative . the sb nine can be had anywhere from free to well over a thousand dollars.
Tin

 

[Tin Falcon]

The South bend brand and all the blue prints are owned by grizzly tools. contact them they may be able to supply a copy of the real blue print. Worth a try.
Tin

 

[arborpress]

I took a look at their website, and while they do have all of the original blueprints, they make it very clear that they are not available to the public unfortunately

 

[drysdam]

Don't forget to search for the "light 10" aka the "10K" as well. Same bed, different swing.

And ebay probably isn't a great place to search. You have to compete with the entire world there. Craigslist is much more local. But even then, I watched for a year before I got my lathe..and it wasn't even from there! It was from a casual comment made to someone in a completely different context.

Maybe contact some machining clubs or hackerspaces.

 

[Niels Abildgaard]

Hello Arborpress

Please find the following drawings of a Boxford bed that probably is a copy of Southbend.
If I had acces to machinery as You have,I would machine (mill,caseharden and grind )the guiding profiles and screw them onto a piece of concrete or granite.It will be miles better than anything You can buy..
I have gone somme off that road but is getting to old to go on further.
Kind regards
Niels

 

[arborpress]

Wow, what an interesting idea! That bed certainly looks similar. Can anyone confirm the match?