Renovation of a 1945 13" South Bend Lathe A.K.A. My Pride and Joy

[moya034]

(note: This content has been posted by me elsewhere on the internet, and has largely been "recycled" for posting here. That being said, I think the membership here will be intersted in this project. I've edited the content as it's all in the past tense now, so please forgive me if I missed something that makes it seem in the present tense.)

Ever since I was a little kid, I have always longed for a metal lathe (I'm 31 now... it took me a few years ). Back in Februrary of 2010 I purchased this off of Craigslist:

It's a 13" South Bend lathe of 1945 vintage. It's a short bed measuring in at 4 feet effectively giving 16" between centers. It's shipping weight is listed as 1460 lbs including the crate. Steve Wells has a 1948 SB catalog posted if you are intersted. My lathe is on page 23. These short bed lathes were popular in schools. I haven't ordered the serial number card from SB yet, but I do know the gentleman I got this from purchased it from the Danbury Mint.

After bringing the machine home, I removed the 1 HP three phase motor and stuck on a very old 1/2 HP single phase motor that was lying around to play with it. Long story short it didn't work well. The bearings were shot, and the only way to start the machine was to wrap a strap around the pulley cone and do a pull start.

I did not run the spindle for too long. Inspection with an infared thermoter revealed the left bearing was starting to overheat. I measured the bearing clearances. The left came in at 0.0015" and the right at 0.0035". South Bend specifications is between 0.001" - 0.002". Since the left bearing is within spec, I assumed that it was having a lubrication problem. As far as the right bearing goes, removing one of the 0.002" shims should bring it into spec.

At this point, I realized that complete disassembly of this lathe had to happen. It was quite dirty, had a bit of rust (no bad corrosion, however), clogged lubrication felts, chips in every crevice imaginable, old lubrication packed with dirt, and an absolutely horrible paint job. It turned out this lathe had 3-7 layers of paint, depending on how easy the part was to remove from the machine. The color was putrid and paint was in places it didn't belong.

After removing the spindle and bearings from the headstock it was evident there was a lubrication issue due to clogged felts. I'm convinced any old SB lathe needs it's spindle pulled to check the felts. The left bearing that had been heating up was covered in varnish, but only had very very light scoring and was completely servicable without any honing. Soaking the bearing in solvent (I forget what I used) removed the varnish relatively easily.

I also found out that my lathe had an incorrect bull gear on it. The 13" had two spindle sizes, mine has the smaller one. Someone had fit a bull gear for the larger spindle on this one with a brass bushing to take up the space. I wasn't crazy about this and found the correct bull gear on ebay. In the image here I was testing it to make sure it was the correct fit, which it was. Not the tape to protect the small bearing journal and take up nut threads while removing the pulley cone and bull gear.

After spindle and headstock disassembly I removed the carriage, gearbox, lead screw, and unbolted the lathe bed from the pedestal and legs. This was the point where the painting phase started. For paint, I chose the Tractor Supply enamal tractor paint. For paint stripping on the lathe bed, pedestal, and leg I used a heat gun with putty knife to get off as much as possible, then gave it several coats of Citristip. Citristip is not the most effective paint stripper out there, but it is without a doubt the most freindly one to the environment and humans.

Once I had bare metal, they got a good bath of acetone. We all hear that you need to use acetone with good ventilation. Let me tell you, that is not a lie. When doing the pedestal I got an acetone headache. Lesson learned!

I have a magic table... you can adjust it's height with a crank handle! This made putting the lathe bed back on the pedestal and legs an easy one man job.

I had preformed an electrolysis experiment on the bull gear gaurd to remove the paint. It worked depsite my terribly primitive setup.

At that point, the next step was to work on the headstock. I had it and the bearing caps blasted by a local poweder coating company. Never did get around to painting it tho. At this point, various life events took me away from the project.

In December of 2010 I purchased a Hitach X200 VFD to run the 3 phase motor.

I still never got back to painting that darn headstock...

Those are all the old surving pics. There were more taken but I had a hard drive failure, and the internet only kept a few of them around.

 

[moya034]

Fast forward to March 2013. The metalworking bug bit me bigger then it ever did before and I decided to finish this project in earnest. On March 23, I cleaned up a work bench and set the headstock down on top of it.

I decided I didn't like the paint color. I was using the Tractor Supply "Ford Tractor Grey" but it looked more like an off color white. I added some black paint to it to get something resembling a battleship grey. The poor lighting of my pics makes the shade of the grey look different between pics.

A quick adverstisement for Marvel's Mystery Oil.. It's more then a fuel and oil additive... this stuff is awesome for cleaning up dirt, rust, and oxidation! With the headstock bolted back on the lathe bed, I rigged up an apparatus to press the bull gear on the spindle:

It was a failure. I thought I was going to burst the PVC pipe. All I can say is, It's a darn good thing I met aonemarine. He helped me press the gear on with his hydralic shop press.

Then the pulley cone was slid on, nothing special to see there. After that it was time to unwrap that duct tape that was on the spindle for 3 years. It left quite a bit of residue, but it cleaned up with denatured alcohol no problem.

After that the bearing was installed and the spindle was set in the headstock with the aid of an assistant. New lubrication felts were installed. If you would like more details about the bearings and this procedure in detail, check out the original South Bend documentation: http://www.wswells.com/data/howto/SBL_form_2002.pdf

After that, it was time to clean up the shims, install the bearing caps, the expander screws, the new oilers, and the plugs. Brand new spindle oil was added to the reservoirs.

The spindle turns by hand just fine. At this point, I still need to measure the bearing clearance, then turn my attention to the counter-shaft, motor, and flat belt. When the spindle is spinning and the back gear is installed, I'll clean up the pulley cone.

You'll note some paint is missing from the headstock... I used some brake cleaner to blast out any dirt inside the oil ports before assembly... it took the fresh paint clean off! Some even dripped down on the pedestal. No big deal, it'll be easy enough to feather the edges and touch it up.

Here I've prepared to lift the counter shaft assembly in place using a floor jack. The big heavy pin sticking to the right is it what it pivots on.

After that the handle and spring that raises and lowers the counter shaft to tension the flat felt was installed. After that the motor plate and hardware was installed. New MC cable was wired on the motor and it was then bolted to the mounting plate. Pressed on the pulley to the motor and installed the V belts.

Still to do is measure the bearing clearance, temporarily wire up the VFD and test the motor, followed by gluing up the flat belt.

Here I am measuring the bearing clearance on the left bearing. I used a piece of pipe to "lift up with 75 lbs of force" as South Bend recommends. This bearing came in right at one .001" , right in spec.

The right bearing is measured in the same manner. This one came in at .0015", just .0005" above spec, but I'm OK with that. The spindle is good to go!

After that I hooked up the Variable Frequency Drive (a Hitachi X200). The motor is a 1 HP Baldor 3 phase. It spun up just fine. Sounds like the bearings need a drop of oil or something, I'll have to figure out exactly how I'm supposed to lubricate it.

Now I'm going to start working on figuring out exactly how long I'm supposed to make the flat belt so I can get that cut and glued up. Once that's good (and all the under drive parts are properly lubed) it's time to put the spindle under power!

I measured my old belt and it came in at 61.75". I prepared the new serpentine belt with a bench grinder, which worked well. It is messy however, and unless you use an old wheel you'll want to take a wheel dresser to it afterwards. I ground down each side until the threads were visible, and then feathered each the ends. I put in 8" of overlap.

The belt prep wen't well, too bad I had an abismal failure when it came to glue it. The adhesive I used is pictured below. This was just a disaster, first I felt like the activator pen was not giving me good coverage. Then when I was using a paper towel to spread the glue around I got some on my finger... which proceeded to feel like my skin was on fire. After dealing with that I carefully pressed the two halves together. Parts of it bonded parts of it did not. It was pretty clear that this failed so I moved the belt tension lever which promptly broke the joint. The belt is still usable, but I will have to go pick up a different adhesive tommorow when the stores open.

I'm considering the idea of looking into how I go about lacing up the old belt (leather/plastic combo) in the interests of getting a spindle test done.

Since I was kind of dead in the water, I decided to try something. I took the old flat belt down to the drill press and drilled a series of 1/16" holes. I then used copper wire to make up a very amateurish lacing job and soldered it shut.

Booyah! It actually worked! I ran the spindle for an hour with absolutely no problem. The right bearing was happy at 100 F and the left bearing seemed to like 86 F. I'm very very pleased.

Next up is to clean and install the back gear, then turn my attention to the carriage.

 

[moya034]

Dropped off the pedestal covers and door, a couple of the headstock covers, and the item that holds the start/stop button to the local powder coater who does a nice job at blasting.

Installed the back gear:

Touched up the paint the brake cleaner took off. I'll give it another coat in those areas after it dries:

Painted one of the back gear gaurds grey. When this dries enough so I can reposition it I'll go over the inside where white is showing. I also got the under-drive tension handle cleaned up.

Put a first coat on access cover to the bull gear pin. I'm using the white color as the first coat since I have a bit of it and want to avoid mixing up more battleship grey.

Saddle taken apart. I took most off the paint very quickly with a wire wheel on an angle grinder. I stayed away from the ways and important surfaces. I'll give this thing some citristrip to get in those couple areas and remove the little residue on it. You can see the cross feed waiting patiently for my attention in the background. (Gotta love Kroil Oil for that stuck hardware!)

I got some new epoxy to try and did a test on a piece of leftover belt. This was much easier to work with. I didn't have a crappy activator pen that was half dried out and was able to skip the whole skin feeling like it's on fire thing. This is just a basic two part epoxy that you mix up on some cardboard and have about 5 minutes to work with.

It's too bad I didn't mix it up enough and it never cured. Lesson learned.

I decided to setup a couple saw horses, a pallet, and some cardboard in my basement and move the painting operation. I got the parts I dropped off at the blaster and have given them the first coat of paint. The pedestal covers will take a few days since I'm doing two coats and it has two sides, they are too heavy to hang. The other hanging parts are the headstock covers and gear guards, as well as the "thingy" that holds the start/stop switch.

Gaurds and access covers installed. I love the gentle lines and curves and the small details in the headstock castings... it really shows the amount of love put into making these machines.

I started disassembling the apron. I was able to get everything apart rather easily... after picking up a set of pin punches as the ones I had on hand were not adequate for all the taper pins. I got everything out except for the clutch and the cam gear behind it. I'm having difficulty loosening the nut that retains the outer shaft of the clutch. I believe I'm going to have to make a special tool to hold the outter shaft. The arrangement I was using was not working.

The half nuts at first inspection look good and apear to have a bit of life in them. Didn't find any other surprises except...

You'll note a pile of dirt and chips. All of that came from the apron alone. It's mostly brass with a little bit of aluminium. All the chips are caked in an amazing amount of sludge. I could not have possibly imagined there would be that much crap inside of it.

No doubt this all the moving parts on this entire lathe indeed needed to be disassembled and cleaned. Every single felt on this machine is so caked up with crap there's no way it could provide good lubrication. I have a good amount of the felts I need, I think I'll still have to order some more, however.

I need a couple special tools to proceed any further with the gearbox and apron disasembly.

Compound rest taken apart:

The hex nut that retains the clutch had been giving me issues... Tried a couple different things that did not work. I all had given up. I was then giving a suggestion on some other forums. Don't have a picture of it, but aonemarine machined me a bushing to fit around the inner shaft and press on the outer shaft, but small enough to fit through the hex nut. I then put the start knob on to tighten the clutch. That held everything good to remove the hex nut.

I now have the apron fully disassembled! I started attacking it with a wire wheel to remove the paint and have just about all of it off now.

I ordered a renovation manual and lubrication felts on eBay. I started reading about the gearbox and got one of gear shafts removed. The manual recommended a brass or hardwood block placed under a gear to loosen the hex nut. I tried a hardwood block but apparently the wood wasn't hard enough, and I was was worried about breaking a tooth. I tried a makeshift strap wrench, which worked perfectly. Turns out part of the strap got meshed in between two gears and also aided in holding it steady.

The first 1 1/8" wrench I found was too thick to fit in there. A buddy was at a flea market and picked me up this wrench. Luckily, when I went to fit it to see how much I was going to grind off, it fit like a glove as is!

And all the gears and shaft removed. Now I need to read further in the manual to see how the next shaft comes out.

Got the 2nd gear shaft removed without a hitch. Gearbox is ready for paint removal as soon as I remove the plate on the front that details the gearbox settings.

I'm pleased I was able to remove the gearbox index plate without any damage or use of a dremel tool. Three of the pins I was able to punch out from the backside. The fourth had a blind hole, and using some flat head screw drivers starting really small and going progressivly bigger I was able to wedge it out.

I got most of the paint on the apron and gearbox off with a wire wheel in an angle grinder. I didn't want to mess up the oilers, however so I stayed clear and am using citristrip in those areas. There are also some nooks and crannies the wheel won't make it in. This is the 2nd coat of citirstip I just put on before work. I expect I may need a third.

Had to make a special tool to remove the nuts for the cross feed and compound tool rest. I don't have pics of them, but the cross feed and compound rest are just about ready for paint. Been using a combination of wire wheel and citristip for them too.

 

[moya034]

I started to experiment with some Naval Jelly. The handles and graduation dials were in my brass tumbler along with some walnut hulls. The walnuts did well but not as much as I wanted. I've only done one coat of Naval Jelly so far, but the results are promising, A few more coats should yield some very clean metal.

The previous citirstrip coats got all the paint off, but I was left with a nasty residue. I put another coat of citistrip on, then I let it soak.

While it was soaking, I decided to have a couple cold ones with a buddy and grill some food. After the festivities, I went back outside, and then hosed off the parts with a garden hose. The copious amounts of water did a great job at getting every last bit clean. I sprayed the parts down with some WD-40 to sit over night so they wouldn't rust.

I sprayed the inside and outside of the apron and gearbox castings down with engine degreaser, and hosed it off. I repeated this a few times. All that was needed afterwards was a few shots of break cleaner in a few spots and the castings were totally degreased. First time I was able to handle them without nitrile gloves!

I then gave them a good rub down with acetone. All the surfaces and bearing holes that aren't getting painted then got a film of Marvel's Mystery Oil applied to them to protect against rust. I then gave the castings a final rub down with acetone in preparation for paint. I took this pic just before I brought them down to the basement.

The apron and gearbox now have their first coat of paint. It took a whole lot more pre-pwork to get these two parts to this point then I had anticipated. I'm happy with the results, however.

Took a wire wheel to a good portion of this stuff but it still need some stripper for the knooks and crannies as well as to remove residues. I've found even if the wire wheel makes it look clean, it still needs some stripper. Water really does make cleaning the citistrip up easier!

The handwheel and the knurling on the power feed selector are being stubborn. They get to soak overnight. It just started raining out as I put this on... humidity will keep the gel from drying out too fast

On today's episode of Cooking with moya034 we will be making Gearbox ala South Bend.

Ingredients:

1 gearbox
1 can of paint
2 paint brushes, one small, one medium
1 baking sheet lined with tin foil

Preheat your oven to 200 F.

Set your gearbox on some supports sitting in the cookie sheet with tin foil. Paint the gearbox.

The nice part about the cookie sheet while painting is that you can spin it around to get at all angles without moving yourself!

Bake for two hours.

It seemed to have turned out good. This was inspired by the fact it was raining at the time and I've read about baking enamel before to speed up the curing process and make for a tough finish. We'll see what it's like when it cools down. Also, aonemarine has been telling me to try this as well.

After I took the gearbox out of the oven, I was about to go to bed, but I got the itch to paint the apron too. It didn't rain at all that day so it's pretty dry. I'll let this cure normally because I'm going to bed.

I wen't out and picked up a 12 ton shop press. Made easy work of taking apart the reverse gear assembly. I wish I had bought one of these years ago.

At this point the apron, gear box, compound rest, cross feed, all the levers, hand wheel, etc all have two coats of paint and are either fully cured or still drying. Their internal parts still need a good cleaning before assembly.

Rather then show you pics of what I just did, I'm going to show you a picture of the only parts left that have to be disassembled and paint stripped.

I had been looking at the lathe bed for a while knowing it was going to take alot of work to clean properly and have been dreading the task since. My recent experiences with naval jelly gave me some hope however.

One day, for some unknown reason, I decided to attack my welding table with a wire wheel in an angle grinder and a few rounds of naval jelly. What I got left was this, with a good film of Marvel's Mystery Oil worked in. This table used to be highly corroded and rusted and had been outdoors for who knows long before I got to it. Now you can touch it with your bare hands and not get anything on your fingers!

So after I finished painting earlier, I made the decision that I was really going to have to take the lathe bed out in the driveway so I can hose it down after using the naval jelly. An engine hoist made quick work of this job.

So here we have it, using a combination of naval jelly, water, scothbrite, paper towels, rags, kerosene, acetone, and MMO, I was left with a very clean lathe bed without using any steel wool or sandpaper. I also used some citistrip in some pesky painted areas with a plastic scraper.

 

[moya034]

I got a corner of the garage all cleaned up and vacuumed.

And the lathe bed is back where it belongs, with a coating of MMO to keep it from rusting. I'll wash it off with some alcohol and put way oil on before I install the saddle.

I got the lathe on it's feet and levelled out. The big level is an Empire rated accurate for 0.0005" over 1". The one sitting on top is an old machinist's level a buddy let me borrow. Sure enough that machinist’s level is more sensitive.

I have no idea how these stainless steel with rubber bottom feed will work over time. The floor is very uneven. If I have problems I'll pour a concrete pad.

I got all the small handles and dials polished up. Naval jelly and the tumbler weren't doing jack for these. They were just so bad I decided to take them to a wire wheel in my bench grinder and remove everything. I then used steel wool to smooth up the wire marks.

Then they sat in some crushed walnut hulls with Brasso for a few hours followed by corn cobs with Brasso. When I bought this tumbler for reloading ammunition, I never thought I would use it for small parts. I got the idea to re-purpose this device from some forums somewhere on the internet.

After I pulled them out I used Never Dull on them. I'm new to Never Dull, just heard about it this weekend. Seems like damn good stuff.

Some of the larger parts will have to get hand polished... might be a good time killer if I have any slow nights at work.

The tailstock has been disassembled. The base and hand wheel were soaking last night in the Citristip and look good. The tailstock has a few tricky areas and will probably need a couple more applications.

To heck with the hand polishing! At aonemarine's suggestion I went out and got the 6" Harbor Freight Bench Buffer. I also picked up their "Green" polishing stick.

It worked beautifully. I got the apron traverse hand wheel polished up nice, starting with the coarse wheel, followed by the fine wheel, and then a good rub down with Never Dull and a rag. I'm starting to dig this Never Dull, leaves a really nice sexy surface that you just want to feel and has a great sheen.

These three items here I picked up from the internet at what I would consider very reasonable prices. My side cover has a couple cracks and is missing the lug that bolts to the gearbox. My door it turns out has a crack, and the latch piece is also broken. I was missing the chip feed cover.

I've removed the lables and hardware and will drop these off at my media blaster guy.

I setup an old kitty litter tub which is nice and deep and put a couple inches of kerosene in there. Couple paint brushes with their bristles cut short, scotchbrite, and a stainless wire brush.

I figured I would start with the reverse gear assembly and the drive train that connects it to the gearbox, just to start getting dirty parts off my bench. I did a nice job getting all the gears clean (the wire brush is particularly effective between the teeth). I got everything ready to press all the shafts in place. I was just about to start cutting some lubrication felts when I quickly realized these shafts have to be oriented in the right direction to allow the oil to flow down into the ports. Without the gearbox and headstock in place, that is difficult to do accurately, and thus they are sitting comfortably in a cardboard box in the house.

After coming home from work I got to work on more pressing matters such as the rack gear that bolts to the underside of the lathe bed. Easy enough. I then set off to assemble the crossfeed and compound rest and lay the saddle down... Things always take more time then you think...

Start by cleaning off another table and cutting fresh cardboard to be the "clean" table for assembly. Then there's the parade back and forth multiple times to the basement carefully bringing the castings back into the garage. Oh, of course, I forgot the felt retainers had to get paint removed, were bent out of shape *literally*, and had to be polished.

After all that it was getting later then I expected, but I did get time to use some alcohol to remove all the MMO and put down a fresh coat of way oil. (I quickly discovered my nitrile gloved hand was much more useful then a rag to spread this stuff around.) I got the saddle bottom cleaned up, oiled, and set on top of the bed, with it's gib/clamp cleaned up, oiled, and adjusted... It's amazing how little bolt tension it needs, not even enough to fully compress the lock washers.

Despite my best efforts to carefully bag and label everything as I took it out, I still ran into a jigsaw puzzle when it came to the hardware for the cross-feed and compound rest. This is due partly to there being some missing parts before I started, and the previous owner(s) not putting things back the way they were supposed to be.

Between reading the book I have, documentation online, and some studying and thinking over a couple beers, I figured everything out... I think

The compound rest actually had all it's hardware and I got it sorted out, so the only mystery left was with the cross-feed. The brass shoe for the gib lock, is shown on the far left. You can see it's quite mangled and only a small fraction of its correct size. I'd like to know how that happened. I made a new one out of 1/4" brass round using the little cardboard template I made to get the angle correct. I also had to stop by the hardware store for a 5/16" NC set screw.

The brass shoe for the gib screw lock was missing, but I did have the set screw for it. I made a new shoe out of 3/16" brass rod.

The graduated dial for the cross-feed was missing all it's parts. I chased the threads with a 10-32 tap and took some 3/16" brass rod over aonemarine's house to turn down to 0.158" on his SB 10k. I thought I had a spare 10-32 knurled thumb screw around but couldn't find any so I ordered some on ebay, and will just use a normal screw for now.

This is supposed to be a short brass shoe with a steel rod to take up the distance to the screw, I suppose to keep the brass from mushrooming in the threads and getting stuck. When I have a chance I'll shorten the brass shoe and add a steel rod.

I have no left over hardware... except for one small set screw with a hex head. I have no idea where it goes or where it came from. Every single threaded hole has it's correct hardware as far as I can tell. I'll keep it separate around in case I figure it out.

The cross-feed is now assembled and working beautifully. It feels so nice when I turn the handle.

I would have had the compound rest together that night too, but I needed to go out and grab a 1/4" NF tap and die to chase the threads on the shaft and nut which hold on the handle.

The three castings I recently purchased came back from the blaster and they now have two coats of fresh paint. This is IT for painting, with the exception of some minor touch ups here or there!

 

[moya034]

Make that 5/16" NF, LOL! The compound rest is now assembled and looks/feels great. Chip cover still has paint drying.

Next on the agenda is the apron!

The apron and gearbox have tons of dirty innards. The little tub of kerosene was getting old real fast. Nothing beats a parts washer.

I had considered the Harbor Freight 20 gallon unit but I was not impressed. Furthermore, it specifically is only rated for water based solvents. Also, they are totally out of stock and the warehouse doesn't have any.

I found a Safety-Kleen unit on Craigslist for $125, just a few more bucks then the HF. It was a little bit of a drive but worth it. This unit has much more liquid capacity, larger work area, the nifty brush with solvent coming out of it, and a light. Most importantly the pump is rated for petroleum distillates.

Despite this being rated for the "good stuff", I decided to give the water based solvent HF sells a shot, at $6 I figured why not? This crap was a disaster. It didn't work very well at all, and furthermore, when I splashed a little bit on my arm it felt like my skin was burning. I quickly made the provisions to get rid of it, and filled the unit up with about 12 gallons of kerosene.

I'm very happy now. I still use nitirle gloves, but the kerosene does not bother the skin (it used to be used as an antiseptic in the medical field.) It's quite effective and is very inexpensive compared to other options. It leaves a little film, but that wipes off easy and is not objectionable to me. The flash and ignition points are pretty much the same as the real Safety Kleen solvent, so it's really just as safe.

I should have bought one of these years ago. I got other projects coming up which will make use of it, as well.

I added some hardware cloth and scrap pieces of wood to the tub I was previously washing parts in to make a dripping rack.

I started work on some apron parts this morning, but I need to interrupt myself for breakfast.

All the apron parts are clean and accounted for. The half nuts and oil sump cover aren't shown, they just got pulled out of the oven shortly before this pic was taken.

I decided to do the hand wheel lubrication mod. I drilled a 3/16" hold directly through to the felt keyway.

I found some NOS Gits oilers that fit a 3/16" hole on e-bay.

Next I installed the mechanism that prevents the half nuts and power feed from being engaged at the same time. The shaft for the power feed selector is installed and has another shaft for a gear. When it's in neutral the arm to the left engages in the notch and allows the half-nuts to engage.

Here's the power feed selector gear installed.

Clutch, worm drive, and the gear that engages the traverse rack gear in place.

This is the mechanism that engages the half nuts.

Half nuts installed. These cleaned up great. They have very little wear. Very strong threads. I suspect this lathe didn't see alot of threading action.

Apron done and installed. Cross feed chip cover bolted on. The entire carriage is finished! All levers act as they should, and they just feels so smooth when you operate them, especially the hand wheel when you move the carriage.

All the gearbox parts are cleaned up and accounted for. I figured out that the grey stuff that was caked all over these gears was anti-seeze compound. This parts washer was worth every penny just to make my life easier cleaning up the gearbox and apron parts!

After getting all the parts cleaned up good where I can handle them I decided I'll start assembly and get the gearbox ready to go before bed time.

Hold on, Not so fast!

Upon getting ready to install the very first gear I noticed two issues. One, these gears have some rust deposits and stuff my steel wool, wire brush, and kerosene didnt' remove. Also, more importantly, I noticed something different about my shaft.

All the ones I've seen pics of have a pin pressed into the shaft that fits in this gear's key way. Mine however has two holes with a keyway cut, except it was missing the key! When I first took this apart I didn't think anything of this and assumed it was for oil, however this is a pressed on gear which is not supposed to spin on the shaft. A trip to the harware store yielded some 3/16" key stock. Yet another thing on this lathe that previous owner(s) didn't do correctly.

I gave all the internal parts a coat of naval jelly, let it sit 10 minutes, washed it off with water, then gave them another round through the parts washer. Came out great, no rust anywhere. I'm glad I took the time to do this.

I got the first shaft in the gearbox last night. (Something isn't right in this picture, more on that later.)

When I went to put in the ball detent after unloading the gantry I noticed I stupidly installed a gear backwards. Took the shaft back out and fixed that.

I kept the original paint inside as you can see. It LOOKS dirty, but I assure you it is clean.

Second shaft installed. I found when installing this that I inserted the hex nut backwards and the holes for the taper pin would not line up correctly. It went together rather easy after fixing that issue.

Here's the internals with the levers installed. All the parts were assembled with a fresh coat of oil, and all the shafts, gears, and levers operate as they should.

One gearbox ready to go patiently waiting for its lead screw.

I retrieved the leadscrew out of the garage's attic. The past few years it's been sitting in a piece of straight angle iron sitting in wooden blocks with a notch cut out so the pointy side faced down. This kept it from sagging and bending. I also had it covered in grease so it wouldn't get any more rust then it already had.

Upon close examination I found it had some paint on it! After yet more four letter words directed at the persons who took a paint brush to this machine, I gave it a cleaning in the part's washer and a coat of citistrip. Let it soak in for over an hour, followed by another pass through the parts washer. There was still some light surface rust which a coat of naval jelly and a third trip through the parts washer took care of. I then gave it a quick rub down on the buffing wheel.

My assistant and I attempted to install the leadscrew and gearbox but I couldn't get it get it to slide into the worm drive. It turns out I mixed up the pins for the locking ring and the bushing. I had to take the apron off the saddle and swap the pins out. With everything else I was rather meticulous making sure everything fit properly, but I somehow forgot to check for any protrusions in the worm drive.

Got the lead screw and gear box mounted. You'll note the handle on the gearbox tumbler handle isn't polished. The buffing wheel did clean it up but it wouldn't polish. I will try some brasso by hand, If not I'll attack it with a small wire wheel and buffing wheel in a die grinder.

Next stop is cleaning up the headstock a bit more and bolting it on.

 

[moya034]

An electrician buddy came over and graciously donated some of his time to install a light above the lathe and the fused disconnect. The light is about 7 ft high and turned on by the switch on the wall. We also ran an outlet over to the parts washer so I don't have to use an extension cord. I still have to work on mounting the VFD and order up some push button switches for start/stop/rev.

While those events were occurring I gave the headstock and bearing caps two coats of naval jelly and a trip through the parts washer. They cleaned up much better then before. I'll snap a pic when I install the headstock on the lathe bed tomorrow. I also did some paint touch ups to it while it's off the bed.

Now I can actually see what I'm doing... imagine that!

A closeup image of the lead screw.

Headstock bolted down, reversing gear installed, banjo gears installed. The last gear that needs to go is the gearbox input shaft gear.

I tapped the gear on gently with a block of wood and hammer till a few threads peeked through, and the hex nut easily pressed the gear on all the way.

I lubed the gear train up with CMD Extreme Pressure Lube #3 on good recommendation from South Bend experts.

The serpentine belt is glued up and clamped between a piece of angle iron and wood. I never did get around to glueing up a test piece. Turns out I wouldn't have had enough left over anyway. Hopefully I mixed it up enough this time. I cleaned the belt quite thoroughly with acetone. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I also got some touch up paint drying to fix some imperfections on the pedestal side cover and headstock pulley cone cover.

I took this pic right after taking apart the spindle again. I wanted to get the parts cleaner. The spindle threads and the inside taper got two coats of naval jelly. The pulley cone I took a wire wheel in an angle grinder too then gave it some naval jelly too. The back gear got the full treatment as well.

In this pic you can see that I've set the spindle in the headstock and installed the bearing caps.

At the suggestion of an expert, I decided to replace the thrust washer with a needle roller thrust bearing I got from McMaster. It is a little bit thicker but not much and there is plenty of room for the gear.

A piece of pipe, two pieces of flat bar and some all thread got the spindle gear pressed on.

The serpentine belt seems to have cured up properly.

I also got the tailstock assembled.

All the mechanical bits are done! All that's left is some more paint touch-ups, bolt the covers on, buy push button switches, and mount/wire the VFD!

It's a relief to not have lathe parts scattered around the garage and basement and no longer having to worry about losing a part and making sure everything gets puts back together right!

Tool post, 4 jaw chuck are cleaned up, and the covers are bolted on. Still need some touch up paint, clean up and install the decals, VFD mounted, and purchase tooling.

That's it for now. Stay tuned as I finish up the details, test the machine out, and make chips! Right now however, getting the milling machine together is a bigger priority.

 

[Hopper]

Nice work. There is something very satisfying in turning up a precision job on an old lathe you have rebuilt yourself. Keep us posted.

 

[aarggh]

Wow! What a great job you've done, it looks awesome. I had to do a double take when I saw the first pics, I bought an old school lathe myself a few years back, mine is branded Coltech (Collingwood Tech) lathe, and looking at your posts I can see it was obviously modeled on your model SB! Mine will be a rebuild too when I cut down some of my workload.

cheers, Ian

 

[aonemarine]

looks as good as new!! Nice job!

 

[lathe nut]

WOW, nice lathe nice job on the cleaning and going back together, I sure hope you don't use it and get it dirty, just get another on to use but that one in the bed room, really nice, glad for U, Lathe Nut

 

[bbolton1231_CA4]

I have a 13 inch South Bend just a little bit bigger bed.... my clutch is NOT working properly and I need to take off the apron I believe. Can the apron be removed without removing the lead screw? I've been told if you take off the end bearing, you can slide the apron off the end once removed from the saddle. (HEAVY I guess)... Need to support the lead screw with wires, straps, etc to prevent bending at all. Then the apron should come off.. *drop down)... Is that correct OR is it necessary to take out the lead screw. I dont' want to get in over my head on this thing. I have mechanical ability but man this is getting into it pretty deep. I'd appreciate a reply if you have time....
Best regards,
Brad

 

[packrat]

I have a 13 inch South Bend just a little bit bigger bed.... my clutch is NOT working properly and I need to take off the apron I believe. Can the apron be removed without removing the lead screw? I've been told if you take off the end bearing, you can slide the apron off the end once removed from the saddle. (HEAVY I guess)... Need to support the lead screw with wires, straps, etc to prevent bending at all. Then the apron should come off.. *drop down)... Is that correct OR is it necessary to take out the lead screw. I dont' want to get in over my head on this thing. I have mechanical ability but man this is getting into it pretty deep. I'd appreciate a reply if you have time....
Best regards,
Brad

I have had my 13 inch SBL apart and apron off but can't remember how I did it ?..I think I slide it off the end like you said.. Go to the South Bend forum site and ask I am sure one of the experts will tell how it is done. https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/south-bend-lathes/

 

[lathe nut]

Yes it does have to be removed from the end you will have to slide it off the lead screw and if you have one with feed screw it is the same, remove the bearing housing on the end.

 

[comstock-friend]

Many, many South Bend rebuilds and info (probably your exact question!) can be found on the pages of Practical Machinist South Bend forum. Read the posting rules when joining and you'll be pretty safe if you post only in the South Bend forum when asking about your SB.

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/south-bend-lathes/

Also, the book in this kit is a great thing for any 13" owner, and if you haven't replaced your oil wicks, the rest of the kit is useful also:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/South-Bend...T:sc:USPSPriorityFlatRateEnvelope!91352!US!-1

John