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south bend 13" 6' weight???


MLMartin

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ive just bought a old south bend lathe 13" swing 6' bed
the numbers
9508 TKX 14
CL 145 C
were stamped in it, so i see its something around 70 years old, from the site information. just wondering if anyone knew a good guess of weight of this size lathe, and if there are any good books or manuals on it. most of the plates that tell of the thread cutting or power feed on it are gone. also any recommendations for a good beginner book on lathe work.

my experience gos little farther than boring holes and shaving down the sides to thin the work

thanks for any tips


PS there seems to be 4 speed settings, any idea about what speeds these will be?

Edited by Mlmartin15
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If you email southbend with the serial number, they can date it and tell you the waight. I did that for one I was considering buying and they got back to me within a day or two.
Congrats!!! Best tool in the shop!

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You can find a more recent version of the book I mentioned in a previous post "How to run a lathe" on ebay. The version I have is the 55th edition from the 1950's. The book explains the speeds depending on your belt and back gear settings.
What I found for the weight was, 13" 6 Ft Bed 1560 lbs crated weight for Engine Lathes, add 155 lbs for Toolroom Lathes.

Edited by dkunkler
added info
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You can also get very good specific help on your SB here:
South Bend Lathes - Practical Machinist - Largest Manufacturing Technology Forum on the Web

It is incredibly active and if a search won't get you an answer, a question will generate one, often within minutes. Between the Yahoo site(s) and Practical Machinist forum, you should be able to get most questions answered.

To answer your specific question, there are four speeds by belt, but if you engage the bull gear (open the headstock cover and pull out the lockpin) you use the backgears to run the lathe at a much slower ratio. That effectively doubles the number of speeds of your belt-driven step pulley. Some SB lathes also have a 2-speed motor.

"How to Run a Lathe" by Southbend is okay, but it really doesn't tell you much beyond a very sparse basic introduction. To learn how to use the lathe (and my other shop tools, such as mills and shapers), over the years I just bought lots of used books on ebay, Amazon, and Alibris. Old High School text books are really good because they don't assume any a priori knowledge. I still like my first one: "Machine Tool Metalworking" a 1973 text by John L Feirer, which I see is available for $6.73 used on Alibris. (One copy at that price; others available for slightly more). For instance, I just referenced that book to make sure I was calling the pin and gears by the right name before I wrote this post.

No one textbook will do. If you pick up at least 4 of them, then you can read the pertinent sections in each until it becomes clear. And sometimes the more advanced operations or work hints might only be covered in one of those 4.

To start out, there are many decent machining manuals available for free download, particularly the military ones. For instance, here is a link to some army courses:

US Army courses. : Open Source Machine

Good luck.

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