Overview

Last Updated: 19 July 2008

Some useful South Bend links: Practical Machinish South Bend Forum

W.S. Wells' Site - Lots of South Bend Literature

Tools4Cheap - Lots of Parts for Older Machines


Over the past few years I've assumed that I would begin acquiring machine tools, a lathe and a mill in particular, 10 or 15 years from now, when I have a larger bit of property on which to build a proper shop.

Then in June 2008 I made the mistake of having a look around Ebay and Craigslist at lathes.  I was always worried that by the time I was ready to buy a lathe there either wouldn't be any in my price range, or all the old timey models would be gone.

One evening I found a 13" South Bend on Ebay located in Lima, OH that was ending in just a few hours with no bids.  I emailed the seller and let him know I was interested, but would need to inspect the lathe before bidding.  When the lathe didn't sell, he contacted me and we set up a time for me to look at it.

It was located at a company called High Tech Metal Products, and the proprietor took time out of his Saturday morning to show me the lathe - about an hour of his time.  He made numerous cuts on a steel round bar, demonstrating that the machine cut no taper at least 3 inches out from the chuck.  The lathe was utterly silent when running, except for the gentle "tick-tick-tick" of the metal links in the leather flat belt contacting the pulley cones.

It was clear to me the moment he turned it on that I'd be buying the it.

So I took some measurements and headed home to fabricate a rolling platform for the lathe.  I simply used 3"x1/4" angle iron (A36) for the front and rear, linked together by pieces of 1.5"x1/4" square A36 tube.  I bolted casters to the angle iron at each corner - two fixed, two swivel), and used 2x12 pine boards for the lathe to rest on.  This is a photo of the platform strapped into the trailer I rented.

There are 4 500-lb ratcheting straps, one at each corner, and the casters are locked with wheel brakes.

The trailer is a Bil-Jax Escalate, rated to 5000 lb and equipped with a hydraulic deck elevating system.  You simply pull a lever and push a button to raise or lower the deck to the ground.

When I got to High-Tech, the owner loaded the lathe atop the platform with a forklift, placing the forks under the bed way.  At one point, while maneuvering the lathe into position, he picked it up by the chip pan, so I can say with absolute confidence that a South Bend 13" chip pan will support the entire weight of the lathe (between 1300 and 1500 lb).

Here we have the lathe as it was towed back the 90 miles to my house.  There are a total of 10 ratcheting straps holding it to the trailer.  4 straps on the rolling platform rated at 500 lb each (as seen in the previous picture), 4  1500 lb straps wrapped around the bed, and 2 1500 lb straps wrapped around the underdrive cabinet and secured to the front and rear of the trailer.

I stopped at two rest areas on the highway to check and adjust the strap tension.  At the first stop, about 10 miles from High Tech, I found one strap had loosened.  At the second stop no straps were found loose.

This thing survived a trip through some of the worst sections of highway in the country (I think).  I drove as slow as I could without causing an accident, and everything went fine.  Nothing broke.

You can see in the previous photo a piece of angle iron clamped to the platform transversely.  2 of these were clamped to the underside of the platform for the drive home as added insurance against tipover (the lathe is apparently very top heavy).

I bought the lathe for $1300.  As I mentioned, I went to inspect it on a Saturday.  The day before, I visited 2 machinery dealers in Cincinnati - C.W. Wood and Mohawk.  My problem with machinery dealers around here is that, at least in the class of small machines in which I have an interest, they think everything they have is G-O-L-D.  I will give two examples.

First, at C.W. Wood, I looked at several small lathes.  Two stand out as good examples of the "this-equipment-is-made-of-gold-and-you-should-feel-blessed-to-lay-eyes-on-it" attitude.  They had 4 Clausing-Colchester 13x40" lathes available.  Brand new, these machines are somewhere between $20k and $30k.  Wood was asking $7k for these used units.  They had been stored outside (abandoned, really) by the previous owner, and the ways on at least one machine were completely coated with rust.  The salesman at C.W. Wood said "oh, we'll clean those up".  A lathe is worthless with wrecked ways.  I mean absolutely worthless.  Re-grinding ways on a machine like that would cost almost as much as a new machine.  Ways are ground to incredibly tight tolerances, and once they rust out no amount of rust removal will get them back the way they were.

They also had a small South Bend 9" lathe on a cabinet.  It had "badly worn ways" - their words, not mine.  They wanted $900 for it.  If they're willing to admit it has "badly worn ways", that means the machine has "horribly useless worn-out ways", and is worth maybe $200.  A friend recently bought a near-mint South Bend 9" for $475.  The salesman at C.W. Wood was telling me about how they constantly get ridiculously low offers on this stuff.  Well, DUH!

The second example of ridiculous dealer pricing was at Mohawk.  They had an 11" Logan on a cabinet stand.  They should've spelled "Logan", "S-C-R-A-P", because this thing was worthy only of the scrap pile.  It had obviously been out in the rain for some time, and although the ways had little rust, almost everything on the machine was frozen.  They wanted - are you ready for this? - $1275 for it!

I don't know what happens to these machines that end up at dealers who try to sell them for WAY more than they're worth, but I suspect that after sitting in the warehouse for awhile unsold they end up being scrapped.  That's a shame, because there's a buyer for almost everything out there if the price is right.

For those of you who have never visited a machinery dealer, imagine going to a used car dealer and looking at a '73 Pinto with bald tires, a siezed engine and no brakes and having the dealer tell you with a straight face that he wants $13k for it.

After the abyssmal day looking at machinery dealers I was ready to cancel my appointment to see the South Bend 13", I was so depressed.  I'm glad I didn't.  Buying from an individual is completely different from a dealer.  $1300 was a fair price for an honest machine.

Some Useful South Bend Links
South Bend forum at Practical Machinist
The South Bend Workshop
Chronology of South Bend serial numbers