1950 South bend lathe restoration.

[Festus]

I didn’t look at your link until now. That’s the belts I used. I had to buy two of them to have enough. I tried the serpentine belt and didn’t have much luck splicing it together. If you took apart your headstock it would work good. It did grip good.

 

[krypto]

Your lathe is 70+ years old so you really need to pull the spindle and replace the spindle felts. When the spindle is out you can install a serpentine belt so you don't have to worry about a belt splice. My lathe is UMD so unfortunately that wasn't an option for me.

The lathe spindle is far more important than fresh paint.

 

[Niels Abildgaard]

Has anyone tried those belts that link together? Something like this: Vibration-Free Link Belt.

I did and never looked back

Fenner Powertwist

Another thing is that the shown Boxford is a clone of SouthBends.
I put it on a piece of tombstone to stiffen the whole setup.
You can see that Boxford has some machined flats under midle of bed from machinig.
This means that lathe is stands very rigid on six points instead of four and does that make
a difference?
If the southbend have same underside of bed feature You can lift it to Hardinge /Schaulin class very cheaply

Very Rigid Lathe

 

[Poppy Ott]

I too have a 10" Logan and replaced the leather belt with a poly. Are you running yours on the rib side or flat side? I flipped mine over and am running on the flat side. Better grip with less tension and very quiet.

when I made the change I didn’t know which side would be best to use, or if it would work at all. Would the belt just slip on the smooth pulley surfaces? I decided to try rib side first and see what happened. That worked so well right from the start that I never tried the flat side.

 

[gartof]

when I made the change I didn’t know which side would be best to use, or if it would work at all. Would the belt just slip on the smooth pulley surfaces? I decided to try rib side first and see what happened. That worked so well right from the start that I never tried the flat side.

Same experience for me tons of friction a great update
Gary

 

[nautilus29]

I have the apron and saddle fully assembled. Sadly the previous owner did some heavy modifications to the handle side of the cross slide lead screw. I did my best to fix their handi work. I replaced the cross slide brass nut also. To my surprise the cross slide only has .005" backlash, and the compound only has .003.

On both I machined the wear out of the handle end. I've been pleasantly surprised by the shape of this 70 year old mill so far!

 

[nautilus29]

Well it's been awhile but I started back up on this project. I don't have all of the pictures yet, but I'll try to take some soon.

So far I've rebuild the apron, cross slide, compound slide, tail stock, and I just did the spindle. The lathe bed is repainted except for the feet. The gear box is painted and that's my next assembly. It's been a long project ,but I'm happy with how it's turning out. Spindle has .0005 end play, and .0015" up and down movement which is right in the middle of what they say you should shoot for. Hopefully when I put it back on the bed it's goes back to being parallel with the ways!

 

[minh-thanh]

I saw some pictures and videos on google about this lathe - or similar, or different year of manufacture - before, I quite liked it
Please update

 

[nautilus29]

To anyone interested I added the original sale information I bought from grizzly. When I have this assembled more, I'll show the original tag that Reynolds machinery added to the lathe. I will say I was a little disappointed that the machine was sold to a machinery sales company first as I was hoping to find the original owner, but neat none the less.

I realized I should have waited to take more photos until I have more stuff back on the lathe, but here it is with the feet attached.

Sorry for the messy shop. My shop is under an mother in law apartment that I am currently building, so my time is limited. It's either rebuild the lathe or clean and I keep choosing rebuild lol

 

[krypto]

It's certainly nice and clean! Too bad they don't stay that way for long, but if you got new felt it should run well for a long time.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but are you still running the fibre washer beside the take-up nut on the spindle?

 

[nautilus29]

It's certainly nice and clean! Too bad they don't stay that way for long, but if you got new felt it should run well for a long time.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but are you still running the fibre washer beside the take-up nut on the spindle?

So that's what that washer is for. It didn't have one in there to start. Is that an aftermarket design or did they originally have them in and someone took mine out?

 

[abby]

I have had a similar experience with my Boxford "A" , basically a Southbend built in the UK.

I had to strip it completely so that I could move it to the workshop in a wheelbarrow.
Cleaned , fettled and painted then rebuilt,

A beautiful machine, I have owned many small lathes , Drummond,Enco,Myford and Raglan are just a few but I consider this one to be the best.
I wonder how interchangeable the parts are? I want a slotted cross slide table for mine.
Dan.

 

[nautilus29]

I have had a similar experience with my Boxford "A" , basically a Southbend built in the UK.

I had to strip it completely so that I could move it to the workshop in a wheelbarrow.
Cleaned , fettled and painted then rebuilt,

A beautiful machine, I have owned many small lathes , Drummond,Enco,Myford and Raglan are just a few but I consider this one to be the best.
I wonder how interchangeable the parts are? I want a slotted cross slide table for mine.
Dan.

Great job, and definitely looks similar! I threw some of the stuff on it just to get a better look.

 

[krypto]

So that's what that washer is for. It didn't have one in there to start. Is that an aftermarket design or did they originally have them in and someone took mine out?

Yes, the fibre washer is OEM.

Yes, someone lost original. Now you need to wonder what else is missing on your lathe.

The reason I originally asked is while the fibre washer was cutting-edge technology back when this lathe was designed, there are now much better options: specifically a needle-roller thrust bearing. There's nothing new under the sun with South Bend mods and Halligan did a nice video about this upgrade years ago.



Check the video's comments as someone posted the McM parts numbers for the two thick washers and the thrust bearing. Double-check the sizes, but you can get the whole lot for under $10. I did this upgrade on my lathe awhile back.

The reason why the bearing is so much better than the fibre washer is that spindle axial play is absolutely critical for parting off. With the bearing you can adjust it to nothing and it will stay that way with no drag on the spindle. Just squirt a little oil in it occasionally.

 

[nautilus29]

Yes, the fibre washer is OEM.

Yes, someone lost original. Now you need to wonder what else is missing on your lathe.

The reason I originally asked is while the fibre washer was cutting-edge technology back when this lathe was designed, there are now much better options: specifically a needle-roller thrust bearing. There's nothing new under the sun with South Bend mods and Halligan did a nice video about this upgrade years ago.



Check the video's comments as someone posted the McM parts numbers for the two thick washers and the thrust bearing. Double-check the sizes, but you can get the whole lot for under $10. I did this upgrade on my lathe awhile back.

The reason why the bearing is so much better than the fibre washer is that spindle axial play is absolutely critical for parting off. With the bearing you can adjust it to nothing and it will stay that way with no drag on the spindle. Just squirt a little oil in it occasionally.

I've definitely found my fair share of missing parts and poorly done modifications. Luckily it doesn't look like they used the lathe much so the damage was minimal. Also luckily I'm a machinist by trade and was able to fix some of the issues at work.

I'll have to do that needle bearing modification! Luckily it's in an easy spot to reach and I don't have to tear this thing apart again!

 

[nautilus29]

Well I rebuilt the gearbox today! I'm getting closer to full assembly. I do have a question for anyone who has taken their cross slide off. If I tighten the plate on the back(second picture). It locks the cross slide in place. Am I missing something here or are these bolts supposed to be snug only?

The book you can purchase with the felt kit is worth it's weight in gold. Without it I would have had to take so many pictures and really mapped everything I did out. I tore this gearbox apart a year ago and just got back to putting it together. That would have been hard to do without the book!

 

[gartof]

Well I rebuilt the gearbox today! I'm getting closer to full assembly. I do have a question for anyone who has taken their cross slide off. If I tighten the plate on the back(second picture). It locks the cross slide in place. Am I missing something here or are these bolts supposed to be snug only?

The book you can purchase with the felt kit is worth it's weight in gold. Without it I would have had to take so many pictures and really mapped everything I did out. I tore this gearbox apart a year ago and just got back to putting it together. That would have been hard to do without the book!

Not a expert but if I snug up those bolts it also stops the saddle moving on my lathe. I have a background project to make shims so the bolts can be tight.
Gary

 

[krypto]

Just snug them up. That plate just keeps the saddle from lifting from the bed. Unless the bolts that hold the plate are a real sloppy fit, they won't back out.

Yes the book is well worth it. Large print as well, they know the target audience.

 

[Richard Hed]

Just snug them up. That plate just keeps the saddle from lifting from the bed. Unless the bolts that hold the plate are a real sloppy fit, they won't back out.

Yes the book is well worth it. Large print as well, they know the target audience.

LOL. Yes, the target audience! How many things I read that have tiny print that woul;d have been difficult to read 30 years ago. Lucky with internet stuff, sometimes one can simply enlarge it. But internet we have peeps building sites that have black background with yellow foreground otr white back with GREY text. Hmmm