New lathe arrived

[Phil]

Oh boy, getting exciting around here now. My new lathe arrived yesterday. Now all I have to do is get the electrics hooked up, the backing plate for the chuck fit up, and all the preservative washed off. Then I can get it positioned and start the long process of leveling. I always hate that part. I have a lot of projects to catch up on so I'm antsy to get this show on the road.

Cheers,

Phil



http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b88/twoprops/newlathe09m.jpg

[lathesmith]

Ahhh, she looks purty Phil, how about some details?
lathesmith

[JDFuchs]

I'm jealous. I just bought a Bridgeport mill at auction two months ago. But I have to wait till I move this summer before I set it up. 13060

[dragonrider]

Wow brandy spankin new, that's gonna be fun. I found out shortly after I got my lathe, just how did I get along without it before. There is no way I could be without my machine tools now. Enjoy it.

[Phil]

Hi Lathesmith,

Its a brand new South Bend 13x40 Geared Head, gap bed job. I had an Acu-Rite two axis DRO installed at the factory. Also got a micrometer carriage stop, roller bearing three point steady rest, chuck guard (not sure that will stay), face plate, four position tool holder, and all the usual small parts etc.

I have my 6" six jaw Pratt Burnerd all disassembled and cleaned, ready to grease and reassemble, the Aloris BXA tool post has been refurbished and is ready to go, although I have to make a new T nut for it. All the tool holders have been cleaned up, some of the bits need tuned up, but all in all, the project is coming along nicely.

This is to replace the Colchester 13x40 that I lost in the fire. All in all, I expect the South Bend is a very nice lathe, although I don't think it is in the same league as the old English Colchester. The inspectors sheet shows that it will cut straight and there isn't too much wobble in the bearings etc. (:>) The spindle hole in the SB is about 1 5/8" and the hole in the Colchester was bigger at 1 13/16". The digital readout looks like a winner, far advanced from the old MiniWizards that I have used in the past. The SB weighs about 500 pounds more than the Colchester, comes in at about 2600 pounds.

I looked for another used Colchester like I had but there were only three for sale in the country when I was looking. All junk. So I started looking at new machines. The new "Colchester" 13" lathes are pretty much a school lathe now, expensive, light, and all together not something I would want to try to do precision work with. They do make a comparable lathe today but is strictly a CNC affair and horribly expensive. I looked at several new lathes and didn't like any of them except for this one. It is another Colchester clone but with a few new features that I like. I can't wait to fire it up and see how it works!!!!!!!!!

LeBlond bought the South Bend name, parts, etc, now. LeBlond doesn't make any new LeBlond machines but they do buy about every LeBlond machine they can, and refurb them to resell. They are nice people to talk to, and I can't fault the way they treated me at all.

Well, off to try to get some of this preservative off. This may be a good project to try the Fluid Film on. I need something to protect the shiny bits once I get the waxy stuff off. I hate rust!

What kind of lathe do you have? Always interested in what other guys use and why. I do mostly precision barrel fitting and chambering, plus working on on dies and whatever else needs done, just for myself and my chums at this time. My neighbor wants me to make some small parts and I may do that now that I'm retired. It would put a few bucks in my pocket and keep me off the streets and out of the bars. (:>)

Cheers,

Phil

[Phil]

JD, I would love to have that mill. Problem is, I'm out of room unless I let my wife's car sit out in the driveway and I really don't want to do that. She's a gem for putting up with my little eccentricities. Looks like you have a power feed on the long. with that one. Ah, to dream of a 50x50 shop, and someone else to pay the bills!

Dragonrider, I know what you mean. You don't know how much you miss something like that until you don't have it. Going through machine unavailability trauma isn't something I want to do again.

Cheers,

Phil

[JDFuchs]

[QUOTE=Phil;550426]JD, I would love to have that mill. Problem is, I'm out of room unless I let my wife's car sit out in the driveway and I really don't want to do that. She's a gem for putting up with my little eccentricities. Looks like you have a power feed on the long. with that one. Ah, to dream of a 50x50 shop, and someone else to pay the bills!


I currently looking for a house in Fort Collins CO, Before I got the Bridgeport I would have been fine with out a garage, as long as there was space for casting. But now a garage for it is vital. Its sitting in storage at a friends place till i get the house this summer. For 2k even at auction I'm happy with the Bridgeport. DRO on the X and Y and power feed on the X =) Its been through its paces and is older then I am, but will fill my needs nicely. As I think of more and more projects to do 75% of them need a lathe..[smilie=b:. And after i buy the house it might be a very very long time before I can get any tooling let alone a lathe.

Phil where did you get that beautiful South Bend?

[Just Duke]

Man what a beauty sir.

[Phil]

Thank you Duke! I go out to the garage once in a while and just look at it. If it were an airplane I'd probably make vroom, vroom sounds. (:>)

JD, the lathe came from LeBlond, they own South Bend now. New in the crate.

Nothing wrong with that used Bridgeport. You'll have a ton of fun tuning it up and working with it. I've spent a LOT of happy time with a Bridgeport mill. Lots of good memories of things made on them. Nice as the new lathe is, I still wish I had my old Colchester. We were through a lot together.

More later,

Phil

[lathesmith]

Hi Phil,
That's a beautiful machine, I can imagine you being anxious to fire it up. I haven't got to use a genuine South Bend since High School, and that was...well, about 3 decades ago. That is going to prove to be one capable machine, I am sure. A 13x is a good size for making all kinds of cool gun- and reloading- related stuff.
I'm currently using an HF 13x40; I have actually been quite pleased with the things I can make with it. I'm sure it is nowhere near the class act that SB is; that looks like one precision chunk of iron. That DRO is a nice touch, and should help in both the speed and accuracy departments. My HF is a gear-head machine, but for my use I really felt I needed variable speed. So, I picked up a Baldor 2hp DC motor and a Leeson controller and remedied this shortcoming, and it has been a fabulous addition to the lathe. On-the-fly speed changing can really speed things up, and I do a lot less gear changing these days. I started with a smaller 8x lathe, and the difference in rigidity between the 13x and the 8x is rather dramatic. I still have and use the 8x for certain things, but there is just no substitute for heft, when it comes to ripping off large chunks of metal in a hurry.
Keep us posted on your progress, that looks like a great machine! And yes, a BXA QCTP is a must-have on this size machine, it just makes things so much faster and easier.
lathesmith

[Phil]

Hi Lathesmith,

I really don't do any really heavy duty cutting with my lathes. I want the weight for stability. My standard go to indicator for indicating on the tops of the lands is a .0001". If its a really important job I use a .00005" indicator. The old saying was .0001' error in alignment was worth .100 at the target. The functions on this DRO are many and fascinating.

Time to stop, my meds are starting to take effect now.

Cheers,

Phil

[Dave Berryhill]

Ooooooohhhhhhh.....pretty lathe! Man, I'd love a DRO on my lathe! I do like having a foot-brake for threading but I wish I has a slower speed.

http://www.machinetools4sale.com/images/prodimgs/KentUSA/kls1340a_l.jpg

[Char-Gar]

Is there a country of origin on that South Bend/La Blond lathe?

[Buckshot]

Is there a country of origin on that South Bend/La Blond lathe?

............I believe they're made in Taiwan these days. Hardinge owns Bridgeport and from what I've 'heard' (unverified) is that they're cast in Brazil and machined here. Besides Hardinge the only new lathes made in North America are the Canadian made Standard Modern. I know the Navy is putting them aboard it's ships.

..............Buckshot

[Char-Gar]

There is an outfit in India (Ganish) that makes machine tools, and that new Southbend looks like one of theirs. That is the reason, I asked if the lathe or paperwork gave the country of origin. I think they are supposed to give that information. I think the Ganish machines are of good quality and run about double the price of Asian equipment.

[Phil]

Chargar and Buckshot, nothing in the paperwork and nothing so far that I have seen on the lathe that gives a clue about where it was made. I could have gotten a VERY NICE used car for what it cost. The electrical panel has some terminal blocks that are seemingly in French "mechanique" or something like that stamped on them, I forgot to write it down. The writing on one of the larger wires seems to indicate Chinese origin. I'm going to pop a couple of cover plates sometime this week (motor and coolant pump access) and see what I can see there. Funny, my old Colchester made no bones about the fact that it was made in England. The Accu-Rite seems to have been made in NY.

Thats a nice looking lathe Dave, how slow can you turn the spindle? This one goes down to 50 rpm, the old Colchester went to 25, this one tops out at something like 2670, the Colchester topped out at 2500. Since I rarely turn at over 300 the high speeds very rarely interest me. I only use them when I want a high finish on a facing cut or something like that.

The DRO is something I think will be very valuable. I'm so used to looking at a Travadial that its going to be hard looking up and not down. Its going to be a learning experience. I don't even fire up a new water-pik without reading the manual carefully and have spent lots of time reading the manual that came with this lathe so far. Problem is, it was written by someone who either used Babelfish for his translation into English, or someone who had English as a fourth or fifth language. Thats the only complaint I have so far.

More later, time for meds and bed.

Cheers all,

Phil

[Dave Berryhill]

Mine goes down to 70 RPM. I guess that's not too bad but when I'm turning threads to a shoulder, it sure feels like it's turning faster than that! It was made in China and is similar to a lot of other Chinese 13 x 40 lathes except a lot of them in this class don't have the foot brake.

Phil, that is a good looking lathe. Did you get it dirty yet? :D

[Phil]

No dirt yet, just waiting to hear from the electrician. Getting really antsy though. Have to go get some Stoddard solvent tomorrow to get all the preservative off the thing. Also some grease to grease the chuck before I reassemble it. The spindle is short enough that I think I can just get a 20" barrel to stick out enough for a spider to grab it so I can indicate both ends in. Have to see what it measures when I get the chuck back together.

Fun, fun, fun,

Phil

[trevj]

Just as an FYI, for those that didna know, the South Bend brand was bought and put to use by the owner of Grizzly Machine Tools.

That new "South Bend" Looks a lot like the old Colchester 2500. I know that the two Colchester lathes in our shop at work are made in China by an outfit called Dah Li, IIRC, for the 600 Group. owners of the Colchester brand. Don't know if the Dah Li branded ones get the Gamet Bearings (also owned by 600 Group) or not.
I'd not be hugely surprised if the lathe came from there.

The Chinese can and will produce very good quality tools, if the buyer orders them, and is willing to pay the costs of them. Sadly, most of the Chinese stuff we see is pretty low-end, both in price and quality.

Once you get used to using the DRO, you will wonder what you did without it. Add on a accurate quick change tool post, and you can program the DRO to reset it's zero's for each tool. Then you are really cooking with gas!

I want a full size lathe, to do the stuff I cannot do on my little Myford! Champagne tastes, beer cans from the ditch budget, though. Not so good. :D

Cheers
Trev

[JIMinPHX]

This is to replace the Colchester 13x40 that I lost in the fire. All in all, I expect the South Bend is a very nice lathe, although I don't think it is in the same league as the old English Colchester.

I've got a 1965 13" Colechester. She's got fairly good dexterity & precision, but she's a bit lacking in the 3 R's of machining ( rigidity, rigidity & rigidity). I think that you will find you can push your new SB a little harder than the old girl you lost to the fire would let you. The new machine is going to have a little different feel to her than you are used to, but she'll work with you if you work with her on her own terms & let her run the way she likes to.

[Phil]

Hi Trev,

As of the end of March LeBlond sold the South Bend business to an outfit in Washington state that is now calling itself South Bend Lathe http://southbendlathe.com/ so I don't know whats happening there. I just found that out. This machine is sure not the Colchester 2500, this one is at least 1100 pounds heavier just for starters. It sure may be made in China for all I know at this point. I'm with you on the beer cans from the ditch budget. I wouldn't have this lathe if the insurance company hadn't bought it. I'm retired with Social Security plus working at my old job as a consultant two days a week. Get all my health care from the Veterans Administration. Don't have much to play with money-wise anymore. So if I want something I have to make it. At least that way I get it made the way I want it. Ha, ha.

Jim,

Sounds like you have the same machine I had. Mine was a 64, model 8015 series 8000. It did have the Gamet bearings. I hope you're right about this SB. Will keep you posted on how it does. It seems really nice according to the inspection report that came with it.

Cheers,

Phil

[JIMinPHX]

I'll tell you one thing about the Colechesters - The parts for them are not cheap. Mine had a broken double gear in the headstock when I got it. The quote from Clausing for a replacement gearset was about $1,000. I bought 2 standard gears from Browning or Martin or somebody like that for about $50, then mated them together with a proper pilot diameter to keep the two pitch diameters in line, then bored & bushed the assembly. For well under $100 & about an hour of my time, I whipped up a proper replacement for that "$1,000 part". You might not want to junk your old machine that was the victim of a fire. You may have a goldmine of spare parts there.

[Phil]

Hi Jim,

Fortunately I never needed any real expensive parts for the Colchester. I put new cams in the spindle, I think I put new brake shoes on it, new belts, some new plastic knobs on this and that, and the rest was just tightening and adjusting for wear. I changed the headstock and gearbox oil several times just to make sure I had all the crap flushed out of it. Kept changing it until it came out clean. Run, flush, repeat. Took a while but I got it.

The old Colchester went to the guy who was kind enough to haul the new lathe up here from Ohio and set it in the garage. Nice guy and I'm glad I could do something for him. He did give me a few bucks for it but I'm sure I could have sold the headstock, gearbox, tailstock, and some of the other parts for a princely sum but I had no place to keep it and was busy with cleaning up after the fire. I just wanted it out of there and he obliged.

I think the SB was made in Taiwan. I got all the preservative cleaned off yesterday, going to see if I need to adjust the pins on the backing plate for the chuck so I can mount that today, then its just wait for the electrician. Whoopie!

Cheers,

Phil






1

[DownunderHunter]

Hi Phil.
Nice new south bend. Can remember using 10 & 11 inch South Bend Lathes,from as far back as nearly 50 years,also later used Colchesters,which were good,but the American Monarch"s & Pacemaker"s were the best as they also had taper turning attachments,collets,multiple speeds & the best thing a large spindle bore & a good size swing.
Friends of mine in Australia have Tiawanese lathes,which suprisingly are good for the prices,and suprising,one friend is a local Gunsmith who does most of the work in our state for the importers,he also builds rifles.and makes replacement shotguun barrels.

[Phil]

Hi DownunderHunter,

You can get about any attachment you want for the South Bend for collets, taper attachments, and such. It has a 1 5/8" spindle bore. The old Colchester had a 1 13/16" hole but I can't say I ever needed one that big. So I don't think I'll be handicapped with the smaller hole, although I don't think I'd want to go any smaller. All in all I think that it will be a good lathe for what I do.

I think if you get a good Taiwanese lathe it can be a very good machine indeed. They are just a bit rougher than the old English built Colchesters though. Not as well finished at all. But good serviceable machines nevertheless.

Cheers,

Phil

[Marvin S]

Man that's sweet especially for a home machine. Makes my old Clausing 14x46 look a little tired. The tail stock looks almost identical to the 15x50 600 group colchester I have at work.You will LOVE the DRO.

[Phil]

I am Phils wife......and as you all probably know, Phil passed away June 18th. I am replying to this thread because I am the proud owner of his Lathe. I am looking to sell it and just wanted to put out the word. If any of you know of someone who would be interested in this Lathe, please send an e-mail (pakrause@comcast.net) and put in the subject that it is about the Lathe. This Lathe was purchased for $17,000.00 but I would take less. It is brand new and never been used.

Thank you,

Elaine

[Char-Gar]

Oh my goodnesss...I didn't know. I am so sorry. I would gladly buy the lathe, but I don't have anything close to what it is worth.

[Ernest]

wow so very sorry to hear that. My condolences

[Phil]

I hated to be the bearer of bad news, but I thought that maybe someone out there would be able to spread the word about the lathe.

Chargar....I wish you could buy it too, then I would have that behind me. But it is a lot of money for anyone right now with the economy the way it is. If you change your mind, make me an offer. You never know, I might just take it.

Elaine

[Clark]

I sold my 1967 12x36 Clausing 5914 in March to make room for my 2009 Precision Matthews 12x36 PM1236, but the new lathe did not arrive until July.

Expect the massive inflation from Obama spending to begin with shortages.

[theperfessor]

Elaine -

Please accept my condolences (and I'm sure the condolences of many other people here) for your loss.

The lathe looks like a fine piece of equipment. Maybe one of the members might assist you by posting information in the Buying and Selling area of site. More interested people would see it that way.

[Frank46]

Elaine, please accept the condolences from my family here and at home. I only breifly exchanged mail and words through different forums here. Found Phil a gentleman and a person who was easy to talk to. Again my heartfelt condolences. Frank

[Morrison Machine Shop]

That is an awesome lathe, any new machine makes me drool, I'd love to have one of those. I was trying to get 14X40, but the guy wanted a new price for it, I didn't want to spend that much. So I got a HF 9X20 and it turned out to be a good lathe, I have done several mods to it, beefed up the compound rest , tumbler reverse, DRO, tailstock , even bored the spindle to fit my r8 collets from the millport mill, that is very handy, I didn't have to fork out more money for more collets. Enjoy your new machine.
Mike

[waksupi]

That is an awesome lathe, any new machine makes me drool, I'd love to have one of those. I was trying to get 14X40, but the guy wanted a new price for it, I didn't want to spend that much. So I got a HF 9X20 and it turned out to be a good lathe, I have done several mods to it, beefed up the compound rest , tumbler reverse, DRO, tailstock , even bored the spindle to fit my r8 collets from the millport mill, that is very handy, I didn't have to fork out more money for more collets. Enjoy your new machine.
Mike

Mike, I have a feeling you are going to be a very useful addition to this board......

[Phil]

This is Phil's wife again..........I just wanted to let everyone know that I am selling the lathe to the guy who owns the company I work for. I'm not getting as much for it as I would like, but this is a sure thing and I am just afraid to sit on the lathe and end up not being able to sell it. The price he is paying me is what the insurance company gave us for the depreciation value of Phils old lathe. So I feel like I am at least breaking even.

I will eventually have some guns and loading supplies to sell. I will see about posting them with pictures. That will be a little while yet.

Thanks to everyone for the support!!

Elaine

[Buckshot]

.............I'm very glad you were able to sell it. It seems people wanting a good lathe, and the good lathes available never seem to coincide in location very often :-)

.................Buckshot

[TAWILDCATT]

I am a little shook as I was just now reading this thread.
Sorry for your loss.
I had a 12" south bend with turret tail stock and 4 way tool holder also lever collet closer.Like a fol I sold it to a upcoming gunsmith who proptly shafted me.
That lathe was perfect as it had large spindle hole.and 4?tool turret.I sure wish I had it now as There re no shops in my county.and know one know of any one with a machine shop.This is a POOR state.where I came from many have there own shops.Oh well I LEARNED.:coffeecom