pipemakersforum.com

I have a great old South Bend 9" lathe offered for sale on Craigslist here locally (Arlington, Texas). If anyone is in need, please check out that ad. You would need to go to the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex pages and enter "Lathe South Bend" in the search box. I completely disassembled, cleaned, replaced felts and painted it, so was able to confirm that the spindle and other shafts and bearings are like new. Bedways and slideways are likewise in excellent condition. It is now a "showstopper" if I do say so myself - gloss black with a few well-distributed maroon touches. Also smooth, solid and accurate.

It's a 1937 model that I bought from the original owner's family. Weight is about 300 pounds all set up, I'd guess. The through hole is about 3/4". Comes with 3-jaw, 4-jaw, 6 or 7 toolholders, faceplate, thread counter, all change wheels, headstock chuck, etc. (as shown in ad). It's a good size for pipemaking - big enough to be stable, but small enough to transport fairly easily.

If anyone is interested, please direct me to the latest procedure for posting pictures to this site, and I'll give it a shot. As I recall, the procedure is somewhat tricky, but I'm hoping it has become simpler since I read about it a year or so ago.

I have an Emco Compact 8 that can keep me going on my own pipes when the SB sells. It's pretty small and light, but works fine with a little extra "understanding". Also have an Emco FB2 mill. I have everything but space - my plan is to sell all three machines and replace with one high quality combo lathe/mill like an Emco V10P. The three take up a lot of space - I'd probably keep the SB, but I can't live without a mill. So.....let me know if you're interested.

Also, if any of you have a very clean Emco V10P you would sell, I'd be very interested to hear from you.

I looked it up on Craigs List and it sure is a beauty. I need to make more pipes before I take the plunge but I would love to have an old lathe like that some day. You did a great job re-furbishing it. Sweeet!

Thanks, Bob. I put a lot of love and sweat into it, so it's good to hear you liked it.

Really sorry you sold it. That was my dream lathe. II think your paint colors are what drew me to it, if you run across anything similar please let me know. I'd be willing to recondition it like you did.

If the guy who bought it plays with it for awhile and looses interest please keep me in mind.

Will do, Bob. Thanks for the nice comments. There are a lot of oldies on Ebay, but shipping is a pain, of course. I just bought another - a 10" Wabeco D6000E off Ebay. The transaction went pretty smoothly, but it's never easy.
You have to try to ask all the questions up front to avoid misunderstandings - everything from condition (bearing noise?, does motor work smoothly?, are the bedways free of dings?, to tooling and accessories it comes with (tooling is expensive), to shipping arrangements. Nobody will ship it to you - you have to arrange pickup via FreightQuote or similar - but the seller should be willing to bolt it to aa pallet and cover it well for pickup. That kind of scratches the surface.
That being said, the old South Bends are still pretty plentiful, and you can get one locally if you're patient and watch Craigslist - then you can avoid the whole shipping hassle and concentrate on really looking it over closely in person.
Good luck!