First lathe owner in Manchester

Just bought and refurbished my first lathe. I decided to get my own after years of getting a mate to make motorcycle and car parts for me. After owning American cars for over 45 years it was fortuitous that I have aquired an 81 year old American South Bend 9C. In the 4 weeks I have owned it I have stripped it down to the last screw and fully painted and refurbished it. My bench is now full of practice pieces and I am just mastering the dark arts of tool grinding and external and internal threading. I'm just waiting for a 32T gear to be delivered so I can make an Acme threaded operating screw for a 4 jaw chuck.

Hello Chris and welcome. Sound like you are doing OK in the lathe department. You may find this site useful for anything to do with machines.

http://www.lathes.co.uk/southbend/index.html

Brian

Hi Chris, I believe that the Southbend headstock spindle thread is the same diameter and pitch as the Boxford lathe BUT the thread angle is 60 degrees and not the 55 deg of the Boxford. That said, my Sb faceplate fits my Bx lathe. The bed ways are the same, so steady etc all fit OK.

Someone else may be able to confirm that the screw cutting gears are the same ?

Bob

I recently acquired a South Bend 9C and can confirm that Boxford gears and other parts fit on it o.k.

I also replaced the carriage handwheel spindle with a Boxford one. The reason Boxford parts fit is not because they illegally copied it but because Denford/Boxford were given the blueprints under the lend lease programme in the latter years of WW2 along with other manufacturers.

I have discovered to my cost that the Boxford faceplate fits models made after 1940 but the serial number on mine dates to 1939 and the Boxford does not fit.

This means I will also have problems getting another backplate as I want another chuck

Edited By vic newey on 11/02/2022 09:36:12

Thanks for the comments, I have already found most of the South Bend sites on the web and downloaded loads of info. My lathe came with a set of change wheels but only has 1x 32T wheel and I needed 2 to cut 8 TPI . Luckily lots of Boxford sellers on Ebay so I have one coming.

----------------------------------------------------

Does yours have a thread dial fitted?

Yes Vic it does have the thread dial

Hi Chris,

Your 81 year old South Bend looks very nice, you have done a good job.

Thor

Looks nice, Mine came without a thread dial but now fitted with a Boxford one

Edited By vic newey on 12/02/2022 17:51:14