SB 13" for gunsmithing?

B

Bryan M

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I am taking a machine class at our local college and my instructor showed me a lathe he is planning on selling. It is a SB 8113B model, 13" swing, 5' bed. It comes with a 3 jaw, 4 jaw, Aloris tool holder, and quite a bit of other tooling. The only drawback is that the spindle is only 1". Overall the lathe looks to be in pretty nice shape and he says he can easily turn to .001: He has offered it to me for $1500 which seems like a decent price. Is a lathe like this worth looking into for gunsmithing or am I better off waiting for one with a large spindle diameter so I can chamber through the headstock? Thanks
 
Brian, You'd probably be better off looking for a different machine if gunsmithing is going to be your thing. Even if you do your chambering between centers you will occationally get a job where a large spindle hole will be nice to have. Also because of the lower RPM's it will be a little tougher to get the desired results on certain small work. Some times less is more!
 
What is the length of this 13? You can always indicate through a spider on the live center and get the same results.

Tim
 
I'm not familiar with a SB13, is this a smaller lathe than a Heavy 10? Or, does the H10 just have bigger bearings and a larger bore? I was under the impression you could put a 1.500 part through the bore on a H10. Yes, No?
 
No, the H10 has a 1-3/8" bore (1.395" actually).

All the SB 13's I've seen have a 1-3/8" spindle bore also. There are two variations of SB13 headstocks, one has a 3-step pulley and the other has a 4-step pulley. Both are slightly too long to do a barrel shorter than about 23" and use a spider on the outboard end. A Heavy 10 has a 3-step pulley but the belt and pulleys are narrower and are the spindle bushing housings on the H10 are narrower.

I have a friend who is rebuilding 3 SB13's to sell but they are not quiet ready yet. I'm guessing they would be in the $2,000 range.
 
I figured you'd respond Jerry. Thanks. It seemed strange to me even on a US made lathe to have a 1" spindle bore. Sounds like a SB13 would do 'most' barrel work.
 
4Mesh said:
I. Sounds like a SB13 would do 'most' barrel work.
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There is a lot of good barrel work being done using the through-the-spindle method by using a bushing to stabilize the outboard end of the barrel. I always wondered why the Monarch EE and Hardinge HV had such small spindle bores. Thinking about it most toolroom jobs were not bar-stock lengths.
 
This thread has apparently changed in to a discussion on 13" south bend lathes so here we go! The earlier heavy 10"s (1944)were offered with 1.375 or a 1.00 spindle diameter. These were single tumbler gear boxes. During that time period the 13" machines had a 1" spindle bore. At that time the only other S.B. lathe with a 1.375 spindle I.D. was the 16" model. It was sometime after the war when the 13" machines were made with double tumblers an a 1.375 spindle I.D. In fact one of my heavy tens has the smaller spindle hole and it was made in the 50's. Now getting back to the original intent of this thread. If you already have a 13" S.B. it will do the job but it is overkill. I liken it to using a dump truck for grocery shopping! The 13" machine is nearly twice the size of the heavy 10 and in 40+ years of gunsmithing I have yet to run across a job I could not handle with a heavy 10 or it's equivalent.
 
martin zuck said:
I hope I didn't step on anybodies toes with my opinion. Some times I get a little too passionate,but I mean well!
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Good input. I wasn't aware that some H10's had a 1" spindle bore. My 1944 H10 has a 1.395" bore and all the old catalogs I have show 1-3/8" bores. But I do know South Bend made a lot of specials.
 
Jerry, If I remember correctly I think that during the singler tumbler years they offered a .687 collet setup for the 1" spindle models which never became popular. One of my H10's has a spindle bore slightly over 1.250. It has a camlock head stock and has double tumblers. Have no idea what that was about! When the company was still in business you could tell them the number on the tailstock end of the bed and they would tell you when it left the plant and where it went. There was an older fellow by the name of Ralph Diske who had worked for south bend for many years and I asked him one time if they ever considered upgrading there H10's to angular contact headstock bearings. After a moment of silence he replied "why would we want to do that". At that time the H10" was the only lathe they were making in house. The old boy new what he was talking about! I think the last ones were around $16000. I would loved to have had one even if I did'nt need it but there was no need to ruin a good marriage over one!
 
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