South Bend Heavy 10 question.

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dave_mustaine

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Looking to buy a starter lathe to learn on and eventually chamber up and thead my own stuff. Provided this unit is in good working order, would it be a good buy? Comes with a good bit of tooling - drawers are full, 3 and 4 jaw, Collet closer and collet set. Wondering what it's worth? Guy wants $1500 Thanks.
 
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Easily worth $1500 and a much better lathe than any of the Chinese units. The bed length is short for chambering barrels, but for learning how to cut threads and make small parts, that lathe is a great one. Collet chuck is a huge plus.

Bill Jacobs
 
If your wanting to learn to do barrels then dont buy a machine that you cant do them on. That doesnt make any since. To me anyway. Lee
I would love to have a nice south bend heavy 10, and one day before very long i will have one. I just need to find the right one. Oh, and i need to wait until the shop addition is complete. Running out of room!!! Lee
 
Can't I chamber thru the headstock? That's what I planned on doing anyway.
 
As long as the spindle bore is large enough, you can chamber through the headstock with that short of a lathe. If you want to polish your barrels on the lathe, then it will be more difficult to do it than with a longer lathe. It would be a lot easier with a longer lathe. After I cut the crown, I don't want any center running in the crown. You'd have to polish half of the barrel, turn it around and then polish the other end, then cut the crown last. It would be simpler to find a longer lathe.
 
If the hole thru the headstock is large enough to get an 1-1/4" diameter barrel thru it will work..and you could use a cheap wood lathe for polishing the barrel in a second operation..
 
It's got the 1 3/8" bore. Not really worried about a polished barrel. Thanks guys.
 
skeetlee said:
13/8 should work for most barrels. Lee
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For barrel contouring, you need a longer bed, but maybe you do not plan on doing that. Check the setup for barrel chambering on the Internet and be sure you can do something similar with this lathe. I have a Southbend 9" myself and one thing you may want to check carefully is wear. I am not sure what headstock bearing type you have, but if plain iron bearing like mine, you can have more than desirable slop here. Something you can't afford when chambering, where accuracy to .0002" may be desired. I am hardly a pro machinist, and you may know this already, but just thought I would offer up a few things to consider.

Phil
 
dave_mustaine? big fan or the real guy or are you the other Dave Mustaine who has to explain to every metal fan you encounter the funny coincidence...this being one of those times.
Mike
 
savet06 said:
dave_mustaine? big fan or the real guy or are you the other Dave Mustaine who has to explain to every metal fan you encounter the funny coincidence...this being one of those times.
Mike
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Mike,

LMAO! I was thinking the same thing!

"Hello me. It's the real me".

If it's him, he needs to keep those fingers outta the lathe chuck. That would put a serious wrinkle in his fiddlestick playin'. And he can play a little bit...

Justin
 
I hear grizzly is in the process of making a new south bend heavy 10 lathe with a large spindle bore, and some other updated features. Supposed to be out sometime next year. I will curiously await to see one. Lee
 
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I have a 36" bed on my SBH10, and like said, the only time its handy at all is for polishing. I gave much more for my machine and would do it again in a heart beat.
 
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